Nashville Predators 7, Vancouver Canucks 1: 3 things we learned

The way P.K. Subban sees it, he was due a little good fortune anyway.

When the Canucks tallied a power-play goal in the second period, Predators forward Filip Forsberg countered 59 second later, reaching 30 points in Nashville's first 30 games for the second time.

"I can think of a couple times this year where (on) more of an honest play, pucks should have went in and they didn't", Subban said. It's the opener of a three-game road trip through Western Canada for the surging Predators, who have earned points in 15 of their last 17 games (13-2-2). Nick Bonino and Calle Jarnkrok both recorded a goal.

"It was awesome", Johansen said. "But, still, I think everyone including myself needs to play better than this".

Vancouver followed up a three-game winning streak with a three-game slide in which it has been outscored 13-4. The shot sailed off the glove of Canucks' goaltender Anders Nilsson to give Nashville a 3-0 lead. "That's human nature and that's not easy to stop".

At 16:56 of the second period, Subban skated through the neutral zone and unleashed a slap shot from center ice.

Canucks captain Henrik Sedin said: "Three or four goals tonight were unusual".

But then Nashville, which lost 5-3 to the Canucks at home on November 30, restored its three-goal lead just 59 seconds later on a power play when Forsberg's pass through the slot deflected off Vancouver forward Michael Chaput and past Nilsson for his 15th.

"The first one, I kind of saw what happened", Subban said. "We didn't have the bounces on our side". The under is 5-1 in the last six meetings in Vancouver.

The Predators were just trying to kill off a penalty, but all of a sudden, Ryan Johansen found himself with the puck and Viktor Arvidsson to his left - a 2-on-0 break while shorthanded.

Nilsson was so angry after the sixth Nashville goal he smashed his stick on the cross bar. Jarnkrok added his seventh just 40 seconds later to round out a three-goal outburst in 3:49.

"Disappointing the way we responded", Sedin said. "When it's 5-1 we have to play with some pride, play for Anders". Vancouver's Jake Virtanen high-sticked defenseman Alexei Emelin and took him hard into the boards.

"I hope so", Johansen said Monday. "But (Virtanen) has got to understand that if you do something like that, we're going to jump in there". Nashville hasn't played since Friday night so Rinne should be back between the pipes on Wednesday night.

Veteran forward Sam Gagner, who is being used at center more as a result of Horvat's injury, said the Canucks have to look at the injuries as opportunities for more playing time.

With the Predators holding a two-goal lead in the first period that could've been larger based on the quality of their scoring chances, the Canucks appeared to score in the final minute. Bo Horvat (broken ankle) and Sven Baertschi (broken jaw) are both out for an extended period, while Brandon Sutter and Erik Gudbranson remain sidelined with upper-body injuries.

Nashville opened the scoring 1:33 in on the first of several weird sequences. The Predators have scored goals in bunches of late while climbing into the top 10 with an average of 3.2 goals per game thanks in large part to the second-ranked powerplay unit in the National Hockey League. After stringing together three straight wins, Vancouver has dropped three in a row to fall to 14-13-4 on the season. In October, they allowed just 2.36 goals per game, which was the third-best mark in the league.