It's too early to give up on the season, but long stretches of offensive struggles and senseless penalties are threatening to derail the Nashville Predators' chances of staying in the playoff chase.
Oct 28, 2025; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Nashville Predators left wing Filip Forsberg (9) celebrates with his teammates after scoring a goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the third period at Bridgestone Arena. Steve Roberts-Imagn Images
It’s becoming an all-too-familiar scrip for the Nashville Predators through the first 11 games of the 2025-26 season: They either start strong and run out of gas, or come out slowly and have to claw from behind.
It was the latter that reared its ugly head Tuesday in the Preds’ 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Bridgestone Arena during Frozen Frenzy Night in the NHL.
It would be natural to blame the slightly earlier start time (6:45 Pm), to accommodate staggered games with all 32 teams in action. That would, however, ring hollow and sound more like a lame excuse than attempting to address the real issues.
The lack of goal production has plagued the Predators since last season, when they averaged just 2.59 goals per game, ranking them next-to-last in the NHL. This season, the Preds have scored two goals or fewer in eight of their first 11 games. Their 27 goals ranks 27th in the NHL.
Last season, the Preds had 29 goals through 11 games despite a 4-6-1 start. Their current record stands at 4-5-2.
Head coach Andrew Brunette has talked on numerous occasions about his team's lck of consistency and needing to clean things up. He reiterated this while talking with reporters following Tuesday night’s defeat.
“Obviously, we’d like to score more goals,” Brunette said. “There were some things we didn’t do (Tuesday) to give us a chance to score more goals. That’s a big thing for our group. We have to clean it up and be a little bit better.”
It’s becoming a familiar refrain. Throughout the season, the Preds have had long stretches of lethargy where they seem to have no legs and didn’t have a shot on goal.
Tuesday was the latest example. In the second period, they failed to get a shot on net against Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy through the first eight minutes of the frame and had just three shots in the period.
The team came out more aggressive in the third, but despite goals from Luke Evangelista (power-play goal) and Filip Forsberg to cut into two-goal leads by the Lightning, it was too little, too late.
In their loss in Winnipeg against the Jets, another lapse saw Nashville fail to get a shot on goalie Connor Hellebuyck through the first five minutes of the opening period and only managed one midway through the period.
Of course, it’s difficult to put the puck in the net if you allow your opponent to play a half-ice game and keep you on your own end playing dump and chase, things the Lightning did successfully particularly in that lackluster second period.
“Goals are scored in front of the net,.” Preds forward Michael Bunting said Tuesday. “(Shots) are getting blocked, we’re not getting it there. It’s easier for them to break out when it gets blocked. We’ve got to sustain a little bit more offense and create a little bit more and make some more plays.”
Brunette also pointed to another disturbing trend: taking needless penalties. Before suffering a lower-body injury in the second period, Adam Wilsby was called for interference at 3:49 of the opening frame. It came right after the Preds failed to score on a power play.
Later in the period, Erik Haula went off for slashing at 17:28. While the Preds penalty kill continues to save the team night after night, Brunette was clearly not happy with what he called “senseless” penalties, even referring to Haula specifically.
“We’re not moving our feet,” Brunette said. “(Haula’s) taking way too many every night. Just senseless penalties where we put ourselves in 5-on-3’s… They’re all preventable penalties. When you’re not skating, you’re not moving and you take those penalties.”
It’s not as if the Preds aren’t capable of causing havoc, creating turnovers and getting to the net; they just need to sustain momentum for longer periods. That’s difficult to do when players are spending too much time in the sin bin.
Games all have ebbs and flows, but long stretches of not being on the same page and creating opportunities won’t cut it, especially against fast teams like Tampa Bay.
“It’s a mentality,” Evangelista said. “We’re clearly capable of it. I feel like we’ve done that a lot this year where we kind of have really good stretches of hockey throughout games and we’re keeping it competitive. If we can play like that for a complete 60 (minutes), we’re going to have a lot of success.”
The big question is: can this happen before the Predators take themselves out of playoff contention for a second straight year? It’s too early to completely give up on the season, but the sample size since the start of 2024-25 suggests it’s unlikely.
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