Playing the first of just four March home games, David Pastrnak and the Boston Bruins will have to start anew when they welcome in the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.
It will be Boston’s first skate since the star winger’s league-leading point streak ended at 17 games in a 1-0 loss Sunday to the Minnesota Wild in the second half of a road back-to-back. Pastrnak recorded five shots on goal, but the Bruins could not find the net for the sixth time this season.
“I think there’s always some games like that where you just can’t buy one and (Sunday) was like that and it’s unfortunate,” Bruins forward Mark Kastelic said. “I think we played pretty well defensively, and it’s tough when you only give up one.”
As interim coach Joe Sacco and his players have said recently, though, the regular season is fading. With two points and three teams between them and the final Eastern Conference playoff spot, the Bruins must bank wins quickly.
For Boston, finding a victory is crucial against a Nashville team that sits third-to-last in the Western Conference. The Bruins have had much greater success at home (18-10-5) compared to the road (10-16-3). The Predators’ six road victories (6-20-4) are tied for the fewest in the NHL.
While Sacco was pleased with his team’s weekend effort, beginning with a 3-2 win Saturday over the Pittsburgh Penguins, generating more offense is a must.
“We have to find a way to put the puck in, whether it’s creating more traffic at the net, having more of a shot mindset, playing off the shot more, creating some more two-for-ones,” Sacco said.
The Bruins could be without Brad Marchand for a second straight game after he sustained an upper-body injury in Pittsburgh. Sacco had no update on his captain’s status before Monday’s team day off.
“You just hope he’s feeling well and doing well, and you hate to see guys go down and, in that way, too, but hopefully he’s doing OK and hopefully we’ll see him soon enough,” forward Charlie Coyle said.
The Predators are in a similar offensive situation, having dropped six straight road games following a New York back-to-back. The latest game was a 4-0 loss Sunday to the Rangers — their ninth time being shut out this season.
Nashville landed 34 shots on goal, but taking five penalties and seeing a 1-0 deficit balloon to 3-0 less than four minutes into the second period did not help matters.
“Too many penalties at times, put a lot of pressure on our kill and lost a little momentum early, and then I thought we had some really good looks,” coach Andrew Brunette said. “But I think overall, as a group, it’s been like this all year, especially the last stretch.”
Similarly to the Bruins, it all begins with finding one.
“We’ve got to score a goal,” Nashville forward Filip Forsberg said. “It sounds silly, but I don’t know how many times we’ve said this … but we’ve got to start there and see what happens.”
On Saturday, the Predators surrendered a season-high seven goals for the third time in a 7-4 loss to the Islanders. That game did see New Jersey native Marc Del Gaizo net his first NHL goal.
The defenseman has played 24 games this season but had been with the AHL affiliate in Milwaukee since December prior to last week.
“He’s come up and played really well,” Brunette said. “He’s hungry. He wants it. From the back end, he was our best guy by far (on Saturday).”
The Predators pitched a home shutout in their Oct. 22 meeting with Boston. Juuse Saros made 33 saves and Ryan O’Reilly scored the winning goal in a 4-0 victory.
–Field Level Media
