The Nashville Predators just suffered a 6-0 loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday night to open a two-game road trip.
It’s their largest margin of defeat since losing 9-2 against the Dallas Stars on February 25, 2024. Except this time, it doesn’t seem like the Nashville Predators will go on an 18-game point streak like they did that spring.
Head coach Andrew Brunette was clear about how this loss made him feel.
“It’s our worst effort of the year by far. We turned over puck after puck in the first period. We lost probably every battle. Puts you on your heels against a good rush team. Gotta take care of the puck, and we refused to do it again tonight; sooner or later it’s going to get you. It’s very disappointing from our group,” Brunette said to the media.
Now the Nashville Predators and Brunette will try to forget about this one and try to get ready for a game in Pittsburgh on Saturday night. The Penguins also won on Thursday 4-0 against the Florida Panthers.
Pressure mounts on Andrew Brunette and the Nashville Predators
The path to splitting this two-game road stint will be difficult after a disastrous loss to the Bruins. The Predators can still get two of the four points available to them, but it’s another missed opportunity to assert their game after a handful of practices.
“We need a few more guys playing hockey. We had too many passengers tonight. Probably almost all of them.” Brunett said. “It’s disappointing. We knew coming in it’s a big stretch of hockey, big month for our group; we knew that. We just forgot to play hockey tonight.”
Brunette knows that October was an important month for him and the Predators to perform. It’s more pertinent than normal now that a new general manager is in charge of the franchise.
Chris MacFarland has now seen the Predators go 3-3-3 to kick off his time as President of Hockey Operations and GM. He’ll be determining over the next few games leading into November what direction to take based on Nashville’s on-ice play.
So far, it appears that is not up to snuff for anyone. When it’s been bad, Nashville has not been able to bounce back and be a more consistent team.
Nashville needs to react, or changes are coming
Roman Josi understands, like his teammates, what is at risk if they continue to play poorly. Trades could be made, and the coaching staff may be relieved of their duties.
They may not want it to come to that, but that is not up to them. Chris MacFarland will be making those decisions sooner rather than later. Maybe those choices will come before the GM initially wanted to pull the trigger on making changes.
Not a lot of runway is left for the Predators to prove what they could be with this current group and their full potential.
“A lot of games in the next couple of days. We need to show a reaction; we need to play a lot better, and it’s going to be another fast game against a fast team. We have to get back to work and show we’re a way better team than we were tonight,” Josi said.
MacFarland may have seen all he’s needed to at this point, or perhaps there’s more room left before the direction of the franchise is altered.
Follow Nick Kieser on Twitter/X: @KieserNick
Andrew Brunette Says Predators Need More Guys Playing Hockey After Loss to Bruins