Back to Plan A: Hawks 3, Predators 2

That is, get outshot, have the boots put to you in the possession game and fall back on star power to make the crucial difference.
The Hawks dented the twine first, on a tip-in by Anisimov, only for The Preds to knot things up on the next shift, a slapper by Forsberg beating Corey Crawford that was made possible by a lazy clearing attempt by Dennis Rasmussen.  The early part of the first period featured entire shifts with intense pressure by both teams.  The Hawks' bottom six struggled mightily as Nashville seemed to get the line matchups they wanted a lot of the time.  Meanwhile, The Arthurs and Kane ran wild on practically all of their shifts.
Fast-forward to the third period and a tip-in by Mike Fisher to push The Preds ahead.  The Hawks received a bit of a gift when Craig Smith was called for interference when Corey Crawford made sure that he and Smith made contact in Crow's crease and, on the ensuing PP, Jonathan Toews  redirected a Seabrook blast to tie the game once again.  Moments later, while double-shifting in lieu of Tootoo on the fourth line, Patrick Kane scored a dandy, selling the pass right to end before firing a no-look laser under Pekke Rinne's glove.  The Predators pressed hard in the late going but Crawford was up to the task, making several crucial saves in the dying moments.  Once again, timely goals and superior goaltending prevailed, despite The Preds dominating for 3/4 of the game.

                                         A Haiku for Tanner Kero:
                                        No hands, too slow, and
                                        We're Holding Out For a Hero
                                        Not sure you're that guy

Coach Q was aware of the mess that his D threw up in the last game, but chose to scratch two guys who were not even remotely The Hawks' largest problems in that area. Nonetheless, a change is as good as a rest, I guess, as we got the win.  TVR and Keith were not especially great tonight, but not nearly as bad as they were on Tuesday.
Kempny did well, I thought, in what must have been a nerve wracking game for him, knowing that the smallest error would have him rubbing elbows with Bobby Hull in the press box for another two weeks.  I doubt that this game will have changed Q's mind on Kempny, but you can be damn sure that had Kemps not swept that loose puck out of the crease early in the first his fate would have been sealed, for sure.
Hinostroza remains very much a work in progress, of course, and he still has work to do on his vision, but there's a move that he's been trying that impresses me a lot; he begins what appears to be a toe drag but he stops half way through and fires a shot while the puck is still close to his body, which gives him a small element of surprise and usually includes an opposing d-man acting as a screen.  It's not easy to get a hard shot off with the puck so tight to the body, and sometimes it fails altogether, but I'm looking forward to it working out for him soon.

Well, Crawford was excellent and Anisimov was very good, both scoring and with some fine defensive work, but every time Patrick Kane was on the ice, it seemed, The Hawks were moving the puck well and creating chances.