Heading into Monday’s game at Bridgestone Arena, the Predators had defeated San Jose in 15 straight games.
Game 16 proved to be a backbreaker.
The Preds’ 3-2 loss to the Sharks, combined with the Los Angeles Kings’ 5-3 victory over Seattle, eliminated Nashville from playoff contention with one game left in the regular season. But the Predators didn’t go down without a fight — either in the game or the season.
Shut out for the first 55 minutes of the contest, the Preds twice trimmed San Jose’s lead to one goal on Luke Evangelista scores in the late going.
Nashville trailed 2-1 with a little more than four minutes left in the third period and — following a Sharks empty-net goal — 3-2 on Evangelista’s second score with a minute left in regulation.
But despite generating four shot attempts over the final 70 seconds, the Predators (38-33-10) never managed to tie the game.
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“We didn’t start the game like it was a must-win,” Predators forward Steven Stamkos said on the FanDuel postgame show. “It’s tough to win in this league against any team when you get behind like that.
“We pushed in the third obviously," he continued, "but I think it’s a lesson to our group down the road that you have to have that mindset from the puck drop. It took us too long to get it going.”
The Predators, who hadn't lost to San Jose since Nov. 9, 2019, missed the playoffs for a second straight year under coach Andrew Brunette. Nashville had not come up short in successive years since the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons.
The Preds will wind up ruing the first quarter of the season, when they struggled to a 6-12-4 record in the opening 22 contests. Nashville has gone 32-21-6 since then — including 10-7-2 after dealing away four lineup regulars leading up to the NHL tradeline — but it hasn't been enough to allow the team to surge into the playoffs.
“I think you feel gutted,” Brunette said. “Everything we went through as a group put ourselves in position to play this game. You’re disappointed that we didn’t get the result, and probably disappointed we really didn’t get to our game fast enough.”
Brunette said the Preds’ near miss of the playoffs — especially after getting off to such a poor start this season — made Monday’s outcome particularly disappointing.
“This one hurts,” Brunette said. “It probably hurts one of the most of my career— playing, coaching. Just how much we went through together, how much belief there was and how we stuck together through all kinds of different things. We just fell short.”
The Preds will finish their season Thursday with a home game against the Anaheim Ducks. Then comes change, as the Preds at some point in the weeks to come are expected to welcome a new general manager following the retirement of Barry Trotz.
It remains to be seen whether the new GM will keep Brunette, who finished second in the NHL’s Coach of the Year voting following the 2023-24 season before failing to reach the playoffs in each of the past two seasons.
“It was just too big of a hole [on Monday]," said Stamkos. "It wasn’t good enough in a game [with] our season on the line.”
This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
