Ryan O’Reilly scored the lone Nashville goal as the Predators fell to the Philadelphia Flyers by a 3-1 final on Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena. The result sees the Preds finish the season series against the Flyers with a pair of losses, and on this occasion, Nashville was left disappointed with a single goal on the board.
“It’s kind of been the story a little bit, right?” Preds defenseman Nic Hague said of recent results. “It’s been a little frustrating. It felt like we could have definitely had more than one tonight, but just kind of seems to be the way it’s going, and can’t find that next stick or the bounce, or whatever it is. I don’t really know, but it’s frustrating for sure.”
“It’s nice having the puck in the offensive zone, but when you don’t win games, it’s disappointing,” O’Reilly said. “We just want to win games, it’s as simple as that… There’s good things, but we’ve got to find a way to win games. I don’t know what that is exactly.”
Nashville broke the ice when Filip Forsberg’s shot just 1:44 into the contest hit a Flyers defender before tipping off of O’Reilly and into the twine to give the Preds a 1-0 lead.
But in the second stanza, which turned into a physical, chippy affair, it was Philadelphia collecting a pair of goals to take a 2-1 lead into the final frame. After the Preds continued to have long stretches of time in the offensive zone, the Flyers added an empty-netter to seal the victory and leave Nashville wanting more.
“I think we had a lot of opportunities to score [on some of our chances, but] can’t believe they didn’t go in,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “Still believe we can do things a little quicker. I still think we could probably have a little bit of netfront [presence], but a little better inside, along with all the motion, movement and possession time. It’s a broken record right now. It just feels that’s kind of what we’re dealing with. So, we’ve got to find a way to break through it.”
“I think there’s obviously still a lot of things we can do better, and we’re trying to grind out what our identity is going to be as a team right now,” Hague said. “Right now, it’s certainly not filling the net. So, it makes details on the other side of the puck that much more important… We’ve just got to find that next step. A little bit more from everybody, and there’s only one way out of it, right? We’re just going to kind of keep working, and hopefully things turn around, but it’s not going to happen without the effort, and we’re committed to that. So, we’ll be better for it when we come out the other side.”
Notes:
Nashville’s lineup remained unchanged from their previous outing with forward Zach L’Heureux as the lone healthy scratch for the Preds.
The Predators will play their final home game before their trip to Sweden on Saturday afternoon when they host the Dallas Stars for a 2:30 start at Bridgestone Arena. Nashville will then face the Rangers in New York on Monday night before heading to Stockholm for the NHL Global Series.
