The Nashville Predators added another painful entry to their growing list of post-regulation losses on Tuesday night, dropping a 5-4 shootout decision to the New York Islanders. It was their fifth overtime or shootout loss of the season, the most in the league, and they still haven’t found a way to win once the game goes beyond regulation.
The start put Nashville in a hole fast. The Islanders scored twice in the opening period and then added another goal less than two minutes into the second, pushing the Predators into a 3-0 deficit. From there, though, Nashville finally found some life.
Filip Forsberg got the response going at 9:42 of the second period, and Alex Kerfoot redirected a shot into the net at 13:02 to trim the margin to one. Then Ryan O’Reilly finished off the comeback by poking a Forsberg shot past Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov to tie the game 3-3 and force overtime.
Nashville spent most of the extra session killing a penalty, but it held on long enough to get to the shootout. The finish went the Islanders’ way there.
O’Reilly and Forsberg both missed their attempts, while Kyle Palmieri converted for New York and Bo Horvat sealed the result. For Varlamov, it was his first win since 2024 after returning to the NHL this season.
Even with the loss, the Predators have shown they can battle back from ugly deficits. They’ve already erased big holes against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators, though those games ended the same way: another stinging defeat. This time, Nashville did at least claw out a point, and head coach Andrew Brunette pointed to the third period as a positive.
“We’ve had some hard nights here as of late,” head coach Andrew Brunette told reporters. “The third period was our best period…We didn’t start the game where we wanted to be, and I’m trying to put my finger on it.
It seems like a year, year and a half of me talking about it, but we’re having trouble grabbing it. All in all, I like the grit and resilience to talk about it…We’ll regroup, and we’ve gotta start better.”
The overtime sequence will get plenty of attention, especially the tripping call on Forsberg at 4:30. As Matthew Schaefer moved the puck forward, Forsberg got his stick just enough near Schaefer’s skates to send him down and put Nashville on the penalty kill for the rest of the frame.
That’s where Ryan O’Reilly stood out. He logged 4:27 of the five-minute overtime, and he was one of the players holding the fort while the Predators were shorthanded. Schaefer played the entire five minutes, but O’Reilly’s shift was the kind of heavy, stubborn work Nashville needed in the moment.
“He’s exceptional,” Brunette said. “With the game on the line, there’s probably no player I’d rather have on the ice than Factor.”
The result dropped Nashville to 0-5 in games that have gone to overtime or a shootout, and that record says plenty about how these tight games have gone for them. Brunette still sees it as something that can swing back.
“I always believe it’s kind of a coin toss. In our other overtime losses, we’ve had breakaways, we’ve had 2-on-1s, we’ve missed our chances, they’ve capitalized on theirs.
Obviously, this situation was different when we were shorthanded for two minutes in the last three. Then, for the shootout, it’s kind of a thing when you kind of get on a roll, and obviously confidence plays a factor into that…it’s funny how it goes, and obviously things aren’t going our way.”
Nashville has now lost six of its last eight, but the point moves it to 13 and keeps it tied with the Colorado Avalanche at fifth in the Central Division. That also places the Predators in one of the Western Conference’s two wild-card spots.
The schedule now turns back home for the rest of October. Nashville hosts the Washington Capitals on Thursday, Oct. 29, then the Tampa Bay Lightning on Halloween.
November opens with a home game against the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday before the Predators head to Colorado to face the Avalanche on Nov. 5.
In Other News...
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Avalanche Suddenly Have A Parker Kelly Problem To Watch
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For a team that leans on depth scoring to make the rest of its attack work, Kellys line becomes a small but important watch point. If his output settles back closer to the level he had shown earlier in his career, Colorado loses a layer of offense it was hoping to count on, and that puts a little more pressure on the rest of the supporting cast to pick up the slack. [Read more 🡒]