As the recently-named captain, Mike Fisher is having to answer for an underwhelming start to the season for the Nashville Predators.
Pegged as a club with Stanley Cup aspirations after the acquisitions of Ryan Johansen and P.K. Subban over the past year, the Predators sit in a tie for last in the Central Division with four points in six games (2-4-0), and, from Fisher's point of view, it's because the team isn't living up to its nickname.
"We're not physical enough, and we're easy to play against ... but that's up to us," Fisher said Thursday, per the team's website. "It's not about huge hits or fighting, it's about winning battles and playing smart, playing hard as a team, as a line, and we just haven't had that consistency.
"We've seen it, we know we're capable of it, it's just finding that right now has been a struggle and something that we need to be better at."
The Predators have also been victims of a touch of bad luck early on, scoring at a success rate of 4.14 percent in 5-on-5 play, good for 29th in the NHL. Not helping matters are Nashville's poor possession numbers, meaning it's allowing more shot attempts on goal than the Predators are recording on the opposition.
What Nashville really needs, then, is to fire the puck on net with more regularity, with the shooting percentage eventually set to regress to the mean.
Fisher, for his part, is preaching the basics.
"Just working and being ready for the game; it seems like when we're playing desperate, our backs are against the wall a little bit, but it's just too hard to not bring your A-game," he said.
"We need everyone to do that to be successful. We know we're going to find it, we're just in a little bit of a downturn, but we're going to find it … This is where you learn, you learn about your group, you learn how to be successful as a group, and we're going to find it."
Nashville's next game is set for Thursday in Los Angeles.
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