Preds Fall to Lightning in First Half of Home-and-Home

Roman Josi scored the lone Nashville goal as the Predators fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning by a 5-1 final on Friday night at Bridgestone Arena. It's Nashville's first loss of the exhibition schedule after collecting two wins against the Panthers earlier in the week.
The Predators say they saw some positive stretches during Friday's game, but not enough to be successful, something they'll look to correct as the preseason moves along.
"There were some spurts of how we wanted to play, but I don't think it was sustained like it should be," Nashville forward Craig Smith said. "There was a lot of one-and-done in the offensive zone with our system and the way we skate and it's unacceptable."

"We'll go back and look at the game and realize that we gave up too many point-blank chances, too many chances off the rush," Predators Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. "Whether they were bad decisions or the puck jumped on us and we got caught with something coming the other way, and even on the power play it seemed like we got caught flat-footed trying to play offense and chasing down odd-man rushes the other way."
Nashville surrendered three goals in the first period, and after Josi cut the lead to two when he one-timed a shot home on a 5-on-3 advantage, Tampa Bay came right back to go up 4-1. The Lightning added an empty-net goal late in the third to seal the victory in a game that saw the Predators outshoot Tampa Bay 39-27.
Louis Domingue stopped all but one Nashville shot he faced, while Pekka Rinne surrendered four goals though the first 40 minutes before Troy Grosenick made eight saves in the third period for the Preds.

"In front of our net, I thought we were a little bit loose," Laviolette said. "For me, the chances that we gave up, they're too quality, they're too good and we've got to limit those chances… From an evaluation standpoint, you get what you get out of it. From a team standpoint, you see things that you can work on and try to get better at."
Preds forward Eeli Tolvanen spent some time alongside Filip Forsberg and Ryan Johansen on the top line and saw power-play time as well. There were pros and cons to the young winger's game on Friday night, something the coaching staff will look to correct in the future.
"On the power play, I probably noticed him a little more," Laviolette said of Tolvanen. "Certainly, he's a guy that we're looking at and he's part of that evaluation process, but there were some good things that he did out there and there's some things that we'll talk to him about."
The goal is always to win, but especially in the preseason, this is a perfect opportunity to build on the good and learn from the bad - and that's exactly what the Predators will do as training camp rolls along.
"We could have a little bit more desperation in some areas, but those are things that are going to get worked out," Smith said. "It's only the second game that guys have played for the last four months here, but we're getting ready and we're moving in the right direction. We're going to take a few good things away from this and move forward."

Notes:
P.K. Subban and Filip Forsberg collected assists on Josi's power-play tally.
Smith led the Predators with six shots on the night, while Subban paced the club with over 21 minutes of ice time.
The Predators are right back at it on Saturday night with a meeting in Tampa Bay to finish up their exhibition home-and-home set with the Lightning at 6 p.m. (CT). The game may be viewed via stream on NashvillePredators.com or listened to on 102.5 The Game and the Predators Radio Network.