Juuse Saros made 33 saves as the Nashville Predators fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins by a 3-0 final on Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena. The result sees the Preds fall on back-to-back nights with their fourth straight loss overall.
“It's a tough night tonight,” Preds Captain Roman Josi said. “I think we played a good offensive team, and we turned over way too many pucks, especially in their zone. We spent way too much time in the D-zone and just kind of fed their rush game.”
“A little disappointed,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “Obviously, tough getting going a little bit. I thought we ran out of energy. We didn't help ourselves in certain areas, how we managed the puck in different stretches of the game, and obviously they got a couple of guys that are really dangerous, and just didn't think we put ourselves in a position to get to our game. A little disappointing.”
Former Preds winger Philip Tomasino gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead in the first period just as power play had expired, and Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby made it 2-0 with a one timer that beat Saros in the middle frame.
Nashville made a late push with Saros pulled, but Bryan Rust sealed things with an empty-netter to finish the night off.
“It's definitely frustrating,” Josi said. “Feels like [over the] last month or two, we had some really good stretches, and feels like you get something going. Now, we're going through a rough stretch again. But by this time you want your game in order. Where we are in the standings, we can’t let points slip away, and we're doing that right now.”
The Preds will now head home to face the Senators on Monday, and they’ll loook to reverse course after another frustrating result.
“We're obviously in a funk here,” Preds forward Steven Stamkos said. “We’ve just got to try to get some mojo back a little bit, and just start feeling better about our game, a little more confidence with the puck. It's tough, especially when things aren't going well. It feels like it snowballs a little bit with the way the season's gone, but we've got to find a way to be better and just try to find some things to build on. We haven't found that the last couple games.”
Notes:
Prior to Saturday’s game, the Predators reassigned goaltender Matt Murray to Milwaukee after filling in with Saros missing Friday’s game due to illness.
The Predators will now return home to host the Ottawa Senators on Monday night at Bridgestone Arena before another back-to-back set late next week against the Blackhawks and Sabres.
