Juuse Saros gave the Nashville Predators a chance with strong play in net, but the Preds couldn't break through offensively and fall to the Capitals.
After a strong bounce back game Thursday night against the Blues, the Nashville Predators faced off against the Washington Capitals at Bridgestone Arena.
The Capitals entered the game with a 4-4 record and coming off of a 2-0 shutout loss to the Dallas Stars. The Predators finally got a win Thursday night over the St. Louis Blues, breaking a five game losing skid for the Preds.
Nashville rolled the same lines and defensive pairings tonight as they did Thursday night, and Juuse Saros started again in net. Darcy Kuemper played between the pipes for the Capitals.
Game Recap
It was clear early in this game that this would be a physical and fast sixty minutes of hockey as the teams exchanged hard hits and quick chances. The Predators got caught with too many men on the ice at 4:50, but Saros and the penalty kill handled the two minutes effectively.
Juuse Saros had to be in Vezina finalist form early as Washington had several breakaway and two on one chances in the first half of the period. Five on five play net back and forth with neither team able to breakthrough.
Nashville got its first chance on the power play at 14:32 when Dylan Strome was called for a hook on Tanner Jeannot. Roman Josi bounced a shot off the post, but the Preds couldn't capitalize on the man advantage.
The final minutes of the opening period saw each team struggle to create offensive chances, and the teams headed to the locker room with no score.
The announcement came at the beginning of the second period that T.J. Oshie and John Carlson were both doubtful to return with lower body injuries after leaving the game earlier in the first period. Nashville adjusted their lines in the middle period as Yakov Trenin bumped to the second line, Cole Smith to the third, and Cody Glass to the fourth line.
The Preds had a flurry of takeaways and quick reloads into the offensive zone and earned themselves a power play at 5:52 during a net front flurry. The first and second units each put shots on net, but Kuemper frustrated the chances, and the two minutes expired.
The Capitals took their turn on the power play after Alexandre Carrier was called for interference at 10:26. The penalty killing group limit the Caps to one shot on the power play. Shortly after the penalty ended Beck Malenstyn found space to tap the puck past Saros at 12:49.
The pace of the game picked up again after the goal by Malenstyn, and the teams exchanged shot attempts, but in the flurry the Caps got caught with too many men on the ice. The Preds went on the power play for the third time, but Nashville could only get one shot on net in the two minutes. Just as that penalty expired, Jeannot was called for a high stick at 18:01 and the teams swapped sides on special teams. The period expired with less than a second remaining in Jeannot's penalty and a score of 1-0.
The battle of the goalies continued in the third period as Kuemper absolutely robbed Roman Josi early in the period. Hynes did a little more line shuffling with the forwards trying to find combinations that spark offensive chances.
Play went back and forth, but a slot scrum in front of Juuse Saros resulted in a greasy goal for Aliaksei Protas at 6:44 giving the Caps a 2-0 advantage.
Nashville was gifted a chance to get back in the game on a hooking call at 9:26. The Predators needed to find success on the power play for the goal and momentum, but the team still wasn't able to connect.
Nashville went with an empty net with 3:40 remaining in the game. Nashville couldn't get the puck through the traffic and Alex Ovechkin corralled a clearing pass and scored an empty net goal to make the score 3-0.
Nashville had one more chance on the power play with 2:08 left in the game. Nashville played a brief 6 on 4 but couldn't get anything past Kuemper. The game ended 3-0.
Game Notes
1. Juuse Saros is definitely warmed up. Saros is known to take a handful of games to get back in the goaltending groove at the start of the season. That has been true this season, but it feels like he has found his goalie stride. He came up with some vintage high danger saves for Nashville.
2. The Predators have to find success on their power play. Nashville has had 36 power play chances so far this season and only converted on three. It isn't just the missed scoring opportunities, it is the chances to change the momentum of a game that the team is leaving on the ice as the power play continues to struggle.
3. Nashville was just off a beat and an inch through most of this game. It wasn't a poor performance, but their execution was off enough to make it difficult to gain any traction. Teams like the Capitals will take advantage of those lapses. Nashville will need to clean up their execution before they take on the Oilers on Tuesday.