O'Reilly's Four-Point Night Exposes Colorado — Nashville's Power Play Finally Clicks
GOATIFYNashville needed more than another encouraging stretch. It needed a complete game against an opponent good enough to expose every mistake. On Sunday, October 25, the Predators delivered their most convincing answer of the young season: a 6–2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche built on four power-play goals, four points from Ryan O’Reilly and a veteran attack that finally looked connected from shift to shift.
O’Reilly scored twice and assisted on two more goals. Steven Stamkos added two goals and an assist, Filip Forsberg supplied a goal and two assists, and Roman Josi collected three assists. Those are eye-catching individual totals, but the bigger story is how Nashville created them. The Predators controlled the opening period, scored three times in the second and kept Colorado’s dangerous power play off the board. They outshot the Avalanche 35–21 and converted four of seven chances with the extra skater.
One lopsided October result cannot erase Nashville’s uneven start. It can, however, reveal what the roster is supposed to look like when its best players work as a unit rather than taking turns trying to rescue a shift.
Four Power-Play Goals Turned Nashville's Best Night into a Rout
Special teams were the difference between a competitive divisional matchup and a game Colorado spent most of the night chasing. Nashville scored on four of seven power plays, while the Avalanche failed to convert any of their four opportunities. That 4–0 advantage in power-play goals is almost the entire final margin by itself. It is also why the scoreline felt decisive well before the final horn.
Forsberg opened the scoring just 4:01 into the first period. Stamkos disrupted a clearing attempt near the boards, Josi gathered the loose puck and Forsberg finished from the high slot. The play was not a spectacular end-to-end rush; it was an example of three experienced players doing ordinary things quickly enough that the penalty killers never reset. Winning the second puck after a failed clear can be as valuable as winning the original faceoff.
The Predators then showed they were not dependent on one shooting lane. O’Reilly’s first goal came at 6:38 of the second period, when he controlled Josi’s feed with his skate, worked the puck into a dangerous area and beat Scott Wedgewood with a backhand. His second arrived at 17:29, giving Nashville a 5–0 lead. The finishing locations and mechanics were different, but both plays rewarded a willingness to attack the middle of Colorado’s defensive coverage instead of settling for harmless possession along the perimeter.
Stamkos completed the special-teams haul at 10:24 of the third on a five-on-three. O’Reilly retrieved the puck behind the goal and found Stamkos on the right side with enough time to finish. By that stage Colorado had scored twice, but Nashville’s fourth power-play goal removed any plausible path to a late comeback. A team that had received only one power-play opportunity in each of its previous three games suddenly had seven; the Predators used that volume to establish a rhythm.
There is a caution in those numbers. Four goals on seven chances is not a sustainable nightly conversion rate, and drawing seven penalties is not a reliable game plan. The transferable part is the speed of the puck movement, the layered threats and the commitment to retrieving loose pucks. Those habits can generate good looks even when the percentages return to normal.
O'Reilly and Stamkos Showed What Nashville's Veteran Core Can Still Be
O’Reilly’s two goals and two assists made him the headline performer, but his influence extended beyond the points column. He scored twice on the power play, contributed to Stamkos’s third-period finish and was involved in the first-period sequence that gave Nashville an early cushion. The Predators were able to use him as a scorer, a distributor and a stabilizing presence in the same game.
That versatility matters because Nashville’s roster leans heavily on veterans whose reputations were built in demanding situations. O’Reilly has long been valued for his two-way detail and faceoff work, not simply his ability to collect points. He began his NHL career in Colorado and spent six seasons with the Avalanche before building a résumé that includes a Stanley Cup and major individual honors. A four-point night against the club that drafted him supplies a tidy storyline; more importantly, it shows he can still dictate the terms of a game.
Stamkos offered the complementary skill set. His first goal, at 10:48 of the opening period, required a video review after Cale Makar tried to sweep the puck away from the goal line. The puck had fully crossed, and Nashville led 2–0. His second was a more familiar kind of finish: space on the right side during a two-man advantage, a quick feed from O’Reilly and an emphatic conversion. The veteran finished with three points, while Forsberg and Josi also reached three.
It would be easy to describe that output as Nashville’s stars finally remembering how to score. The more useful interpretation is that their decisions were synchronized. Stamkos helped create Forsberg’s opening goal by stopping a clearance. Josi connected the play from the blue line. O’Reilly moved between finishing and setting up others. Four elite or highly experienced players did not have to force the same action because each gave the others a different option.
For a team trying to build consistency, that is a more encouraging sign than one unusually hot shooting night. The question is whether Nashville can repeat the support around the puck when an opponent plays with greater discipline and denies the easy entries. A veteran core does not need to dominate every shift; it needs to make its best shifts count without giving the next line an impossible defensive assignment.
