Juuso Parssinen and Steven Stamkos scored for the Predators, but Nashville ultimately fell to the Washington Capitals by a 3-2 final on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena.
The result gives the Preds their second defeat of the week, but compared to Monday’s 3-0 loss to Los Angeles, Nashville was much more pleased with their showing 48 hours later.
“That effort and work ethic, that’s the style of play that we want, and probably one of the better efforts of the year,” Stamkos said. “And it's tough when you don't get rewarded in those games. But, these are the games that hopefully you can build on and replicate that. Besides the penalties, obviously, that took a strain on us, but the 5-on-5 game was certainly a good effort.”
“The effort was there,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “I thought we did a lot of good things. Trying to build our game is not easy right now, obviously, or nothing's really coming easy. But, I like that we pushed [and we were] determined. We didn't get the result, but I think you leave the rink, you should feel pretty good about yourself.”
The Preds have emphasized better starts to their games, and just over three minutes into the contest, Parssinen tipped a Luke Evangelista shot past Logan Thompson and into the net for his first goal of the season.
But, just over a minute later, Connor McMichael evened the score for Washington, and with less than five minutes to play in the second stanza, Aliaksei Protas gave the Capitals their first lead of the night. However, on the very next shift, Stamkos went to the net and redirected a feed from Alexandre Carrier into the twine to even the score at 2-2 through 40 minutes.
Alexander Ovechkin continued his hot streak when he scored what turned out to be the game-winner midway through the third period, and although the Preds thought they had tied the score once more, a challenge to reverse a goaltender interference call proved unsuccessful.
Juuse Saros kept Nashville in the game all night long as he made 33 saves in net, and the Predators registered 35 shots of their own to go along with four posts and crossbars hit in the second period alone.
In the end, the Preds found themselves on the wrong side of the scoresheet, but Wednesday’s outing left plenty to build on as they head south to face the Panthers in Florida tomorrow night.
“I thought [that effort] looked like us,” Brunette said. “There's only been probably a couple games this year that I can say that, maybe two, and there's parts of other games that did, but I thought for 60 [minutes], that looked like how we want to play. Obviously, I didn't love some of the breakdowns. In saying that, we stayed with it. The frustration didn't leak in. We stayed positive… I think we learned some lessons and put them to use today, we just didn't get the reward for it.”
“Sometimes you're working hard, you’re not necessarily working smart, but today we worked a lot smarter,” Stamkos said. “We forechecked, we hounded, we created turnovers. Like I said, the 5-on-5 game was a lot better tonight, and if we can replicate that moving forward, I like our chances.”
Notes:
Predators forward Tommy Novak, who was set to play Wednesday night in Washington, ended up as a late scratch and is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Evangelista took Novak’s spot in the lineup and registered one assist.
In addition to Novak, forward Mark Jankowski and defenseman Dante Fabbro were scratched for Nashville. Forwards Michael McCarron and Philip Tomasino reentered the Preds lineup on Wednesday.
Colton Sissons left the game and did not return after blocking a shot near his hand in the second period. The Preds later announced the centerman has an upper-body injury.
The Predators will conclude their back-to-back set on Thursday night in Florida when they take on the Panthers.
