Jonathan Marchessault tallied twice, but the Nashville Predators ultimately fell to the Calgary Flames by a 4-3 final on Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena. The result extends Nashville’s winless skid to eight games (0-5-3) as they came up just short of stopping the streak.
“I think we played hard, to be honest,” Marchessault said. “I think we were right there. One-goal game again. We’ve got to manage to put teams away a little bit more, but I thought we did a lot of good things tonight.”
“[We had] a couple of big breakdowns, and then we [didn’t manage] the puck quite well for those stretches of the game there,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “I thought we got off to a good start…and made a little bit of a mistake on [their] first goal, and the second one hurt… The third period, especially the second half, we kind of got to our game, or felt like we had some opportunities to tie the game.”
Predators Captain Roman Josi left the game after the first period with a lower-body injury and did not return, forcing the Preds to play the final 40 minutes with five defensemen, not to mention skating without their leader for most of the contest.
“Obviously you see the guys are playing five [defensemen] back there, and…it’s not just losing a D, it’s hard when you lose your captain and a player of that caliber is tough,” Preds alternate captain Filip Forsberg said. “But I think the guys stepped up in his absence and did a great job. And I think those guys, a lot of them are playing here for the first time, and they're playing really, really well, and it's fun to watch them step up and take opportunities when they get ahead of them.”
“Obviously you never replace Roman Josi,” Brunette said. “But I think it gives us…organizationally, a chance to see these guys with more minutes and see what they have. And for those players, it’s a really good opportunity to play a lot more and to contribute and to see if they can make it in this League.”
Marchessault opened the scoring in the first period when he took a feed from Steven Stamkos in the slot and directed the puck past Dan Vladar for a 1-0 Preds lead. Calgary responded less than three minutes later when Nazem Kadri’s shot barely beat Juuse Saros, but just 30 seconds after that, Mark Jankowski dished to Tommy Novak, and the Predators centerman roofed a shot for his 100th NHL point and a 2-1 Nashville lead through 20 minutes.
After Calgary tied the game less than three minutes into the second stanza, Marchessault potted his second of the night - this time off a slick saucer pass from Forsberg off a 2-on-1 - to give the Preds the lead once more. But before the period was out, the Flames evened the score again and then took their first lead of the night with goals from Brayden Pachal and Jonathan Huberdeau for a 4-3 lead after two.
The Preds had another late push in the third and hit the post in the dying seconds, but that was as close as they came to salvaging a point. Now, they’ll shift their focus to Thursday night in Dallas and another chance to find the right side of the scoresheet.
“It's obviously a situation you don't want to be in, but at the same time, we can't do anything about what just happened, we’ve just got to keep digging in,” Forsberg said. “And I'm sure that's been the message from everybody you guys have talked to, but it's the truth. At the end of the day, we obviously set ourselves in this position, but nobody can get us out of it, except us. And I think we're very capable of doing that. But it's not what you want… But I think the guys are digging. We’ve got to keep digging. I think that [has to be] the message, and hopefully [we] can keep doing that, and good things will come for the group.”
“It's a tough League,” Marchessault said. “There's [32] good teams in the NHL, and every night you can't say who's going to win or lose. So, I think that's the beauty of it. Something I realized with time is it never gets easier. So, you’ve got to embrace the grind and embrace the adversity that you face as an individual and as a team also. And I think that's how you can come out on top and come out [better].”
Notes:
Preds Captain Roman Josi left Thursday’s game after the first period and did not return due to a lower-body injury. There was no additional update on Josi’s status following the game.
Predators forward Gustav Nyquist missed Tuesday’s game due to illness and is day-to-day. Ryan O’Reilly (lower body, week-to-week) and Alexandre Carrier (upper body, week-to-week) were also absent on Thursday night; Juuso Parssinen took Nyquist’s spot in the lineup.
Per NHL Public Relations, Tommy Novak (40g-60a-100p in 171 GP) scored and required the fourth-fewest games to reach 100 career points among players to debut with the Preds, behind Marek Zidlicky (147 GP), Alexander Radulov (150 GP) and Filip Forsberg (153 GP).
Nashville will now hit the road once more to face the Stars in Dallas on Thursday night before meeting the Colorado Avalanche in Denver on Saturday.
