The Philadelphia Flyers tied the game late and then won it in overtime as the Nashville Predators fell by a 3-2 final on Wednesday night at Bridgestone Arena. The result gives the Preds a loss in their 2,000th game in franchise history, and despite satisfactory play for a majority of the evening, the home team found themselves on the wrong side of the scoresheet in the extra session.
“Tough ending, obviously, but I thought we played a pretty good game,” Preds Captain Roman Josi said. “I thought we deserved to win tonight. [I] felt like we had the puck most of the game and created a lot of chances…obviously, we didn’t score enough. But I feel like we had our looks, we had our chances, and so it goes sometimes at the end. I think it's encouraging, the way we played. I think that's kind of the style we have to play with.”
“I think we've developed some resiliency, but unfortunately, we've had too many of these kinds of games,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “As I've been here, we've had some heartbreak, and we seem to always rebound and come right back. I expect that. We did a lot of good things in the game. We talked about it before the game, the devil is in the details, and we missed a few details and it cost us a game.”
Josi started the scoring when he wrapped around the net and banked the puck in off a Flyers defender and past goaltender Aleksei Kolosov to give the Preds a 1-0 advantage. Philadelphia tied the game when Scott Laughton squeezed a puck past Saros, but Ryan O’Reilly gave Nashville the lead once more when he hammered home a shot from the left circle for a 2-1 lead through 20 minutes.
That score held through the second stanza and most of the third, but with just 11 seconds left, Morgan Frost tied the game for the Flyers before Sean Couturier ended it at 2:31 of overtime.
Now, the Predators will take the good and look to regroup when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning for a Black Friday matinee.
“Look at our game - I think wins or losses, at the end of the day, that's going to even out,” Josi said. “We're going to get some bounces, too. I think if you keep doing the right things, you're going to get rewarded, you're going to get wins. I thought we did a lot of good things. And sometimes it takes longer than what you would like it to, but if you keep doing that, we're going to get some bounces, too.”
“Compared to our last game against New Jersey there, we didn't do a lot of things well, and tonight, we did do a lot of things well, and I think that's what we have to take from it,” O’Reilly said. “We do that little more consistently, we put ourselves in a good spot to win games. And, yeah, it stings. I'm disappointed. We all are. It was right there for us. We were so close and just didn't. But it's the way things are going right now again, too. [Let’s] take the good out of this and build on it.”
Notes:
Predators defenseman Adam Wilsby made his NHL debut on Wednesday night and registered one shot and one hit in 17:27 of ice time. Defenseman Nick Blankenburg made his Preds debut and skated 14:33 with two hits to his name.
Prior to Wednesday’s game, Wilsby and Blankenburg were recalled from Milwaukee, while defenseman Jeremy Lauzon was ruled week-to-week with a lower-body injury. Forward Michael McCarron was also placed on Injured Reserve with an upper-body injury.
Roman Josi’s goal gave him 11 points in his past 10 games dating to Nov. 7. Per NHL PR, his four goals are tied for the second most among all defenseman through that span, while his 11 points are tied with Zach Werenski for the most among all blueliners.
Once Thanksgiving is complete, the Preds will return on Friday to host the Tampa Bay Lightning for a 2 p.m. CT start at Bridgestone Arena before jetting off to Minnesota to face the Wild on Saturday night.
