Preds Fall to Blackhawks

Two goals in the third period from the visiting Chicago Blackhawks helped them to a 3-2 win over the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday night. The result moves Nashville to 15-14-6 overall on the season and 8-7-1 against the Central Division.
"We have to learn from it, stick with it," Captain Mike Fisher said. "We can't get frustrated or down. It is frustrating, no question. But, we have to learn from it, and it's going to start going our way. It's going to start falling our way once we start making some better plays throughout the game, but I thought we played a pretty solid game tonight, it just didn't fall our way."
Filip Forsberg recorded his fourth goal in his last five games when he beat Corey Crawford in the first period and Fisher gave Nashville a 2-1 lead with a goal on the man advantage at 6:13 of the third, his team-leading fifth on the power play.

A controversial tripping call on Craig Smith in the final frame led to a power-play goal from Jonathan Toews to make it 2-2, and Patrick Kane gave the Blackhawks their final lead of the night with less than six minutes to play.

"I won't get into calls, but we just have to find a way to kill that [penalty]," Fisher said. "Then, they get a break and odd-man rushes. I thought we battled pretty hard; it was a hard game. We had chances, we just have to execute better."
Nashville outshot Chicago 38-23 on the night, with Head Coach Peter Laviolette believing his team played well enough to win, but the group also knows victories are necessary to stay in the thick of things as the 2016 calendar year nears its end.
"The victories always matter," Laviolette said. "We have to get two points and put them in the column. With that, I think, comes a process and [we] want the process to be right. I think our guys did a lot of good things out there tonight and didn't get rewarded for that. We're going to move on to tomorrow night."

"In our division, it feels like everyone is winning," Forsberg said. "Especially now when we lose division games, other teams are going to get ahead of us. We have to realize the moment; we still have half of the season left, but at the same time, you can't just push the reset button after the New Year… it's not going to happen like that. You have to get more urgent and string some wins together."
The Predators have another shot at two points tomorrow night when they face the Blues in St. Louis, an opportunity they're anxious to have.
"Sometimes, you go through ups and downs and it's how you learn from it, how you come out of it," Fisher said. "It's making us really come together and we need to find ways and just stay up, that's all you can do."
Notes:
P.K. Subban (day-to-day, upper-body) missed Thursday's game against Chicago and has also been ruled out of Friday's contest.
James Neal left Thursday's game with an upper-body injury and did not return.
With two assists tonight, Ryan Johansen has 17 points (6g-11a) and six multi-point games in his last 17 contests.
The Predators head to St. Louis to face the Blues on Friday at Scottrade Center to finish the second half of their current back-to-back set.