Blackhawks return to action against Predators

Chicago Blackhawks (22-26-9, 53 pts) @ Nashville Predators (26-24-7, 59 pts)
7 pm CT – Bridgestone Arena
TV: CHSN (Ball/Granato)
Radio: WGN 720 AM (Grey/Konroyd)

The Chicago Blackhawks are back in action for the first time in 22 days. The Winter Olympics are over, and now it’s time to play the final 25 games of the season over 49 days. It will be a crazy sprint to the finish line, especially when you throw in the NHL trade deadline in eight days.

Head coach Jeff Blashill and his staff had six practices to get his team ready for this extremely compressed stretch of the schedule.

“I hope we’ve done a good job of starting by easing them into it, getting harder progressively, getting them back to some 5-on-5 situations, feeling what that’s like, and we’ll find out tomorrow if we did a good job or not,” he said yesterday. “Ultimately, the guys did a really good job. They have good energy. I think we’re ready to play a game.”

Tonight is the third of four meetings between these two teams. They have split the first two games, with the road team winning each. There will be five total Olympians on the ice tonight, including Teuvo Teravainen, Erik Haula, and Juuse Saros, who all won a bronze medal for Finland.

Finish Out Strong

The Blackhawks enter tonight’s game 10 points out of a Wild Card spot in the Western Conference, needing to jump over five teams. The odds of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs are certainly stacked against them, but they are going down without a fight.

“We want to see if we can get ourselves on a streak, as so many teams in the league have done,” Blashill said. “If we can, we’ll see what happens from there. Ultimately, we want to continue to build and get better. That’s extraordinarily important. That’s been our model from Day 1: continue to get better on a consistent basis, take steps toward greatness. There’s never going to be no steps backward, but trying to take more steps forward than backwards. We’ll try to continue to do that as much as we can.”

That’s the key to the final stretch of the season: build momentum going into the summer. We saw it last year. The mood in the room changed drastically after the trade deadline as the younger players began to take over. That led to players putting in the work with more of a purpose during the offseason. With so many foundational players on the roster right now, finishing the season playing the best hockey of the year would be a huge step forward heading into the offseason.

A Welcomed Road Trip

The Blackhawks start the post-Olympics schedule with four straight road games. Wearing the white sweater has not been a problem of late, as they have points in five of their last seven road games. One of those games was a 3-0 win in Nashville on Jan. 10.

With 15 of the last 25 games on the road, it's good that the Blackhawks have played well away from the United Center. Ten of their 22 wins have come on the road despite playing five more games at home.

The Blackhawks boast the NHL’s best penalty kill, and recent success on the road has shot them to the top. Since Dec. 19, they have allowed just one power-play goal in eight road games. They’ve taken only 22 penalties in those games, which helps in the success. Just because you have an elite penalty kill doesn’t mean you need to use it five or six times a night.

Nobody has enjoyed playing on the road this season more than Tyler Bertuzzi. He scored 15 of his 25 goals and 25 of his 42 points while wearing the white sweater. Eight of his nine power-play goals have come on the road. Connor Bedard has racked up 22 of his 30 assists in his 21 road games this season. Look for those two to lead the offensive attack tonight.

Dana Grey Gets the Call Up

Blackhawks fans have been blessed for the past 20 years with one of the best radio play-by-play men in the business. John Wiedeman has called some of the biggest moments in franchise history since joining the broadcast team in 2006. Unfortunately, he’s under the weather and won’t make the four-game trip.

The next four games will be called on WGN Radio by Dana Grey. If you’ve watched any Rockford IceHogs games over the past two seasons, you’re familiar with his call. He will be filling in for Wiedeman on the trip, making his debut with the big club. I have no doubt that he will make the most of this opportunity.

Season Series

11/28 vs NSH, 3-4 L
1/10 @ NSH, 3-0 W
2/26 @ NSH
3/22 vs NSH

Blackhawks Team Leaders

G-Tyler Bertuzzi (25)
A-Connor Bedard (30)
P-Bedard (53)
PPG-Bertuzzi (9)
GWG-Bedard/Bertuzzi (3)
SOG-Bedard (143)
PIM-Connor Murphy (46)

Predators Team Leaders

G-Steven Stamkos (28)
A-Ryan O’Reilly (36)
P-O’Reilly (56)
PPG-Stamkos (9)
GWG-Stamkos (9)
SOG-Filip Forsberg (173)
PIM-Michael McCarron (69)

Blackhawks Team Stats

GF/G-2.65 (26th)
GA/G-3.16 (20th)
PP%-19.1 (20th)
PK%-85.7 (1st)
SOG/G-24.8 (32nd)
SA/G-29.5 (25th)
FO%-47.0 (30th)
PIM/G-9:35 (25th)

Predators Team Stats

GF/G-2.91 (21st)
GA/G-3.47 (28th)
PP%-21.8 (13th)
PK%-80.0 (13th)
SOG/G-28.6 (13th)
SA/G-29.4 (24th)
FO%-51.5 (8th)
PIM/G-8:33 (18th)

Blackhawks Probable Lines

Forwards
Ryan Greene-Connor Bedard-Andre Burakovsky
Oliver Moore-Frank Nazar-Tyler Bertuzzi
Ryan Donato-Jason Dickinson-Ilya Mikheyev
Teuvo Teravainen-Nick Foligno-Landon Slaggert

Defensemen
Alex Vlasic-Louis Crevier
Connor Murphy-Sam Rinzel
Matt Grzelcyk-Artyom Levshunov

Scratched
F-Sam Lafferty, D-Kevin Korchinski, F-Colton Dach

Injured
D-Wyatt Kaiser (lower body)

Predators Probable Lines

Forwards
Steven Stamkos-Ryan O’Reilly-Luke Evangelista
Filip Forsberg-Erik Haula-Michael Bunting
Cole Smith-Michael McCarron-Jonathan Marchessault
Zachary L’Heureux-Tyson Jost-Ozzy Weisblatt

Defensemen
Brady Skjei-Roman Josi
Adam Wilsby-Nicklaus Perbix
Nic Hague-Justin Barron

Scratched
F-Matthew Wood, D-Nick Blankenburg

Injured
None

Goaltending Matchup

Spencer Knight (16-16-7, 2.62 GAA, .908 SV%, 3 SO) vs Jusse Saros (21-17-5, 3.20 GAA, .892 SV%, 0 SO)