There are so many teams that have disappointed this season, and none seem much more so than the Nashville Predators. Inconsistency is the name of their game.
On Thursday night, the Preds lost 5-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh.
James Reimer made 32 saves to get the victory.
“We were pretty opportunistic tonight, and especially early,” Reimer said. “When you get up by a couple goals, it’s nice, especially as a goalie. [We] didn’t really give them a sniff.”
The Canes scored three goals in a 2:21 span of the opening frame to effectively end any excitement about this match.
“It’s a good group we’re playing against out there,” Nashville’s Mattias Ekholm said. “Plus, us having a younger lineup, it’s important to get off to a good start, and tonight we didn’t manage that. We have to learn from that
Morgan Geekie had two strikes for Carolina.
“Obviously you don’t expect that kind of performance,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said of Geekie. “We needed it. Obviously, we’re going to need it moving forward. We’ve got a lot of key guys out. Everybody has to step up a little bit, and Morgan did tonight.”
Geekie, Brock McGinn and Dougie Hamilton scored in the first for the 3-0 lead.
Martin Necas potted a power-play marker in the third for a 5-0 lead.
Nashville’s Nick Cousins added a cosmetic goal to ruin the shutout bid.
“It was a couple bad minutes,” Nashville head coach John Hynes said. “We came in on the defensive-zone coverage and we had guys in the slot, but we didn’t pick up [Hamilton]. Right away, it’s 3-0 from there.”
Pekka Rinne surrendered five goals and made 18 saves before getting the hook in the third period.
“I thought five was enough,” Hynes said. “[Rinne] made some big saves later in the second, but after five with that much time left in the period, it was an opportunity to give him a break and give [Kaskisuo] an opportunity to come in and play.”
Kasimir Kaskisuo made three saves in a mop up role for the Preds.
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