Predators Wanted to End on a Good Note: "We Weren't Able to Do That"
A strong effort, special teams, and an impressive NHL debut weren't enough to give Nashville a win to wrap up the 2025-26 regular season.
The Nashville Predators finished their 2025-26 season Thursday night with a 5-4 loss to the playoff bound Anaheim Ducks.
“Regardless of how the season went you want to end the regular season on a good note,” Steven Stamkos said.
“We weren’t able to do that.”
The team put together a solid performance for the fans at Bridgestone despite missing veterans Roman Josi, Jonathan Marchessault, and Erik Haula, but it wasn’t enough to get the win.
The game was tied 2-2 after the first period, and the Predators had a 4-3 lead and a bit of power play time to start the third period. Instead it was the Ducks who scored two goals in the final twenty minutes to earn the last available two points from the regulation season.
“I think it was a fun hockey game. I think entertaining to get some goals, showed some of our youth that organizationally is on its way,” head coach Andrew Brunette said postgame.
“Too bad with the ending, unfortunately, because I thought it was a game you’d like to see keep going, the way it was played.”
Three Takeaways from the season finale
Filip Forsberg reaches forty goals
Forsberg entered game 82 second on the team in goals this season behind Steven Stamkos. Stamkos reached the forty goal mark in Saturday afternoon’s game and added two more against Anaheim. With his second goal of the game at 14:37 in the second period, Forsberg also reached that scoring milestone.
“They really wanted to get Fil to forty,” Brunette said. “That was definitely - they wanted to find some joy in tonight, play for something.”
Forsberg scored a power play goal in the first period and an even strength goal in the second.
This is Forsberg’s third career forty goal season. He reached the forty goal mark for the first time in the 2021-22 season (42 g, 84 pts) and again in 2023-24 (48 g, 94 pts). Forsberg finishes this season with 40 goals and 75 points.
Cole O’Hara’s NHL debut
Forward Cole O’Hara made his NHL debut in game 82 after being recalled earlier on Thursday. The 23-year-old Ontario native has 19 goals and 25 assists in his 65 AHL games this season with the Milwaukee Admirals. He played three seasons of NCAA hockey at UMass from 2022 through the end of his 2025 collegiate season.
O’Hara shared ice time Thursday with two veterans, Steven Stamkos and Ryan O’Reilly. The rookie called playing with the vets a “surreal moment”.
“Playing with Factor and Stamkos there was a really cool experience, something I’ll remember for a long time,” O’Hara said after the game.
O’Hara earned his first NHL point with a primary assist on Steven Stamkos’s first goal of the game.
“Factor did a good job hounding. I just tried to get on the D man there on the other side of the net and just found Stamkos in the slot,” O’Hara explained.
“It was nice to see him put it in.”
O’Hara called his NHL debut a learning experience. He was encouraged by Stamkos and O’Reilly to enjoy the game, have fun, and make plays.
Aiden Fink was potentially going to play in game 82 as well, but an issue with immigration postponed his NHL debut.
Special teams
Special teams ultimately decided the outcome of Thursday night’s season finale. Nashville took too many unnecessary penalties, but a strong penalty kill kept Anaheim from scoring on the power play until late in the game. An unfortunate double minor high stick call on Tyson Jost with 3:57 left to play in the third period allowed the Ducks to finally cash in on the man advantage. Troy Terry cleaned up a loose rebound to score the game winner on the ensuing power play.
Nashville’s penalty kill went 5/6 while the Predators’ power play accounted for half the goals of the evening. The Predators were 2/3 on the power play with Stamkos and Forsberg each scoring on the man advantage.
Nashville finished the regular season ranked eleventh on the power play and fifth on the penalty kill across the league.
The players and Andrew Brunette will address the media one final time next week. Fans will have to wait to see which players from game 82 will be back in gold jerseys for game 1 of the 2026-2027 season as the Predators continue their search for the franchise’s next General Manager and learn more about what direction the new GM will take the organization.
