Martin Tallies Twice; Preds Fall to Lighting in Shootout 

Brady Martin tallied twice, but the Nashville Predators ultimately fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning by a 3-2 final in a shootout on Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena. The result sees the Preds move to 2-0-1 in the preseason after a doubleheader sweep over Florida on Sunday.

After a three-point outing over the weekend, rookie forward Matthew Wood added two more assists on Tuesday, but after the Predators took a 2-0 lead, Tampa Bay scored twice in the third before prevailing in the shootout.

“I think we played for probably 25 minutes,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “They're hard games to play, especially for some of the older guys. Other young guys all played exceptionally again tonight for the most part, and it's fun to see every time you see Brady and Woody play. They're really pushing here. So that's fun to be a part of… [But] I didn't like our third period… We were just kind of waiting around a little bit. And you see that in exhibition games, and something that we're going to have to clear up here.”

Neither club found the back of the net in the opening period, but in the middle frame, it was Wood who found Martin in the slot, and the 18-year-old buried his first unofficial goal as a member of the Preds. Then, less than three minutes later, Wood dished to Michael Bunting down low, and Martin finished off the bumper play with a one-timer on the power play for his second of the evening.

“It's the biggest crowd I've ever played in front of, so it's pretty cool to score in front of a crowd like that and to hear them go wild,” Martin said of scoring in Nashville for the first time.

“He moves great,” Bunting said of Martin. “He skates really well for a bigger kid, he thinks the game really well and has that offensive touch. He's not really afraid. It doesn't seem like he's shying away at all out there. I mean, for 18 years old, that's pretty impressive. So hopefully he can keep building and have that swagger.”

Martin and Wood, who played on a line with Filip Forsberg once more, continue to impress, and their showing on Tuesday certainly won’t hurt their chances of making final roster decisions difficult on Nashville’s coaching staff.

“I think we've been a great line together,” Martin said of playing with Wood and Forsberg. “Woody has been really good, so I [give] kudos to them for my goals, and Bunting on the power play there. It’s fun playing with them.”

“He’s putting his best foot forward, making hard decisions for everybody,” Brunette said of Martin. “So, hopefully it keeps trending that way.”

With three out of Nashville’s six preseason games now complete, Opening Night continues to inch closer, and with it comes more opportunities for the Preds to fine tune their game, especially after a preseason lesson like this.

“I think just get better and better every single day,” Bunting said of the focus as camp continues. “We're getting closer to Opening [Night] and like obviously, tonight, what happened, we don't want to make that a normal thing here. We want to learn from it but move on and still have positive vibes. I feel like camp has gone really well for us, and everyone's really working hard and working for something to prove.”

Notes:

Goaltenders Juuse Saros and Justus Annunen split time in the Nashville net on Tuesday; Saros stopped all seven shots he faced before Annunen took over in the second half of the game.

Training Camp continues on Wednesday for the Predators before the Gold Star Showcase presented by Ticketmaster - an intrasquad game at F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville benefiting the Special Operations Warrior Foundation - arrives on Thursday. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.

The Preds will then head on the road for a back-to-back preseason set this weekend when they face Tampa Bay on Saturday and Carolina on Sunday.