Preds snap Hawks 8 game home win streak, beat Chicago 4-1

The Nashville Predators took a page out of the blackhawks playbook, using speed and a mobile defense to their advantage, getting on the hawks in their own zone, and staying with the hawks all over the ice, to frustrate Chicago on their way to a 4-1 win, snapping their own two game winless streak while ending the hawks 8 game home win streak.

The hawks had a better effort than Monday against Columbus, though still did not look as sharp as they had early in the just completed road trip. They outshot Nashville in the 1st & 3rd periods and for the game, but Dan Ellis was solid and the predators defensemen did a good job of clearing rebounds or preventing hawk forwards from getting to them first.

The game had a promising start for the hawks with captain Jonathan Toews making a brilliant individual effort. He took a pass from Hossa on the hawks side of center and carried in over the predator blue line with three Nashville defenders back. After initially backing off & yielding the zone, Hamhuis moved up to challenge Toews, with Toews moving to his left making as if to shoot, causing Hamhuis to move to his right, leaning over to get his stick in the shooting lane to defend a shot. Toews however, quickly & sharply cut back to the right, getting around Hamhuis and in alone on Ellis.

The Preds goaltender came out to challenge, cheating a bit to favor his glove side as Toews was well off to the right, where it seemed his only chance was a backhand shot. Instead, Toews cut sharply back across to his left in front of Ellis, and patiently waited until he had moved past the scrambling Nashville goaltender, and Toews calmly fired the puck back across to his right, into the opening between the left post & Ellis, giving the hawks a 1-0 lead midway through the first.

However, that was it for hawks' highlights on the night, as Nashville picked up their game. About 4 minutes later, Kane had a chance moving down the left side firing a sharp angle shot from the half-boards that got through Ellis but hit the left post and rolled along the goal line & out the other side.

Shortly afterwards off a faceoff in the hawk end, the hawks gained possession when Ladd won the draw, but Barker failed to clear, thanks to some strong forecheck pressure by Hornqvist, and a missed assignment by Eager, who for some reason had moved off the left boards. That allowed O'Reilly to intercept Barker's clearing attempt along the boards and he moved it back deep into the corner, following it in to join Hornqvist in a battle with Ladd & Barker for the puck. Eager, presumably trying to make amends for not being at the half boards to help clear the zone, then moved into the corner to help Ladd & Barker, leaving the point wide open for Cody Franson. Meanwhile, O'Reilly managed to beat Ladd & Barker for the puck and fed it back to Franson. Kopecky had moved off his position on the right side to help cover the slot vacated by Eager, and when the puck moved back to Franson, Kopecky moved up to try to challenge, leaving no hawk to cover the preds' left side.

Hornqvist at the same time beat a slow moving Barker out of the corner to the front of the net to try to set up a screen on Franson's point shot. Huet made the save, but kicked out a big rebound to the right half boards where Hamhuis had freely pinched in, thanks to Kopecky vacating his position. Hamhuis fired a high shot with Huet down on his knees from the previous point shot, that sailed past Barker who actually moved out of its path to avoid getting hit, watching it zip into the net behind him to tie the game.

In the 2nd, Hossa had an early chance as he cut in on the right side, but Ellis made a glove save. However, thanks to a penalty to Brouwer just over a minute into the period, the preds gained momentum and actually carried much of the play, outshooting the hawks 9-8.

Just over 7 minutes in, the preds went ahead for good on an odd man rush, where dman Suter jumped up into the play with Tootoo & Erat, with Campbell scrambling back and ending up on the left side while Hjalmarsson switched over to cover the right side where the puck carrier Tootoo was moving down. Hjalmarsson made an uncharacteristicly poor decision by going down to try to prevent a pass, however, Tootoo simply waited for him to slide by, then fed Suter who moved in and got a point blank shot on Huet who made a good save but gave a rebound.

Hjalmarsson recovered enough to partially clear the loose puck from in front of Huet, but it went to the open left side, with Kane, Versteeg & Byfuglien overpursuing deep into their own zone after having been caught up ice on the original odd man rush against and still out of position to gain possession & help clear the zone. That allowed Tootoo to recover the puck at the left circle & in one motion, he turned & fired toward the net, with the puck hitting Erat in the skate & deflecting in behind Huet to give the preds the lead, 2-1.

The hawks created a good chance to tie midway through the third off the rush, with Versteeg penetrating down the left side before dropping the puck for Kane in the left circle. Kane moved in, and while faking a shot passed to the trailer Keith who was moving in off the right point, however, Ellis stacked his pads and made a sprawling save without giving a rebound to keep the preds on top. Shortly afterwards, another undisciplined penalty by Byfuglien killed any momentum the hawks may have had.

Late in the 3rd, Marcel Goc beat Madden on a faceoff to the right of Huet, drawing it back to the point where Kevin Klein backhanded it back along the boards deep into the left corner, where Goc tapped it along behind the net. Martin Erat gained position on Keith, cutting behind the hawk net to retrieve the loose puck with Keith in pursuit, however, Erat was able to center the puck for Tootoo who had eluded both Madden & Ladd to one time it past Huet for an insurance marker. Tootoo was able to find the seam between Madden, who was covering down low, and Ladd who was covering the point, & Erat found him streaking open in the slot with a pass & he made no mistake. The hawks actually had all five men back with only three preds in deep, but misread the coverages to give Tootoo too much room.

Less than a minute later, with the hawks turning it over at the pred blueline & getting caught again, Legwand & Ward moved in on a 2 on 1 against Campbell. Campbell went down to try to take away the pass, however, Legwand managed to saucer it over Campbell's stick to Ward, who had Huet at his mercy & buried it. 4-1 Nashville.

Overall, it was a disappointing result for an important divisional game. The preds, like the hawks, have been one of the hottest teams in the league over the past few weeks, though they had stumbled in their previous two games. The hawks had an opportunity to put some distance between themselves & 2nd place Nashville, but squandered their chances and let Nashville (&the rest of the division) move closer as a result. They are just 2-2-1 (1-1-0 at home) with Hossa in the lineup, after going 15-5-2 (10-2-1 at home) without him.

Now the hawks face an even bigger test heading into Pittsburgh tomorrow night, in a game that will provide a good measuring stick as to where the team is in relation to the defending Stanley Cup champions.