"I actually thought we played a pretty good first and had a lot of chances… but in the second period, we just fell apart," Preds Captain Roman Josi said. "We gave them so many chances. Odd-man rushes everywhere. We left our goalies out to dry, and we got embarrassed in the second period."
"I thought we got off to a really good start, and to come out of the first period 1-1, I felt we deserved better than that," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "Some of the looks that we had in the first, they had some similar looks in the second, but the difference really in that part was they capitalized on some of the good looks that they had, and we didn't capitalize on some of the very similar looks that we had… We had some breakdowns that were uncharacteristic of us, and as that went on and they get four, five and six; I thought there were some segments in the game where it didn't get away from us, but obviously in the second we had some breakdowns and they capitalized on the chances."
Cousins gave the Preds the first lead of the evening when he beat Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington less than five minutes into the contest, but the Blues evened the score before the period was out when Braden Schenn converted on the power play.
Then, St. Louis scored six-straight goals in the second stanza, and after Kunin gave Nashville their second of the night, the Blues got another for an 8-2 lead after 40 minutes. Preds goaltender Juuse Saros was pulled in favor of David Rittich after the fourth goal from the visitors.
Fabbro recorded the only goal of the third period in a contest that turned out to feature a decent amount of positive play from the Preds, but the middle frame simply wasn't ideal.
"It got away from us in the second period," Cousins said. "They're a really good team off the rush, and I think we gifted them a couple goals. They converted on their chances, and it could have been 2-0 or 3-0 [in our favor] after the first, and then obviously, they got [seven] goals in the second and third period. We won the third period, but at the end of the day, you just flush and move on and get ready for Calgary."
Now, the Predators will turn their attention to the Calgary Flames as the five-game homestand comes to an end, and Nashville will certainly be eager to make amends for Sunday's final.
"It's disappointing right now," Josi said. "We'll be disappointed tonight. But, it's a playoff mentality right now. Tomorrow, we have to look forward. We've definitely got to correct things. It's been two out of the [last] three games that we didn't play well. There's a lot of things we have to look at and do better, and the next game is huge. That's how it's going to be for the rest of the regular season. You can be disappointed right now, but once tomorrow and Tuesday comes, we have to get ready for a big game."
