Chicago Blackhawks (9–12–5) at Nashville Predators (17–8–1)
7:00pm CST
Bridgestone Arena
TV/Radio: WGN/FS-TN
PROJECTED GOALIES
Chicago – Corey Crawford (5-10, SV%: 0.901 GAA: 3.18)
Nashville– Pekka Rinne (10-4, SV%: 0.935 GAA: 1.85)
TEAM STATISTICS
Power Play
Chicago (12%, 31st)
Nashville (14.4%, 30th)
Penalty Kill
Chicago (74.3%, 28h)
Nashville (80%, T-13th)
Shorts for/against
Chicago (32.6, 12th; 33.5, 28th)
Nashville (32.7, 10th; 29.2, 5th)
Shooting %
Chicago (8.6%, 27th)
Nashville (9.8%, 14th)
Faceoff %
Chicago (49.4%,18th)
Nashville (52.4%, 4th)
Avg. height/weight
Chicago 6’1”, 197lbs
Nashville 6’0″, 197lbs
PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS
Chicago Blackhawks
Brandon Saad – Jonathan Toews – Brendan Perlini
Alex DeBrincat – Dylan Strome – Patrick Kane
John Hayden – David Kampf – Dominik Kahun
Andreas Martinsen – Marcus Kruger – Artem Anisimov
Duncan Keith – Gustav Forsling
Erik Gustafsson – Jan Rutta
Brandon Manning – Brent Seabrook
Analysis
Good news, but probably more bad news, for a struggling Blackhawk team tonight.
The good news is the Predators have been struggling to score goals—a favorable factor for a team like the Hawks that pretty much can’t prevent the opponent from scoring.
The bad news is the Preds are nonetheless a really good team, fundamentally built the rights ways: fast and physical, with great defense, and certainly getting great goaltending (thus far this year anyway) from Pekka Rinne.
So it’s another tall order for Chicago tonight, coming off a frustrating 6-5 loss in Winnipeg night before last. For the Hawks to have any chance tonight, they must show some improvement on season long problems of inconsistent, lackadaisical coverage in their own end and egregious puck management mistakes.