The Nashville Predators prospect squad fell to the Florida Panthers rookies, 4-2, on Saturday in their second outing at the 2023 Southeast Rookie Showcase in Estero, Fla.
The Preds rookies played a highly physical game – even dropping the gloves twice – but Florida scored three unanswered goals, and Nashville’s comeback fell short.
“I thought we had a great start to the game,” Head Coach Karl Taylor said. “We played really fast. We had all kinds of pace. It would have been nice to score a little more in the first; I thought we really took it to them early. Then they got their legs back underneath them.”
Kevin Wall got Nashville on the board early with an unassisted goal at 1:23 of the first period. Wall was selected in the sixth round (181st overall) by the Hurricanes in the 2019 NHL Draft; however, after failing to come to terms with the club prior to August 15, Wall's rights to Carolina expired and he became a free agent. He inked a two-year AHL contract with Milwaukee on August 18 and is participating in his first Predators rookie camp.
Florida tied things up on a Josh Davies goal at 15:20 of the first frame, making the score 1-1 heading into the first intermission. Things got lively in the second period as, Jack Matier and Riley Bezeau dropped the gloves at 12:58, followed by Kalan Lind and Josh Davies at 15:05.
“I like to play physical,” said Lind, whom the Predators drafted in the second round (46th overall) of the 2023 NHL Draft. “I like to be in guys’ faces, kind of chirping and stuff and getting under their grills… On that first shift, I kind of always look to maybe get ahead or get ahead and kind of get into the game a little bit for sure.”
Florida took a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal at 14:10 of the second period, just seconds into Adam Wilsby’s interference penalty. Florida’s second tally on the man advantage came 26 seconds into the third period, with Navrin Mutter in the box for slashing. Nashville’s rookie squad has now surrendered four power-play goals in the last two games after giving up two to Tampa Bay on Friday.
“That’s six more power plays against,” Taylor said. “You can’t be getting 12 penalties like that and expect to give yourself a chance. And obviously the PK struggled the last two games, so that's normal this time of the year with young guys where we haven't worked on it very much.”
Tanner Molendyk cut Florida’s lead to 3-2 with a snipe from the top of the circle at 9:50 of the third period, but Bezeau answered with an unassisted goal to give the Panthers back their two-goal lead for the 4-2 final.
“[The experience] has been fun,” said Molendyk, one of Nashville’s first-round picks (24th overall) in the 2023 NHL Draft. “It's been a lot a lot of being a sponge… I think that's been the biggest thing for me. I just kind of come in with an open mind and kind of see what they do.”
Molendyk (second round) and Zachary L’Heureux (fifth round) scored the only goals in the five-man shootout between the two teams.
“We want to play three periods like we did in the first,” Taylor said. “I thought we had lots of jump, lots of speed, lots of pace, lots of things that we want to implement this year. We're going to have lots of good clips to show, and I think we'll reinforce those and try to get three periods on Monday like that.”
The Preds rookie squad will return to action on Monday in a 9 a.m. CT tilt with the Carolina Hurricanes prospects. The full rookie camp roster can be found here, and the schedule is below. Both are subject to change. All of Nashville’s games at the showcase will be streamed live on NashvillePredators.com.
2023 NASHVILLE PREDATORS ROOKIE CAMP SCHEDULE (All times CT)
Sunday, Sept. 17 - Day off
Monday, Sept. 18, 9 a.m. - Predators vs. Hurricanes, Hertz Arena (Estero, Fla.)
