Preds Fall to Lightning, 5-3, in Opening Night Thriller

After falling behind early and battling back to tie the score three times in the final period, the Nashville Predators ultimately began the 2023-24 season with a 5-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning Tuesday at Amalie Arena.

The Preds got off to a sluggish start, recording just two shots on goal in the first period. The Lightning grabbed an early lead on a one-timer from Nikita Kucherov at the halfway point of the first.

Nashville surged back with a 14-5 shot advantage in the second period but trailed by one until 16:15 of the frame, when Filip Forsberg found Ryan O’Reilly on a 2-on-1 to tie the score at 1-1.

The third period began in dramatic fashion as Juuso Pärssinen gave the Preds their first lead of the night, finishing a pass from Forsberg in the crease to put Nashville up 2-1. Roman Josi nearly gave the Preds a 3-1 lead, but the goal was immediately waved off due to goaltender interference.

Nick Paul netted the equalizer on the power play for Tampa Bay just over two minutes later, jamming the puck in from a netfront scramble to tie things up at 2-2. Luke Schenn was then whistled for holding Brandon Hagel on a breakaway, earning Hagel a penalty shot at 3:07. Hagel beat Juuse Saros blocker-side to restore Tampa Bay’s one-goal lead.

With Kucherov in the penalty box for hooking, Tommy Novak tied things up with a power-play snipe at 8:46. Less than a minute later, however, a Jeremy Lauzon high-sticking penalty led to a second power-play tally for Paul to put the Lightning back on top.

Kucherov scored an empty-net goal in the game’s final seconds for the 5-3 final.

PREDS STANDOUTS

• O’Reilly’s goal was the 257th of his career and his first as a member of the Predators. O’Reilly also led all Preds forwards with 21:59 of ice time.
• Forsberg (2a) and O’Reilly (1g-1a) tied for the Preds lead in points with two apiece.
• Gustav Nyquist recorded his first point as a member of the Predators with an assist on Novak’s power-play goal.

THEY SAID IT

O’Reilly on Nashville’s slow start:

“It wasn't the start we wanted. Obviously, [Saros] had some great saves and kept us in it there. But we’ve always just got to reset and get back in with our feet and win battles, and you can see we did that and our game started to calm and we did a lot of good things. [We] just have to be more consistent with that.”

O’Reilly on adjusting to a new system:

“It's always tough to simulate it in practice and such. For our team, we haven’t had a ton of games together, but you can see us starting to get better and cleaner. I think it will just continue to grow with that.”

Forsberg on facing Tampa Bay:

“They’re going to come out hard, obviously, in their home opener. They're a great team over there. I thought we didn’t manage the puck well which led to turnovers. We weren't really keeping up with it, kind of just chucking pucks and they’d come right back at us. But the second period was a lot better; we got it down and started forechecking on them. Then in the third period they got a power-play goal, and I think that was the determining factor.”

Head Coach Andrew Brunette on his assessment of the game:

“I liked a lot of things. In the first, I thought we were a little nervous and tentative, which happens. I think there's so many changes going on, and sometimes you get a little bit stuck in the mud and thinking too much. I really liked our second; we got on our toes, kind of got back to our game a little bit. Then in the third, we got in some penalty trouble and that cost us the game.”

Brunette on Nashville getting into penalty trouble:

“I felt good about our game. Against this team, you can't get in trouble. They gain all their momentum; their power play’s elite. I've seen this record play too many times in this building with the penalties in the third period and changing the course of the game. So it's a little bit of a learning experience. But overall, I thought we played pretty well.”

UP NEXT

The Predators return to Nashville to host the Seattle Kraken in Thursday’s home opener at Bridgestone Arena. The puck drops at 7 p.m. CT, with the game broadcast on Bally Sports South and 102.5 The Game.