Subban, Arvidsson Return as Stars Shut Out Preds

The Predators registered 49 shots on goal, but they were unable to beat Stars goaltender Anton Khudobin as Nashville fell to Dallas by a 2-0 final on Thursday night. It's Nashville's fifth consecutive defeat, and the result sees them move to 1-1-0 against the Stars on the season.
A record hockey crowd of 17,697 at Bridgestone Arena saw the return of P.K. Subban and Viktor Arvidsson to the Predators' lineup, and Nashville had their chances throughout the night, but the group left frustrated as they simply couldn't get the shots to fall.
"We did some things well, but I think the two goals were tough ones and we would like to have them back," Subban said. "We have to be more solid coming back into our zone, keep getting pucks to the outside. We had a lot of chances, but we just couldn't bury them."

"We had a lot of shots, but we just have to find a way to score goals and that's what it comes down to at the end," Arvidsson said. "We were in the game the whole night, but we couldn't find a way to get the puck in the net."
Tyler Pitlick gave the Stars a 1-0 lead in the opening period when he beat Pekka Rinne to the glove side, and Mattias Janmark bumped the Dallas lead to 2-0 through 40 minutes of play.
Khudobin continued to stymie the Nashville chances as they game went along, including 19 saves in the second and 18 more in the third. When all was said and done, the mark of 49 shots was the highest total in a shutout loss in Preds franchise history.
"We had good looks tonight; we put nearly shot attempts on the net and not a lot of teams can do that," Subban said. "For us, we would like to get more bodies in the paint and make it tougher on them, but you have to give them credit. They did a great job of boxing us out, but I thought we did a better job in front of our goaltender as well with boxing out and clearing pucks."
The return of Subban and Arvidsson did give the Predators life, and with Arvidsson, in particular, skating with Ryan Johansen and Calle Jarnkrok on the team's top line, seemed to generate chances every time he was on the ice.
"They gave us good energy early on," Predators Head Coach Peter Laviolette said of the return of Arvidsson and Subban. "They were both firing pucks early, both had a possibility to score a goal. Both of them early in the first 10 minutes had a couple of different looks. I thought just having them back in the lineup gave us the layers we needed in our lineup to be successful. It was big for our team to have them back. We'll look to build off of it."
The boost from the injured players was noticeable, and although the results weren't there for the Predators, it was a much-improved effort from what the group displayed on their recent road trip that delivered just one out of a possible eight points in the standings.
Now, it's about taking the positives from Thursday's outing and focusing on what's to come - and that's a date with the New York Rangers on Saturday night.
"We are going to build off of this and get out of this thing, it's just a matter of keeping our focus where it needs to be," Subban said. "That's on the next game, for now."

Notes:
Thursday marked Ryan Hartman's 200th NHL game.
Following Thursday's morning skate, the Preds placed defenseman Yannick Weber on Injured Reserve with a lower-body injury. Weber joins Filip Forsberg (upper-body) and Colton Sissons (lower-body) on IR.
Nashville welcomes the New York Rangers to town on Saturday night before a back-to-back set to close out 2018 and ring in 2019. The Preds will face the Capitals in Washington on Monday before returning to host the Flyers on New Year's Day.