Nashville Doomed By Slow Start Against New York Islanders

NASHVILLE — Nashville (4-3-5) earned a point against the New York Islanders (6-4-2), but left disappointed, feeling like they left money on the table in Bridgestone Arena. The Predators took three first-period penalties, fell behind 3-0, and crawled back to force overtime, ultimately losing in a 4-3 shootout.

The Predators dominated the final 30 minutes of play, but their mismanagement of puck possession, shift changes, and careless penalties in the first 30 kept them from claiming victory.

"I think we know, but we're not acting on it, the start of the game wasn't where we want it to be," Andrew Brunette said. "I don't know. Trying to put my finger on it, it seems like it's been a year, year and a half of talking about this, but we're having trouble grabbing it. So, all in all, I like the grit and resilience to come back, and I thought our third period was our best period. We left some pretty good looking chances there that could've put the game away on the ice. We'll regroup, and we've got to start better.

Nashville entered the evening with momentum after a 6-2 victory over Colorado on Sunday. The Islanders entered on a two-game skid, but New York, not Nashville, started the game on the right foot. The Islanders outshot the Predators 9-6 in the first period, controlled the faceoff circle, and created quality chances on the rush.

The Islanders took the game's first penalty, but Roman Josi gave the advantage right back, taking an interference penalty of his own, setting up a four-on-four that New York capitalized on for the first goal. The problems continued as the Predators couldn't properly clear the puck and left Brayden Schenn all alone on the back post, falling into a deeper hole.

"I'd say lack of focus," Brunette said. "I even think from the first shift. We had a reliable line, Jack's line out there. If you took the first shift from the Colorado game to the first shift of the Islanders game, they're polar opposites. Where we got a puck deep and set up our game, today we're turning pucks over in the neutral zone, and then we end up defending, and then it becomes contagious. I think one way or the other, the momentum - if you're doing the right thing, it's contagious, and if you're sloppy, the next line seems to follow that, and we kind of did that. Then we took some stick penalties. We're sleeping on a change, just things that are not going to set your game up when you do those things because you lose the momentum of your bench. And we didn't really get going, and we got going in the third, but it took us too long to get into the game, our game."

The Islanders sniped their third goal in the first minute of the second period when the Nashville defense lost Bo Horvat in their own defensive zone, and the forward made them pay with a one-timer shot.

The Predators began digging in the second frame, protecting the puck better and generating quality offensive chances, but the damage was done, and Nashville couldn't ever find a fourth goal to break the tie.

"I don't know." Ryan O'Reilly said. "I think, just coming off a big emotional game against Colorado, and kind of everything went well for us. We got bounces, PP was clicking, yeah, I just think maybe we thought it would be a little bit easier, and we definitely took too long to kind of get going, but when we did get going, we were in the game there, And still, we have things to clean up and get back to us, because that game was very winnable. But again, talking to our leadership group, we've got to focus the group that it's not going to be easy. Every game's going to be different, and we have to kind of find a way to play inspired and our kind of hockey right away."

Nashville has played strong hockey in spurts throughout 2026-27, but hasn't found the consistency needed to get quality results on a nightly basis. The Predators looked like the better team in the final two periods at Bridgestone Arena, but a lackluster start and the luck of the draw in a shootout left the franchise with just a single bittersweet point.

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