Preds Begin Road Trip with Overtime Loss to Boston Bruins

The Predators came back to earn a point, but Nashville ultimately fell to the Boston Bruins by a 4-3 final in overtime on Saturday afternoon at TD Garden. The result gives Nashville losses in their last two outings, but they still find themselves atop the Western Conference with the weekend underway.
Colton Sissons, Luke Kunin and Roman Josi all tallied for the visitors on the afternoon, and newly named NHL All-Star Juuse Saros made 40 saves for the Predators once more in a game that the visitors say was a much-improved effort following Thursday's loss to Buffalo.

"I think we responded well," Sissons said. "We had a couple mistakes sorting out some coverage on rushes early on there, which will happen, but I really liked our response. We were engaged, we were physical, we were competing and we lost a hockey game but got a huge point, and we can build off this game... That shouldn't be one that hurts our confidence at all."

"I really liked our game," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "I thought we were engaged, and we talked a lot about being a hard team to play against - physically and mentally… It was a very intense game, very physical, not a lot of free ice out there, both teams really battled hard, so I'm proud of our guys' effort tonight. I thought that's more of the style of game that we want to play, and we continue to have those different challenges that we talked about. I thought we had a strong game [today] against a really good hockey team."

The Bruins had a 2-0 lead before Saturday's contest was eight minutes old as former Preds forward Craig Smith and Boston defenseman Mike Reilly found a way past Saros, but before the opening frame was out, Nashville got on the board.

At the 14:30 mark of the first period, Sissons beat Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark with a shot from the slot, and the only marker of the second stanza came off the stick of Kunin at 7:32, a wrist shot from the right side that eluded everyone on its way into the twine.

Boston got the lead back on a power-play early in the third when Brad Marchand scored his 20th of the season, but less than three minutes later, Josi and the Predators answered back to even the score at 3-3 to force overtime.

After Matt Duchene hit the post in the extra session - his second ring off the iron on the afternoon - Taylor Hall ended the day for Boston at 1:41 of OT.
Despite the loss, the Predators certainly got back to much of what has made them successful this season, and they'll look to continue that style on Monday when they face the Blues in St. Louis - a test against another one of the best in the West.
"We all just understand that sometimes it's just not your night, you're not going to win a hockey game, but we can't really control that," Sissons said. "We can control our effort and the attitude that we come and play with, and most nights we've done that this year. I think that's why we are where we are in the standings and I thought it was there tonight. So, we'll continue that moving forward."
"I thought the guys did a really good job [moving on from Thursday's loss]," Hynes said. "Preparation was strong, and [today] was a hard-fought battle. I'm glad that the guys at least got one point out of that game for the investment and the effort that we put into this game, and now we've got to move on. We get another day tomorrow and we've got another big challenge against one of the top teams in the Central Division."

Notes:

Prior to Saturday's game, the Predators activated forward Yakov Trenin off the NHL's COVID-19 protocol list, but defenseman Mattias Ekholm was added to the list and joined forward Filip Forsberg by missing the afternoon contest.
Defenseman Mark Borowiecki, who missed Thursday's game with a lower-body injury, returned to the lineup on Saturday and skated alongside Philippe Myers, who dressed with Ekholm out. Forward Matt Luff was recalled from the taxi squad for Saturday's game, and forward Cody Glass was reassigned to Milwaukee (AHL) from the taxi squad.
Nashville's two-game road trip will conclude on Monday night in St. Louis against the Blues before the Preds return home to host the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday evening at Bridgestone Arena.