The Nashville Predators walked into the United Center on a six-game winning streak, but would be without six forwards, two defensemen, two assistant coaches and one goaltending coach due to COVID-19 protocol. Even with the visiting Predators starting the game with a fraction of their fire power, the Chicago Blackhawks would still find a way to lose in overtime.
Much as one would anticipate with these two teams, a grand total of five shots combined were peppered toward Marc-Andre Fleury and Juuse Saros in the opening frame. However, Thomas Novak scored his first NHL goal for the Nashville Predators on the power play after Connor Murphy went off for cross checking at the 10:32 mark of the first period. Novak’s first goal was a beauty, as he beat Fleury glove side with a well-placed wrist shot top shelf.
As broadcasters Pat Foley and Eddie Olczyk were deep in conversation about the outbreak amongst dozens of NHL players, MacKenzie Entwistle created a scoring opportunity that Kirby Dach took advantage of at the 13:57 mark in the first frame. Entwistle’s hustle found him with the puck and made a quick play to Dach, who buried a tough-angle shot off Saros and into the net for his fifth goal of the season.
Just what the Dach-tor ordered 🩺 pic.twitter.com/ZoU9mfFLq0
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) December 18, 2021
The second period of action would generate zero goals, but would see Nashville play with the puck in their offensive zone for long stretches at a time. Chicago fought to keep the score tied 1–1 after two periods of play, however, to say Chicago looked like the team that was down a large number of regulars would not have been wrong.
The third period play found Colton Sissons scoring his fourth goal of the season and Jonathan Toews collecting his third tally this season. Sissons’ goal found the back of the net for the Predators’ second power play goal of the game after Erik Gustafsson was called for delay of game for shooting the puck over the glass.
The Chicago captain scored after winning an all-important face off in the Hawks’ own zone (yes, if you want to win games, you will need to win important draws) and created some open space for himself just left of Saros, which is where Riley Stillman made an excellent pass across the ice to a wide-open Toews for a 2–2 tie game.
TOEWS TIES IT UP 👏‼️ pic.twitter.com/MX977Lc4Cp
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) December 18, 2021
Chicago would not get an opportunity in overtime to create any chances, as Nashville broke up Chicago’s first rush and scored on the other end of the ice when Tanner Jeannot tipped home a nice pass from Roman Josi for his eight goal this season.
Fleury stopped 28 shots in the loss.
Analysis
To say this was a boring hockey game may be an understatement. Chicago did not generate many prime chances with 19 shots on goal.
Entwistle, Toews and Dominik Kubalik all played solid games up and down the ice, which is a very encouraging sign, especially for Kubalik.
Chicago needed to take advantage of winning against a depleted team and found themselves on the wrong side of the scoresheet after giving up two power play goals.