Goals could be valuable on Tuesday when the Nashville Predators host the Tampa Bay Lightning to conclude a five-game homestand.
Both teams rank in the bottom five in the NHL in goals per game.
The Predators saw their two-game winning streak end with a 3-2 loss Sunday against the Dallas Stars. Nashville trailed its Central Division opponent 2-0 midway through the game before the Stars rallied in regulation to take both points.
Veteran defenseman Roman Josi missed the Stars’ loss as well as Saturday’s win over the Los Angeles Kings with an upper-body injury. He is considered week-to-week, even though Nashville did not place its captain on injured reserve.
Josi’s injury came just as the team welcomed back forward Jonathan Marchessault, who returned Saturday after a lower-body injury kept him out for three games. He scored the Predators’ first goal against the Stars – his third of the season – on a power play.
Although the season is less than three weeks long, the Predators have already played 10 games. They averaged just 2.5 goals per game, which tied them with the Florida Panthers for 27th in Sunday’s games. No Nashville skater averages a point per game, with Ryan O’Reilly’s five goals and nine points leading the way.
Marchessault’s power play goal ended a streak of 11 consecutive failed chances on the power play. At 9.7% (3 for 31), only the Carolina Hurricanes (6.9%) have a worse conversion rate.
Marchessault believes the team’s consistency needs to improve.
“Sometimes I feel like there’s a line that’s doing better than others, and I think we need a better effort from the entire roster on the ice,” he said. “I think that’s how you build success in the league, when everyone is pushing in the same direction.”
The Lightning are also coming off back-to-back home wins, beating the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday before defeating the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 on Sunday in overtime. Nikita Kucherov scored his third goal of the season for the winner just 32 seconds into the 3-on-3 session.
Kucherov is tied for second on the team with eight points alongside defenseman Victor Hedman. Anthony Cirelli leads Tampa Bay with five goals and Jake Guentzel has a team-high 10 points.
Tampa Bay badly needed these wins after winning just one of its first seven games. Similar to the Predators, the Lightning’s 2.67 goals per game ranks fifth-worst in the league. They also struggle on the power play, scoring once in their last 15 chances.
They went 0 for 5 on Sunday, but coach Jon Cooper felt his team had some excellent chances that Vegas goalie Carl Lindbom kept out of the net.
“We were in the zone,” Cooper said. “We were getting looks…The power play, he did everything except score.”
Sunday’s win was also the first this season for Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. He stopped 18 shots and posted a season-best .947 save percentage. The Russian is 9-3-1 with a 2.34 goals-against average and .918 save percentage against the Predators. He won his only start against Nashville last season, a 3-2 overtime home win on Oct. 28 in which he recorded 35 saves.
Nashville goalie Juuse Saros is just 4-6-4 against Tampa Bay with a 3.42 GAA and .890 save percentage in 14 appearances. His last victory against the Lightning came on December 7, 2023, when he stopped 32 shots in a 5-1 home victory.
–Field level media
