The Nashville Predators fell to the Boston Bruins by a 6-0 final on Thursday night at TD Garden. The result gives the Preds a loss to start their two-game trip, and the effort left the visitors disappointed with what they saw.
“Obviously not a good game from us,” Preds Captain Roman Josi said. “Right away, [in the] first period they were the better team. I feel like they kind of controlled the whole period, and just not good enough for 60 [minutes] from us.”
“It wasn’t very good,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “It's our worst effort of the year by far.”
The Bruins tallied twice in the opening 20 minutes, and after the Predators upped their pressure to start the second stanza, Boston potted two more in the middle period for a 4-0 advantage.
Two more goals for the Bruins then came in the final frame on a night that saw Boston goaltender Michael DiPietro make 28 saves for a shutout, but the Preds were left wanting much more from their effort.
“We turned over puck, after puck, after puck in the first period,” Brunette said. “We lost probably every battle - puts you on your heels against a good rush team. We didn’t take care of the puck, and we refused to do it again tonight. And sooner or later, it's going to get you. So, it's very disappointing from our group.”
From here, the Predators will travel to Pittsburgh in advance of a meeting with the Penguins on Saturday night, and they know they’ll need a response following Thursday's result.
“We need to show a reaction,” Josi said. “It’s a big week, a lot of games in the next couple days, and like I said, we need to show a reaction. We need to play a lot better. It's going to be another fast game against a fast team [in Pittsburgh]. We have to get back to work and show that we're a way better team than tonight.”
“We need a few more guys playing hockey,” Brunette said. “We had too many passengers tonight, and probably almost all of them. It’s disappointing. We knew coming in [that] it's a big stretch of hockey, a big month for our group. We knew that, and we just forgot to play hockey tonight.”
Notes:
Preds forward Mavrik Bourque returned to the Nashville lineup after missing four games due to injury. Goaltender Justus Annunen made his season debut after spending time on Injured Reserve, and defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin made his Predators debut after being acquired in the offseason.
Nashville’s two-game trip concludes on Saturday night in Pittsburgh before returning home to host Colorado on Sunday night to begin a season-long, five-game homestand.
