Preds Fall 5-3 to Central Division Rival Colorado

In the teams' first meeting since the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Nashville Predators dropped a 5-3 decision to the Colorado Avalanche Thursday at Ball Arena.
Eeli Tolvanen, Ryan Johansen and Roman Josi scored, and Kevin Lankinen made 30 saves for the Predators, who went 2-3-0 on their five-game road trip.

Three Takeaways

Tolvy Time
Playing in his first game since Nov. 1 at Edmonton, Eeli Tolvanen opened the scoring Thursday night against Colorado with his second goal of the season. He found the back of the net at 3:45 of the first period, completing a tic-tac-toe play from Cody Glass and Ryan McDonagh and scoring from a sharp angle to give the Preds the early 1-0 lead. It was the second assist of the season for Glass, who also had not played since Nov. 1 at Edmonton.

Special Teams Struggle
The Preds went 1-for-2 on the man advantage, with Johansen redirecting a Mikael Granlund shot past Alexandar Georgiev in the second period; still, Nashville holds the NHL's fourth-worst power play percentage (15.7%) with eight goals in 51 chances.

Nashville also struggled on the penalty kill, allowing the Avalanche to convert on two of their three power play opportunities.
O Captain, My Captain
Josi buried a shot from outside the faceoff circle with assists from Dante Fabbro and Yakov Trenin to cut the Avalanche's lead to 5-3 in the third period. The Predators captain now has seven points (3g-4a) in his last seven games and leads all NHL defensemen in shots on goal (59).

They Said It

Johansen on the team's overall effort:
"We need more. You can always do better, you can always work harder but there's more there and there's more from this group and we're running out of time, so we've got to find a way to be better."
Josi on falling behind in the second period:
"Going into the second 1-1, I thought there were pockets in the game we played well and there were pockets where we didn't. They made us pay in the second and it's hard to come back 4-1 against a team like that. So, we've got to find a way to play well consistently for 60 minutes. You can't take one second off against a team like that."
Josi on preparing for Saturday's game against the New York Rangers:
"I think we'll look at some stuff. We'll look at some video. And I think everybody's got to look at this game. Everybody's got to step up. We've got to find a way to play better consistently and it starts with each guy individually. We've all got to look in the mirror and just be better."
Head Coach John Hynes on the team's overall effort:
"We've got to be smarter. You look at some of the chances we gave up and it's unacceptable. The awareness, whether it's decisions with the puck or it's decisions without the puck when you give up two breakaway goals in the second period, we've got to be smarter than that."
Hynes on the areas with the greatest need for improvement:
"We need to be better in every area. We need to be better with our puck play and our puck execution, our decisions with the puck, our competitive level can go up and our attention to detail when we don't have the puck has to be there."

Up Next

The Predators return from their five-game road trip to host the New York Rangers Saturday at 7 p.m. CT at Bridgestone Arena. In their first home game since Oct. 29, the Preds will debut their
adidas Reverse Retro jerseys
for the 2022-23 season.