Game one of 82 is a wrap.
Juuse Saros made 37 saves and Ryan O'Reilly's third-period power-play goal was the difference as the Nashville Predators defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1 on Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena.
Michael Bunting scored for Nashville, and Dmitri Voronkov was the lone goal scorer for Columbus. Jet Greaves made 29 saves.
Here are the three things from the Blue Jackets' season-opening game.
Thing One: Bunting And O'Reilly Provide Predators Offense
Michael Bunting's first-period goal at 6:45 (Assist: Erik Haula) opened the scoring in this one as the Predators took the 1-0 lead.
What a beauty for our first goal of 2025 pic.twitter.com/G59bzxjnQ4
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) October 10, 2025
O'Reilly's third-period tally at 2:41 was the difference as the Predators skated away with the two points. Nashville was 1-for-4 on the power play while Columbus was 0-for-1.
Top cheese deserves a second look pic.twitter.com/aVycV4Utqk
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) October 10, 2025
The Predators' man advantage came about when Zach Aston-Reese went awkwardly into the boards, and to add insult to injury, went to the penalty box for tripping on Justin Barron.
© Steve Roberts-Imagn Images
Thing Two: Voronkov Breaks Through
Columbus got their goal from Voronkov at 16:01 (Assists: Damon Severson, Denton Mateychuk) of the first period to tie the game 1-1.
Ready to begin period two in a 1-1 game between the Preds and the #CBJ.
— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) October 10, 2025
Dmitri Voronkov gets the first goal of the season for the Blue Jackets at 16:01 of the 1st, tying the game.pic.twitter.com/WWiIqDIdVR
A possible second goal for the Blue Jackets late in the second period was waived off due to a successful Nashville challenge for goaltender interference. The would-be goal scorer, Mathieu Olivier, was deemed to have made contact with Sarros.
Yeah thats not goalie interference #cbj pic.twitter.com/0G77AHpPg2
— eric amerine (@amerine1000) October 10, 2025
"Their D was pushing me in, and I was trying to push him out so I could skate out of it," Olivier said after Thursday's loss about the play.
Kirill Marchenko had a game-high eight shots on goal. Yegor Chinakhov was a healthy scratch.
Thing Three: Greaves And Saros Are Outstanding
Both goaltenders were simply excellent.
As Greaves got the opening night assignment, he was as good as we've come to expect from him over his 21 career starts, as he made several key saves to keep his team in it.
"I felt good," Greaves said. "I felt comfortable. I was excited for the opportunity to be out there with the guys tonight. I think there were some positives, but also some things to improve on.
"It's a good step, but I think there's a lot for myself and for us to learn from going forward."
Unfortunately for him and the Blue Jackets, Saros was just a little bit better as he shut down the Jackets' offense just enough to pick up the win.
Head coach Dean Evason liked his team's effort.
"A lot of positives," Evason said. "A ton of positives. Obviously, their goaltender was real good. We did so many really good things in this hockey game. It's frustrating, obviously. It's tough to go in the room and say, 'Keep doing that. We're good. We're fine.' But the guys know how well and how hard they played.
"Right from drop of the puck we were ready to go. Guys were intense. We executed exactly how we wanted to play here tonight. We just didn't get enough behind Saros."
Columbus had the 5v5 advantage in shot attempts, 60-41, and scoring chances, 27-14 per Natural Stat Trick.
The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for Greaves dating back to last season (Apr. 10-Apr. 17).
Saros had statistically his worst season last year when he had a 20-31-6 record and a .896 save percentage. It was the first time in his career that Saros had a season with an under-900 save percentage. He made one start in 2015-16, finishing with an .870 save percentage.
Columbus is 9-37-1-7 in 54 all-time trips to Nashville. They’re currently on a 0-8-2 slide in the Music City with their last win there coming in a 5-2 victory on March 30, 2019.
Nashville welcomes back Dante Fabbro during the first TV timeout. He just so happened to be in the penalty box for it. Never seen that one before lol. #CBJ pic.twitter.com/enqP4gGHRE
— Jeff Svoboda (@JacketsInsider) October 10, 2025
Up Next:
The Blue Jackets conclude the two-game road trip against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday, Oct. 11, from Grand Casino Arena at 8 p.m.
