Aside from two empty net goals in the third period, the Nashville Predators' defense struggled to support goalie Justus Annunen in their 7-4 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
On four of the five goals scored with Annunen in the net, the goalie had little to no support from the Predators' defense in limiting the Maple Leafs' scoring chances.
"We probably weren't all that sharp around the front of the net," Predators head coach Andrew Brunette said. "Those stick battles weren't quite to our standard. A little bit slow early."
The first goal was more so on Annunen as a long shot from the point by Jake McCabe zipped through traffic, hit the right post and went in.
The second goal was where the Predators lack of defense started showing.
On a rush into the Predators' zone, the Maple Leafs were able to get two players past the Predators' defense and Ozzy Weisblatt on the right side. That allowed William Nylander to make a cross-ice pass to Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who tapped it in for the goal.
Nashville came back to tie the game in the second period, before Toronto took the lead off a goal from John Tavares, who scored from his knees right in front of Annunen. Roman Josi pressured Tavaraes into falling, but he had two Predator defenders on him when he had scored.
Josi also had an opportunity to clear the puck out of the crease before Tavares had scored.
The third goal saw Bobby McMann get in front of the Predators' defense, fire a shot, get his own rebound and put it away to make it 4-3. On the goal, it had looked like Brady Skjei and Cole Smith had given up on the play before McMann fired the second shot.
The fourth goal saw the Predators turn the puck over in the neutral zone and get caught too high, allowing the Maple Leafs to go on a 2-on-1.
Justin Barron missed on the diving poke check, and the Predators had a little bit of a window to possibly break up the goal as Matthew Knies went for the extra pass back to Auston Matthews. Jonathan Marchessault got back, but not in time to prevent the easy tap-in goal from Matthews.
The Maple Leafs scored three of their five goals, with Annunen in the net, from below the face-off circles, meaning that they had no issue getting to the net. They also had 12 high danger chances.
Outside of the goals, the shot totals, face-off battles, hits and even penalty minutes were all pretty even. If Nashville's defense had tightened up around the net, this could've been a different result.
The lapse also exposes just how critical Juuse Saros has been in the first three games of the season. Not only has the Predators' starter made 89 saves on 94 shots, but he has kept the Predators in all three of their games.
In Nashville's first two games, the team struggled in the second period, and it was Saros who allowed the Predators to have a chance to win to the end. Putting Annunen, the backup, in the net shows that the defense can't constantly rely on Saros to bail them out.
