Ilya Mikheyev opened the scoring just 1:33 in, redirecting a John Carlson shot from the point past Juuse Saros. Nashville answered at 7:39 when Brady Martin, the club's 2025 first-round pick fighting for a full-time NHL job, beat Andrei Vasilevskiy to tie it — the kind of goal that's exactly why he was on the ice in an exhibition game in September.
Conor Geekie put Tampa Bay back in front at 15:31, and the timing mattered as much as the goal itself. With centers Dominic James and Yanni Gourde both out to start camp, Geekie is playing for a roster spot for a third straight training camp, and a go-ahead goal in game one is the sort of answer Jon Cooper's staff was looking for.
The shot totals told the same story as the scoreboard — Tampa Bay finished with a wide edge and also won the faceoff battle comfortably, evidence of a deeper, more experienced group imposing itself on a Nashville roster still sorting out its lines. Martin's goal was one of the few times all night the Predators' attack actually broke through.
Nashville went scoreless on 4 power-play chances, which for a team leaning on 44 players already under NHL contract is more a camp-tempo issue than a real concern this early. The two sides do this again Tuesday in Nashville, so whatever didn't work tonight — the man advantage, the second and third lines — gets a quick second look before either staff has to make real cuts.
- OutDominic James (C)09/16
- OutYanni Gourde (C)09/16
The game also got a little chippy, with a second-period fight breaking out between Nashville's Andrew Gibson and Tampa Bay's Erik Cernak, a reminder that even an exhibition opener carries an edge when jobs are on the line. For both clubs, the real value of the night wasn't the final score — it was Martin and Geekie both making cases nobody can afford to ignore.