The Nashville Predators lost their third consecutive game on Tuesday, dropping a 3-0 decision to the Boston Bruins at Bridgestone Arena– and, once again , special teams were largely to blame.
Nashville's power-play unit went scoreless against Boston's penalty kill unit, which is tied for the sixth-best in the league. Aside from managing just three shots in four opportunities on the man advantage, the Predators also allowed Boston to score a shorthanded goal late in the third period, breaking the scoreless tie.
“I thought it was a great hockey game,” Predators head coach Andrew Brunette said. “I thought it was a playoff-type game, I thought we went toe-to-toe with a really good hockey team and I actually thought we got better as the game went on. I really liked our second and third period, I thought we were taking over the game. We put ourselves in a great position for somebody to make a play. Unfortunately, we made a play that ended up going the wrong way.”
With the score deadlocked at 0-0 for 53 minutes of play, Charlie Coyle finally gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 13:18 of the third period on a short-handed breakaway. Pavel Zacha widened Boston's lead to 2-0 exactly four minutes later on a tic-tac-toe passing play from David Pastrnak and Danton Heinen on the rush, and Pastrnak scored into the empty net at 18:36 for the 3-0 final.
"Obviously the shorthanded [goal] was costly for us," Predators captain Roman Josi said. "Our power play's got to be a lot better. We had for four or five chances, I think, and couldn't really get anything going."
The Predators had four opportunities on the man advantage – all before Coyle scored – and failed to capitalize on any of them.
“We couldn’t really set up,” Josi said. “It felt like we never really got set. The entries, we kind of got in, but we couldn’t get set. They pressure pretty hard, but we needed to make some plays just to get set and couldn’t really do that tonight.”
Brunette's fast-paced system has paid dividends at even strength, but it hasn't translated to the power play. Entering Tuesday night, the unit ranked 19th in the league with a 20.2% success rate.
"We play too slow on the power play," Brunette said. "We play fast everywhere else, but (on the power play) we play really slow...."We're trying to work on it, and it's been funny, I think we've had really good pace in big moments. The Vegas game and some of those games come to mind, where we needed a goal and we got some really good urgency. And there's games that we just get slow for some reason. And it's been a constant discussion. We move pieces in and out a little bit, it's just not flowing all that well right now and for a big chunk of the year.”
The Predators have now lost three consecutive games after going 16-0-2 in their previous 18. They remain three points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings for the first Wild Card spot in the West.
"We've all been around or hockey or sports for a long time," Brunette said. "You're not going to get rewarded every night for what you put in. But if you continuously put in the work, you'll get yours at the end. And tonight we didn't get ours. Like I said during that stretch, some nights were games like this where we we got the bounce, we got the power play goal or we got whatever. The last couple of games, we were on the other end. And I think the hockey gods have a funny way of making you really work to get your momentum back."
Even after the three losses, the confidence in the Predators' locker room hasn't diminished.
"I think the way we played tonight, that was more of our style," Josi said. "And like I said before, it's a really good team over there. They're one of the best teams in the league, and I felt like they played really hard tonight... We're not going to get too low because, like I said, I felt like our game is in order. There's some things we've got to do better, but we're right back at it on Thursday."
The Predators face a crucial matchup on April 4, when they host a desperate St. Louis Blues team sitting three points back of Los Angeles for the second Western Conference Wild Card spot.
"We're doing some good things, just not good enough to win games," Predators forward Ryan O'Reilly said. "I think this is a great opportunity for us. It's a good time to have adversity going into playoffs and having to earn that playoff spot. I think it's something that we have to lean into it, to be excited for it. We're disappointed that we've lost these last few, but there's a great opportunity here that we can really rally together and start to make our push."
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