Josi Reaches 90-Point Mark as Preds Fall to Lightning in Tampa Bay

Roman Josi recorded his 90th point of the season, but the Nashville Predators ultimately fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning by a 6-2 final on Saturday night at AMALIE Arena. The result keeps the Preds at 93 points to begin a back-to-back weekend set as the regular season nears a conclusion.
Nashville's captain became just the ninth defenseman in NHL history - and the first since 1994 - to record 90 points in a single campaign as his outstanding season continued, but Josi and the Preds weren't focused on milestones as the night ended with an effort that wasn't up to their standards.

"We weren't good enough, frankly, in several different areas," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "I think one of the big things was the penalty discipline against the power play like that, particularly early in the game. I also just think we had some breakdowns tonight again where we gave them some real high-quality looks versus the easy looks for them with a high level of skill to get point-blank shots. We've got to clean that up."
Josi's power-play tally came in the first period after the Lightning went up by a 2-0 count to start the night, and after the home team got their third, Preds defenseman Alexandre Carrier potted his first-career man-advantage goal to bring Nashville back to within one again.

That was as close as the visitors came, however, as Tampa Bay went into the second intermission with a 4-2 advantage, and goaltender David Rittich took over for Juuse Saros after the Lightning got another quick pair early in the final frame.
"It obviously wasn't good," Josi said of his team's effort. "In the first period we just got into a lot of penalty trouble. We knew they're dangerous on the power play, and they made us pay in the first with two goals. I thought our second period was better. We played more aggressive, had some good looks and some good chances. And then in the third we kind of just fell apart. When you're two goals behind sometimes you just have to stick with what works and play the right way, play the same way and not get too loose. But then obviously they scored two quick ones on us, and it was tough to come back."
The Predators won't have much time to wait for another chance to correct some things as they'll host Minnesota tomorrow night at Bridgestone Arena, and they know an improved showing will be necessary for a chance at two points.
"You have to take a couple of quick things out of it, whether it be the penalty killing or some of the situations where we gave up some looks that we didn't give up against Calgary but gave up on tonight, and we wound up paying for them," Hynes said. "It's important that going forward we clean a couple areas up, and then we've got to get ready here for tomorrow."
"We've got to have a playoff mindset," Josi said. "We lost the game tonight, but we play again tomorrow and we can't have this game carry over into tomorrow. Tomorrow's a new game, it's a new day, so we've got to make sure we turn the page real quick. And obviously there's things we have to do better, and I'm sure we're going to look at that stuff tomorrow morning. But after that we have to have a playoff mindset right now. It doesn't matter what happened last game. The next game is the most important one."

Notes:

Josi became the first defenseman to record 90 points in a season since Ray Bourque (20-71-91 in 72 GP) in 1993-94. Josi scored his 10th power-play goal of the season, which marks the most by an NHL defenseman since his former teammate Shea Weber had 12 in 2016-17 (w/ MTL).
Predators forward Michael McCarron returned to the lineup on Saturday night after missing eight games due to injury. Defensemen Ben Harpur and Jeremy Davies, as well as forward Eeli Tolvanen, were scratched. Blueliner Jeremy Lauzon remains week-to-week with a lower-body injury.
The Predators will conclude their weekend back-to-back set tomorrow night in Nashville as they host the Minnesota Wild in their penultimate home game of the regular season.