The Nashville Predators opened the season with a 3-1 loss at home to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday, and the game turned on a few clear swings: Minnesota’s fast start, Nashville’s power-play struggles, and a third period that never really tilted back the Predators’ way.
Minnesota grabbed control early with two first-period goals, getting one from Nick Foligno and another from Blake Coleman on the power play. The Wild also had a third goal waved off, but they had already done enough damage to set the tone.
Nashville did answer in the second period when Roman Josi scored from the point at 9:23 to cut it to 2-1. That kept things alive for a while, but Kirill Kaprizov shut the door at 4:42 of the third with the goal that pushed it to 3-1.
Jesper Wallstedt was a major reason the Wild walked out with the win. He stopped 19 of 20 shots for a .950 save percentage.
Juuse Saros faced more traffic at the other end and finished with 27 saves on 30 shots, a .900 save percentage. The Predators won more faceoffs than Minnesota, but they didn’t turn that edge into much offense beyond their top line.
Special teams told a big part of the story. Nashville was one of the better teams in the league in those situations last season, finishing 11th on the power play at 23.1% and fifth on the penalty kill at 81.7%. Those units were a big reason the Predators stayed in the playoff hunt and came within four points of the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
That edge wasn’t there in the opener. The penalty kill did enough to survive one Coleman goal on three tries, but the power play went 0-for-4 and never really looked dangerous against Minnesota’s kill. Nashville’s lone goal came right as the man advantage expired, which said plenty about how the night went.
One of the new faces made an immediate impact physically. Ross Colton, acquired from the Colorado Avalanche in June, brought exactly the kind of energy the Predators expected.
General manager Chris MacFarland, who used to run the Avalanche, knows Colton as a forward who can bring pace and finish chances. He didn’t score Thursday, but he was all over the ice, finishing with six hits and helping force turnovers that gave Nashville brief bursts of momentum.
There were stretches where the Predators looked fine at five-on-five, especially early. But the penalties piled up in the first period, and the third period was the part that really slipped away. Nashville struggled to spend enough time in the offensive zone, and the Wild controlled too much of the final frame.
“I thought the first period wasn’t bad, like five-on-five,” Josi told the media post-game. “We took too many penalties; [they] made us pay, and I think the second was kind of some good moments.
Some moments where we can be better. I didn’t think our third was good.
They kind of had way too much zone time. We couldn’t get our zone a couple of times.
I felt like we could’ve pushed more in the third.”
With a new season and several new pieces in the mix, the Predators will need time to settle in. Still, the finish has to get sharper fast.
Next up is Dallas at home on Sat. Oct.
- After that, Nashville heads out for a road trip that runs through next week, with games against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Oct. 6, the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 8, and the Ottawa Senators on Oct. 10 before returning home to face the Vegas Golden Knights on Oct.
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