2. Know Your Enemy
The team Calgary’s facing today was beaten 4-1 Thursday night by the team Calgary’s facing tomorrow.
The Flyers got second-period goals from Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale to jump out to a 2-0 lead, before Matthew Wood scored before the intermission to cut the deficit for the visitors. It was Wood’s first career goal.
But Zegras would add his second of the night in the final frame, with Travis Konecny finishing things off with an empty-netter with six seconds left to play.
Zegras ended the night with three points, while former Flame Dan Vladar was busy making 32 stops. Meanwhile, Philly had just 18 shots in the game, with Juuse Saros finishing with 14 stops.
Nashville dropped to 4-6-1 on the season with their third straight defeat.
“Another tough loss,” Predators forward Ryan O’Reilly told media after the contest. “Disappointing. Had some good opportunities; it could have been different. But that’s the way it’s going right now, so we’ll keep fighting.”
The Preds were outshooting the homeside 20-9 when Zegras tallied.
“We had the momentum there for a while, and couldn’t get that break to give us that confidence,” O’Reilly said. “And that’s been kind of all year for us. We’re hanging on and a bad thing happens, and we kind of … you can feel us all tighten.”
Today’s matinee is a chance for the Preds, like the Flames, to get the new month off to a good start and put October in the rearview mirror.
“It was a great effort, we played really well but didn’t get the result,” said Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette. “I think we’re all a little bit frustrated over it, but we’ve got to go through this. Every team does, and it’s how we handle ourselves fighting through this. And the guys showed a lot of fight tonight, and I expect us going forward to keep fighting. If you play games like you played tonight, you’re not going to lose too many of them.”
Predators.com reported captain Roman Josi remains week-to-week with an upperbody injury, while d-man Adam Wilsby sat out Thursday’s game with a lower-body injury and is day-to-day.
Of note, former Flames coach and longtime Preds broadcaster Terry Crisp will be inducted into the Predators Golden Hall Saturday, along with Pete Weber.
