After winning just four times in 13 November contests, the Nashville Predators are looking for a Black Friday deal that will give them two points.
In the second game where newcomer Steven Stamkos will face his former team, the Predators will host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday afternoon to complete the season series.
Both sides will be looking to rebound from disappointing blown leads on Wednesday that left a bitter taste the night before Thanksgiving.
For Nashville, it was simple: Shut down the final seconds of the home matchup with the Philadelphia Flyers and take the turkey day off knowing it would meet the Lightning on a high note.
That didn’t happen.
Leading 2-1 as the clock wound down and the visiting net was empty, Philadelphia’s Morgan Frost chipped in the tying goal with only a dozen seconds left.
Flyers captain Sean Couturier, who assisted on the equalizer, put the game away in overtime with a similar chip shot on the other side of goaltender Juuse Saros.
“We’ve developed some resiliency, but we’ve had too many of these kinds of games,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said of his club, which is 4-6-3 this month. “The devil is in the details, and we missed a few details.
“It’ll be a big test on Friday.”
With physical defenseman Jeremy Lauzon injured, the Predators recalled blue-liners Adam Wilsby and Nick Blankenburg from their AHL affiliate Milwaukee Admirals and inserted them into the lineup.
“I thought he was really good — kind of what I had seen in camp,” Brunette said of the 24-year-old Wilsby’s NHL debut. “I thought he had really good mobility and was firm on the puck in his battles. I thought both guys played well.”
Two nights after hitting the net five times in the opening 20 minutes in a home win over Colorado, the Lightning continued their torrid first-period scoring by getting two past Washington Capitals goalie Charlie Lindgren.
However, the Capitals, playing their fourth game without star sniper Alex Ovechkin (fractured fibula), battled back three times to tie the contest before Tom Wilson put the win away with a power-play tally with 3:26 left in regulation.
A bit worse than Nashville in the final frame, the Lightning surrendered a pair of one-goal leads in the third to lose for the third time in four outings (1-2-1).
Brayden Point crafted the fifth hat trick of his career, though the third tally occurred in strange fashion.
The center was the last home player to touch the puck before Lindgren inadvertently backhanded the puck into his own net without a defender anywhere nearby.
Lightning center Anthony Cirelli, whose six-game goal streak ended, committed a double-minor high-sticking penalty late in the tie game — a four-minute power play with 4:03 left in regulation.
Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said the puck entering the zone was offside. However, the play continued as normal with Cirelli soon committing the infraction.
“It’s tough, but it’s the way the rules are,” said Cooper. “If a goal is scored, it’ll come off the board. But a penalty taken does not come off the board.
“It’s kind of an unfortunate circumstance … but in the end you’ve got to kill it off, and we didn’t kill it off.”
The Lightning won the first meeting against the Central Division club 3-2 in overtime on Oct. 28 in Tampa.
–Field Level Media
