Nashville Predators 'forgot to play hockey' in 6-0 loss, plus more from Andrew Brunette

By the numbers, it was the Nashville Predators’ worst performance in nearly two years.

Losing 6-0 to the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Oct. 22, the Predators suffered their largest margin of defeat since Feb. 2024 against Dallas (-7). The Bruins led throughout, led by four-point efforts from David Pastrnak (two goals, two assists) and Charlie McAvoy (four assists).

It was Nashville’s fourth loss in five games and another game in which the Predators (3-3-3, 9 points) were outmatched by a superior team.

“Probably it’s our worst effort of the year by far,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said after the loss.

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The issues were multiple — lack of sustained puck possession, poorly timed breakout passes, face-off miscues, penalties, and missed defensive assignments.

But no issue was more apparent to Brunette than turnovers.

“One, we turn over puck after puck after puck in the first period,” he said. “We lost probably every battle, which puts you on your heels. The game-plan coming in against a good rush team, you’ve got to take care of the puck. And we refused to do it again tonight.”

A frustrated Brunette refrained from calling out individual players, but also didn’t serve up any undue praise.

“We need a few more guys playing hockey,” he said. “We had too many passengers tonight. Probably almost all of them. Disappointing, we knew coming in this was a big stretch of hockey, a big month from our group, we knew that. And we just forgot to play hockey tonight.”

The Predators needed a strong start in October, based on general manager Chris MacFarland’s statements in September.

“How we come out of the gates, how the scoreboard is going to read in the month of October is going to be very, very important to the direction of this season and future seasons,” MacFarland told The Tennesseean on Sept. 10.

So far? The scoreboard isn’t looking so good. Pacing at three wins per nine games won’t get the Predators anywhere near the playoffs.

But there’s still time to course correct. Incidentally, that previous largest margin of defeat to Dallas in 2024, a 9-2 loss? That was the catalyst for the Predators’ 18-game point streak that launched them to the playoffs that spring.

Next up, the Predators head to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins on Oct. 24 (6 p.m. CT, The Spot Nashville 28).

Alex Daugherty is the Predators beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Alex at jdaugherty@gannett.com, follow him on X at@alexdaugherty1 or check out our Predators exclusive Instagram page @tennessean_preds.