Predators fall behind early to Red Wings, suffer second consecutive regulation loss

The Predators' objective against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday was straightforward — get it together. 

Their recent record has been somewhat misleading, the product of resiliency masking inconsistency. A second consecutive regulation loss Saturday, this one by a 3-1 score, has blown that cover. 

Here are three observations from Saturday's loss:

You get what you give

Too much of the Predators' energy has been expended trying to claw back into games. In 378:02 of total game time in their previous six games, they held the lead for 28:22 and trailed for 162:10, according to naturalstattrick.com. 

The latter number swelled Saturday when the Red Wings scored twice in the first period, the first of which came at 4:12 on defenseman Luke Witkowski's first NHL goal. 

The Predators have fallen behind by at least two goals in five of their past seven games. Through Nashville's first 50 games this season, the team faced 13 multi-goal deficits. 

Many of the Predators' shot attempts Saturday originated from the outside, with the Red Wings blocking 26 of them.

The characteristics that make the Predators successful — a suffocating forecheck, sustained zone time — haven't appeared with regularity. 

Predators end power-play slump

Slumps are inevitable throughout an NHL season. The Predators' power play, a large source of their overall offense, was mired in one until forward Craig Smith beat Red Wings goaltender Petr Mrazek on a breakaway in the third period.

The Predators, who are 1-for-23 on the power play in their past seven games, constantly stress the need to fire as many pucks toward the net as possible when experiencing a man-advantage situation. 

Two of the Predators' 10 power-play attempts reached Mrazek on Saturday. When they were able to set up in the offensive zone, they wasted time searching for a perfect play. 

Third-pair shuffle

Predators coach Peter Laviolette made a wholesale change to his third defensive pair Saturday, inserting Matt Irwin and Anthony Bitetto in place of Alexei Emelin and Yannick Weber. 

Those two were on the ice for Witkowski's breakaway goal, which resulted from poor defensive coverage after Bitetto and Irwin each pinched in the offensive zone. 

Reach Adam Vingan at avingan@tennessean.com and on Twitter @AdamVingan.