The Nashville Predators won the Presidents’ Trophy during the regular season, tallying the most points in the NHL standings despite also leading the league in penalty minutes.
They had played with much more discipline in the playoffs until melting down with three consecutive penalties helped turn a 3-0 lead after the first period into a 7-4 loss Tuesday night and a 2-1 deficit to the Winnipeg Jets.
Now Nashville faces a challenge tonight in the Western Conference semifinals to avoid being pushed to the brink of elimination in the best-of-seven series.
“We have a smart group,” Predators center Ryan Johansen said Wednesday. “We understand what we did wrong and what needs to be done.”
Not only did the Predators not help themselves with five penalties – three in the third after tying the Jets at 4-4 – they didn’t play well after grabbing a big lead.
“We just sat back too much,” Predators forward Filip Forsberg said. “Obviously they scored a goal early, and after that we just became passive and – yeah, I don’t think it would have mattered which team we were playing. If we play like that, we’re going to get scored on.”