The Nashville Predators prospect squad fell to the Carolina Hurricanes rookies, 3-2, on Monday in their third and final outing at the 2023 Southeast Rookie Showcase in Estero, Fla. Nashville will finish the tournament with an 0-3-0 record after dropping their first two games to the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
“We had a really good first period,” Head Coach Karl Taylor said. I thought we did a lot of good things… Then, in the second, we just got a little sluggish and the other team took advantage of it. Those two individual mistakes we made on the goals are kind of tough ones, but guys tried hard at the end and we always came back. So, good effort overall.”
Carolina scored their first two goals during the opening minutes of each of the first two periods. The score remained 2-0 until Jack O’Brien, an invitee from the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks, got the Preds on the board late in the second period. He received a feed from Adam Wilsby and beat Hurricanes goalie Jakub Vondras glove-side to cut Carolina’s lead to 2-1.
“I thought O'Brien had a really good game today,” Taylor said. “He scored obviously, but I just thought he had good energy.”
Carolina held Nashville to just four shots in the second period, and the Hurricanes retook their two-goal lead with a goal just over a minute into the third. Nashville continued to battle back and put pressure on the Carolina defense, and Austin Roest was able to put away a rebound at the netfront and cut the Hurricanes lead to 3-2 for the final.
“In a week I’m going back to junior, and I think the confidence level goes way up after a tournament like this,” said Roest, Nashville’s sixth-round pick (175th overall) in the 2023 NHL Draft, who currently plays for the Western Hockey League’s Everett Silvertips. “Everyone's bigger, and they finish every check.”
At the conclusion of the Southeast Rookie Showcase, Taylor and his staff were impressed with the performances by a number of Preds prospects, including goaltender Yaroslav Askarov and defenseman Spencer Stastney. Still, there was room for improvement, specifically on special teams.
“We lost three games,” Taylor said. “The games were all close. We didn't finish as well as the other team did. We had some chances, but too many penalties overall… It's hard when you're chasing the penalty battle and you're killing so much. I think we killed 16 power plays in three games; that's over five a game, and that's going to put you behind the ball, so we needed a little more discipline today and over the weekend.”
Ultimately, the showcase was an opportunity for the Predators prospects to showcase their skills and shake off any rust before joining Nashville’s main training camp. It was a learning experience, with many lessons the players can carry into next week and beyond.
“They learned some systems,” Taylor said. “They tried hard, they're going to get a leg up and now they’ve got to get ready for main camp… In two days, it will be Roman Josi and [Filip] Forsberg on the ice against them. So this is the same age group, similar kids going through the same thing.”
The Predators rookies will return to Nashville for the opening of the team’s Training Camp, which begins Sept. 20 with physicals and team meetings. The Predators’ first day on the ice will be Sept. 21, with six preseason contests scheduled from Sept. 25-Oct. 6, including two at Bridgestone Arena (Sept. 27 vs. Tampa Bay and Oct. 5 vs. Carolina). All practice sessions at Ford Ice Center Bellevue are open to the public.
CLICK HERE for the 2023 Training Camp roster.
CLICK HERE for the 2023 Training Camp schedule.
