The Nashville Predators lost to the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 Sunday at Rogers Place. The team sits four points behind a wild card spot in the West and two behind the next team in the race.
The Preds are 1-2-1 on this five-game road trip and 0-1-1 in the Canadian stretch. Fedor Svechkov scored the lone goal for Nashville [29-28-9] while Justus Annunen made 27 stops of 29 shot attempts.
"We had our looks in the third, but [Edmonton] got off to a pretty good start and it's kind of the theme for us," Preds captain Roman Josi said. "Our power play wasn't going well. You need a goal with the power play there. We're kind of hoping to win a little bit and we're down to nothing. We make a bit of a push, kind of flipping a coin every game and you're not going to win consistently like that."Nashville Predators YT
It was a rough start for the Predators 5v5 with six of seven shots coming from the power play in the first period. Despite having two power play chances in the frame and four total in the game, the Predators couldn't capitalize on a single one.
Edmonton [33-26-9] had slightly more success, scoring one in four attempts. The Oilers opened the scoring on their first attempt with a finish from Leon Draisaitl for his 35th. The Preds fell 11-7 in the shots department and once again, they get scored on first.
"We don't have the puck much in the first. We kind of just throw pucks away. I don't know why to be honest," Josi said. "Once we're down, we start playing with the puck a little more and help each other. It seems like in the first period we just throw pucks away a little bit."Nashville Predators YT
"A little slow start and then you grab a little momentum," center Fedor Svechkov said. "Kind of a game where you got to use your chances when you have a guy more or less. I think it was key today."Nashville Predators YT
The Oilers continued the pressure heading into the middle stanza with Matt Savoie scoring his 11th 2:32 into it.
The Predators would pot their own two minutes later thanks to a wrister from Svechkov out in front. He now has three goals this season and his first since his AHL call-up earlier this month.
"Feeling good since I got called back up," Svechkov said. "Feel my game growing and I'll just try to keep that to give some energy to the guys. Keep skating and try to play the same way. Obviously today wasn't best but I feel like I'm going in the right direction."Nashville Predators YT
The third period was arguably Nashville's best as they outshot Edmonton 12-9.
"I think the third period is probably our best period for doing that," Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. "We've moved some different parts and we're not in flow right now as a group. We've added some guys and we got to kind of find that connectivity quickly here and we'll work on it."Nashville Predators YT
The Predators almost forced a comeback but with an empty net towards the end of the game, the Oilers tallied one to make it a 3-1 final.
Nashville has one last chance to snag a win on this long road trip with a midweek matchup against Central Division rival Winnipeg Jets. The Preds sit one point ahead of the Jets as they race for a wild card spot.
They'll round up the week with two home games Thursday and Saturday against the Seattle Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights.