The Nashville Predators have entered a bit of a rough patch. Their loss to the Florida Panthers on Monday night confirms as much. Florida skated to a 4-1 victory, sending the Nashville crowd home wishing for more from their team. Nashville has now lost three of their last four games as they attempt to remain in the Western Conference playoff race.

After Monday night's loss, head coach Andrew Brunette faced the media. When speaking of the team's recent drop in form, Nashville's bench boss identified a key reason that has contributed to his team's skid as of late.

“I think a lot of guys probably lack a little confidence right now,” Brunette said, via ESPN. “We generated some tonight, enough to put us into at least an overtime game. We’re not finishing. It’s kind of been a little bit of the story here the last week.”

Andrew Brunette, Predators collapse at home against Panthers

Panthers star Sam Reinhart opened the scoring in the second period with his 34th goal of the season. Nashville brought themselves level thanks to a goal from Jeremy Lauzon later in the period. However, the Predators fell apart in the final frame.

The Panthers scored three goals in the third. Carter Verhaeghe, Brandon Montour, and Matthew Tkachuk helped put the nail in Nashville's coffin. Despite the collapse, though, the Predators believed there were positives to take from this game.

“I’m proud of the effort the guys made tonight,” Lauzon said, via ESPN. “Obviously we didn’t have a great start. I think it’s been a problem for us lately, but we came back in the second and played some good hockey.”

“We were trailing by one goal at the end and could have had a couple bounce in our favor, but that’s hockey,” the Predators defenseman continued on Monday night.

Nashville needs to get out of this soon to avoid falling behind other Western Conference playoff hopefuls. Their next chance at righting the ship comes on Thursday. Andrew Brunette and the Predators begin a three-game road trip that night by taking on the Minnesota Wild.