Former Avalanche Players Helped Make This More Than a Special-Teams Win
The reunion element ran through Nashville’s lineup. O’Reilly started his NHL career in Colorado. Jack Drury and Ross Colton arrived in Nashville after playing for the Avalanche, and goaltender Justus Annunen also once belonged to Colorado. Against their former team, all four contributed to a result that was not built solely on the Predators’ top scorers.
Drury’s second-period goal was the clearest example. At 16:36, Colton found him in space on Wedgewood’s blocker side and Drury finished with a backhand move. The goal pushed the lead to 4–0 and demonstrated something Nashville has often lacked in its uneven stretches: a supporting-line contribution that makes opponents defend more than one cluster of stars. A roster with Stamkos, Forsberg and O’Reilly is always going to attract attention, but it becomes far more difficult to contain when depth forwards can turn a controlled possession into a goal.
The two former Avalanche forwards were linked by Nashville’s summer reshaping. Colton joined the Predators in June, while Drury arrived in a separate deal that sent Fedor Svechkov and Zachary L’Heureux to Colorado. Their involvement against their old club gave the night an obvious personal edge, but the value for Nashville is tactical rather than sentimental. Drury can handle difficult center assignments, and Colton adds a direct, physical option in transition. When those roles function, the top line is not responsible for every momentum swing.
Annunen’s 19 saves deserve a similarly measured assessment. Colorado generated only 21 shots, so this was not a goaltender stealing a game through sheer workload. He did, however, provide the steadiness required while Nashville built its lead, and he earned his first victory of the season against the franchise that previously employed him. Wedgewood, meanwhile, faced 35 shots at the other end. The two netminders were traded for one another in a previous season, adding another layer to the matchup.
Coach Andrew Brunette’s larger challenge is turning a night of shared responsibility into a regular standard. The Predators entered after two straight defeats and had managed only two wins across seven games. This performance showed how the lineup can support its stars; it did not prove that the earlier inconsistency has disappeared. Nashville’s next test against the Islanders is whether the third and fourth lines can keep creating useful shifts even if the power play supplies fewer goals.
Colorado's Power-Play Failure Was the Bigger Warning Than the Six Goals
Colorado had opportunities to interrupt Nashville’s momentum, but the Avalanche could not make their own special teams matter. They went 0-for-4 on the power play, were outshot 35–21 and trailed 5–0 late in the second period. Those numbers tell a harsher story than the final score because they show how rarely Colorado forced the Predators to defend under sustained pressure.
There were individual bright spots. Artturi Lehkonen scored at 17:55 of the second after Martin Necas sent a pass across the attacking zone, extending Lehkonen’s point streak to seven games. Devon Toews added a goal at 2:43 of the third during four-on-four play, briefly trimming the deficit to 5–2. Necas finished with two assists. Colorado still has players capable of creating offense from small openings, but isolated finishing moments were not enough to compensate for the territory and special-teams disadvantage.
The game also exposed how quickly a talented team can lose control when penalties accumulate. Colorado’s best players were asked to chase the puck, kill penalties and then generate offense against a Nashville group playing with a lead. Each additional short-handed stretch reduced the time available for an even-strength response. The Avalanche have the skill to recover from a two-goal deficit; recovering from five down while continuing to surrender power plays is a different problem.
Colorado fell to 6–5–1 and had lost three of its previous four games, including a 2–4–0 road mark. That is not a crisis in isolation, particularly in an early season when opponents and line combinations are still settling. But the contrast between Colorado’s offensive talent and its inability to tilt this particular game should concern the coaching staff. Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and the rest of the core cannot rescue every performance through a handful of highlight plays.
The schedule offers a quick chance to respond: Colorado returns home to face New Jersey on Wednesday, while Nashville hosts the Islanders on Tuesday. The two clubs will be judged on different things. Colorado needs a cleaner, more disciplined game with a functioning power play. Nashville needs to demonstrate that its connected, 60-minute effort can survive when the puck does not go in on more than half of its man advantages. Sunday supplied an emphatic result; the next games will reveal how much of it was progress.
The Predators did not beat Colorado 6–2 because one player got hot. O’Reilly’s four points, Stamkos’s two goals, Josi’s passing, Forsberg’s opening finish and Drury’s depth contribution all connected to a team-wide effort that gave Nashville control of the ice and the special-teams battle. Annunen supplied the calm required at the other end.
The headline number is four power-play goals, but the lasting question is whether Nashville can keep creating the possessions and support that made those goals possible. Colorado will expect a sharper response after an undisciplined road loss. For Nashville, the win is not a declaration that its early problems are solved. It is a clear example of the standard its roster must now meet more often.
