If there's one thing that's going to be the ultimate undoing for the Nashville Predators and their unexpected playoff push, it's going to be how they open games.
Far too many times the Predators have had to mount furious comebacks this season, and to their credit they have 13 wins this season after trailing by one goal. That is tied for most in the NHL along with the Montreal Canadiens.
The same scenario happened in last night's 3-2 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins. They fell behind 2-0 while having issues to manufacture any kind of sustainable offensive pressure. Then the Predators flipped a switch and took over the momentum late in the 2nd period.
Another Nashville Predators comeback attempt comes up just short, but they at least don't leave empty handed in Boston
First it was Roman Josi scoring a power play goal, an absolute blast, with under a minute left in the 2nd period. The Predators had some life going into the final frame off of Josi's ninth goal of the season, and bringing him one goal shy of 200 for his NHL career after just recently passing the 1,000-game milestone.
In the 3rd period, the Predators once again had to dig deep to break through Boston's organized and structured defensive front. They were just daring the Predators to find a way to break through the nuetral zone and get set up for offense.
The Predators would get the equalizer at 13:17 of the 3rd period on Nick Blankenburg's sixth goal of the season, with the primary assists coming from Adam Wilsby. An awesome sign for the Predators to get some depth scoring when as of late they've really been depending on their top goal scorers to carry all of the load.
At this point in the game after the Blankenburg tying-goal, the Predators were owning all of the momentum and were pushing to complete the comeback in regulation. They were completely outplaying the Bruins on offense with an Expected Goals of 3.63 while the Bruins were way down at 2.10.
To the credit of Juuse Saros, he kept this game salvageable until the Predators flipped that switch. He didn't face a ton of great offense from the Bruins, but he did rally to make 25 saves before getting owned by David Pastrnak in the opening 15 seconds of overtime.
The veteran core for the Predators who have been building that critical line chemistry just wasn't able to crack through Jeremy Swayman on this particular night. Steven Stamkos, Ryan O'Reilly and Filip Forsberg were all held to three shots on net each.
The Predators did do a superb job on the penalty kill, erasing all three of Boston's power plays. The Predators are now ranked 11th in the NHL on the penalty kill, while Boston's power play is ranked 4th.
With the overtime point, the Predators fall back a bit in the hunt for the wildcard with the San Jose Sharks holding the final spot and having a four-point lead on the Predators. These two teams have yet to face each other this season and have three critical meetings upcoming.
However, they're not just chasing the Sharks at 57 points. The Los Angeles Kings and Seattle Kraken also sit at 57 points, leaving the Predators with three teams they have to find a way to jump past with 30 games left. Manageable, but also the trade deadline looms and you have to wonder if GM Barry Trotz really believes in keeping most of this team together.
Next up for the Predators they stay up in the northeast with a road game against the New Jersey Devils. The Devils have been a massive disappointment this season, but find themselves in a unique situation where they're closer to finishing in the top-three of their division than they are the wildcard. They're five points back in the Metropolitan Division for third place, but nine points back of the wildcard.