Nyquist's daughter, Greta, was born Friday night in Nashville, joining sisters Charlotte and Sophie. He was able to enjoy some time with his family before joining the team for the afternoon game.
"It's been great," Nyquist said. "Both of them did great, obviously mom and baby. It was an amazing experience. Third time, but still. It's incredible. I'm super happy that they're both doing great. A little different pregame routine I guess but it was nice to get a win today, finally back in the win column."
Cole Smith scored twice for the Predators (6-10-0), who ended a four-game losing streak. Kevin Lankinen made 29 saves.
"An ode to Greta, there," Smith said. "It's super cool for [Nyquist]. I know he and his family are probably going to be celebrating this one. He'll go home and spend some time with his family. We're all family in here together so when he was able to do that, it's pretty special for everybody."
Philipp Kurashev and Tyler Johnson scored for the Blackhawks (5-10-0), who have lost three consecutive games and are 1-4-0 in their past five. Arvid Soderblom made 28 saves.
"It's just another frustrating [game]," Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. "You're in the game at the end and we push hard to kind of climb back in. I thought we had a really good start again. I don't think they got their first chance until the 13-minute mark, and then unfortunately, we had one kind of a miscue on a face-off won in the [defensive] zone that was in our net and then a power-play goal. Consecutive penalty kills put stress on us. It takes your best players out of the ice time and puts your penalty killers in some fatigue."
Yakov Trenin gave Nashville a 1-0 lead at 12:07 of the first period on a wrist shot from the right circle for his first goal of the season.
"It feels so good," Trenin said. "I'm happy. I was working hard for that one for a long time, and I'm so glad I scored."
Nyquist made it 2-0 at 18:32 on the power play. Filip Forsberg took the original shot from the point, Ryan O'Reilly got to the rebound and Nyquist scored on a rebound of O'Reilly's shot.
"He epitomizes a true professional," Predators coach Andrew Brunette said of Nyquist. "Obviously he was riding the emotional roller coaster yesterday and wasn't [expected to play]. To come in and give an effort like that speaks volumes of his character and his love for the sport and his true professionalism. It's a hard thing to do. It could've been easy to take the day off and he came and played great."
