Skille's best NHL game comes in another defeat

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Jack Skille had a night to remember with 2 goals, but unfortunately his best game in the NHL came during another forgettable Blackhawks loss.

The Hawks fell 4-3 to the Predators in a shootout Saturday at Bridgestone Arena despite Skille's first 2 goals of the season.

“I said all season once I get that first one hopefully the floodgates will open,” Skille said. “It looks like that might have happened, so hopefully I can keep that going personally, but right now team wins are a bigger issue and we have to get back on the winning side.”

Hawks coach Joel Quenneville thought the fourth line of Skille, Jake Dowell and Bryan Bickell was a bright spot.

“I thought that line had a good game and Jack had a particularly good game as well with a couple great shots,” Quenneville said.

“It was good to see Jack get one,” goalie Marty Turco said. “Usually you think 3 goals is enough to win a game, but that wasn't the case.”

Central casting:

To illustrate how good the Central Division is, the Hawks are the only team under .500 at 8-9-2.

“At the start of the year we said we feel we're in the toughest division in the league,” Joel Quenneville said. “St. Louis, Columbus might be better than people thought at the start of the year, and Detroit we know where they're at. Right now if you look it up statistically it looks like the best.”

The Pacific Division featured every team over .500 going into the weekend.

The Hawks' main focus remains winning the Central, which would guarantee them a top-three seed in the playoffs. The Hawks are just 2-4-1 in Central Division games, however, and trail first-place Detroit by 5 points.

“The value of these points in these division games are huge as we go along here,” Quenneville said.

Sharp snubbed:

The Hawks lead all teams with six players on the all-star ballot for fan voting, but Patrick Sharp isn't one of them.

Sharp is no stranger to getting overlooked on a team that features Marian Hossa, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Patrick Kane, but he does lead the Hawks with 10 goals and 18 points and did score 11 goals in the playoffs for the Stanley Cup champs.

Wait and see:

With a healthy and full lineup for the first time all season on Saturday, Joel Quenneville's plan is to keep his lines intact for the immediate future.

That's the plan, but as Quenneville has shown in three years behind the Hawks' bench his lines could change from one shift to the next.

“It's certainly nice to have everybody healthy and you hope you get some consistency in the lines and stay with the lines for some sort of time here,” Quenneville said.

Tip-ins:

Dave Bolland played 17 minutes in his return from an upper body injury and said he felt fine. … Patrick Sharp now has gone seven games without a goal. ... Jordan Hendry and John Scott were healthy scratches.