A stat is a stat.
Following Tuesday's overtime 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild, the Nashville Predators are now 0-4 in games decided in the overtime period and 1-4 in games that have gone beyond regulation.
The loss to the Wild was vastly different from the rest. The Predators did a decent job with the possession battle, which has stung them in the past.
With 1:22 left in overtime, Justus Annunen knocked the net off its left mooring and it began to slide. Marcus Johansson's first shot attempt, while the net had started to move, hit the side of the net. If it had gone in, it would've counted as the puck would've gone into the net if it was still on its mooring.
The issue with the goal came on Johansson's rebound shot, which went in. He got the puck off the side of the net, which wouldn't have happened if the net had been still on its mooring. After review, the officials stood by their original call of it being a good goal.
"It's a weird play. I can see the confusion, but the confusing part for us was why it was so emphatically called a goal," Steven Stamkos said. "I get it. If the net comes off and the puck goes in right away, it's no problem. But he missed the net and the puck actually bounced back to him because the net was sideways.
"My interpretation of the rule is that if the net wasn't off, the puck wouldn't have come back to him."
Losses to the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 16 and the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 3 saw the Predators looking ahead to the shootout. Predators head coach Andrew Brunette even said following the game against the Canucks that he liked his team's chances more in the shootout.
Against the Canadiens, Cole Caufield scored the game-winner with three seconds left in overtime, and Brock Boeser won the game for the Canucks with two seconds left in overtime.
Both situations saw the Predators lose a board battle, with two players in the scrum and the puck getting knocked out to the opposing player in open space. Caufield caught a drop pass into the slot and Boeser was all alone from the left side of Juuse Saros.
The loss to the Utah Mammoth on Oct. 11 saw the Predators' opponent fully dominate the possession battle. Nashville couldn't generate a single shot, let alone a rush down the ice, before Dylan Guenther made a move past Fedor Svechkov and scored.
It was nearly a similar situation against the Canucks as defenseman Quinn Hughes slowed play down to give Vancouver a possession advantage.
The Predators have pushed a game past overtime once this season, which was a 5-4 win over the Los Angeles Kings in a shootout on Oct. 25. Nashville has also shown a third-period fight in these eventual overtime losses, forcing the game into extra time against the Canucks and Wild.
Brunette and multiple players have said it's "a coin flip" in overtime, but with the Predators constantly struggling in 3-on-3, the issue may be deeper than chance.
