Ryan O'Reilly certainly lived up to his infamous nickname as "The Factor" on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena as the Nashville Predators won a back-and-forth clash with the Los Angeles Kings by a 5-4 final score.
O'Reilly scored twice, and was even hunting for the hat trick late in the game, to push the Predators to a season record of 4-3-2 as their long homestand rolls on. They now have back-to-back wins over Pacific Division opponents, with the other win against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
With the two goals, O'Reilly pushes his team lead to five goals and three assists on the young season. He was battling hard in classic O'Reilly style, working in the dirty area in close on Darcy Kuemper for the first goal and then scoring on a one-timer from Filip Forsberg for his second goal.
The sweet dish from Forsberg to O'Reilly shouldn't be overlooked, either. This comes at a critical point in the game with just ove five minutes left in regulation and the Predators still down 4-3. Forsberg showed relentless puck control and stick handling along the boards to find O'Reilly waiting in the slot to unleash a shot that came off the stick more like a change-up in baseball, but hey whatever it takes to fool the goaltender.
RYAN O’REILLY WITH THE EQUALIZER pic.twitter.com/VicUFSbcL9
— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) October 26, 2025
If that wasn't already enough from O'Reilly in this one, he also got the shootout off to a positive start for the Predators. He scored in the first round of what ended up being nine rounds, yes nine rounds. Everytime you thought the Predators had this one wrapped up with only a Saros saved needed, the Kings would respond in their round and force another round.
According to Hockey Reference's advanced stats, O'Reilly's fast start with already having five goals in nine games put his Adjusted Goals pace at 50, and a total of 79 points. Probably not sustainable, but it really illustrates how impressive this start is for O'Reilly, and it cannot be oversstated enough how much they have needed his offense.
Back to Forsberg, he was also a major factor in this game. I saw a lot more aggressiveness in his game at pushing the pace and looking for open ice to impact the offense. The problem wasn't that Forsberg wasn't being aggressive, it was just that the Kings were doing a superb job at clogging up the neutral zone and making it very difficult for the Predators to even exit their own zone to break out on the rush.
Despite that, Forsberg made the most out of an opportunity early in the 2nd period when there was a quick 2-on-1 chance skating with Matthew Wood. Like a wise veteran, Wood would fake the shot and pass over to Forsberg for the goal to beat Kuemper easily.
It was Wood's 2nd career NHL point, both assists. Wood got elevated in the lineup to top line duties with Forsberg and O'Reilly. This line was a large chunk of the offense for the Predators who went a long amount of time in the middle of the game without even putting a shot on Kuemper.
I also don't want to overlook Cole Smith's presence in this game. His 2nd period goal, that was unasssisted, was just pure grit and determination to work his way into a scoring area. He does this occasionally but usually has trouble finishing, but that wasn't the case here. A gorgeous goal from Smith, which already brings his seasos total to three goals.
And to be fair, I also want to throw a shoutout to Brady Skjei in this one. Late in regulation it was Skjei on the penalty kill leaving everything he had out there to defend and get it into overtime. He was clearly gassed going to the bench, but he certainly left it all out there.
Finally, even though Juuse Saros gave up four goals, he still managed to make a barrage of key saves to keep the Kings from building an multi-goal lead while the Predators weren't even returning fire on Kuemper. Saros had to hold down the fort to keep it a one-score game for long stretches.
Saros would finish the game off with a save in the 9th round of the shootout, turning away Joel Armia. Ozzy Wiesblatt would get credit for the shootout winner.
Other Game Notes
Roman Josi was announced before the game as being week-to-week with an upper body injury. The injury is reported by the team as not being related to his POTS diagnosis from the offseason.
The Predators definintely missed Josi badly in this game despite the win. They had trouble breaking out of the defensive zone and getting into their offense for most of the night.
Nicolas Hague made his season debut for the Predators with Josi coming out. The defensive pairings had to be shifted around, with Adam Wilsby skating alongside Hague on the second pairing.
In his Predators season debut, Hague would log 21:11 of ice time, one assist, one block, two hits and one shot on goal.
Tyson Jost came out of the lineup, while Jonathan Marchessault returned after missing the last three games with an injury. He slotted in on the third line with Erik Haula and Michael Bunting.
Up next the Predators continue their homestand with a back end of back-to-back as they'll host the Dallas Stars. Both teams will be on back-to-backs. The Stars won 3-2 over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night. Expect another battle of backup goalies as Jake Oettinger started for Dallas on Saturday.