Blackhawks Gameday Preview: Blackhawks look for win on ‘Dads trip’ to Nashville

Chicago Blackhawks (14-28-2, 30 pts) at Nashville Predators (14-22-7, 35 pts)
7:00 p.m. CT – Bridgestone Arena
TV: CHSN (Ball/Pang)
Radio: WGN 720 AM (Wiedeman/Murray)

Just a warning ahead of tonight’s game: have your banner jokes ready because it appears the Nashville Predators may be raising another one. In their last outing, the Predators won their 1000th game in franchise history. That’s cool. Just last night they also inducted their first team Hall of Fame class with David Poile, Pekka Rinne, and Shea Weber. Also cool.

What would be even more cool is a Chicago Blackhawks win on the road against the Predators, something they’ve only done once since November of 2019.

The two teams com into tonight’s contest on similar paths this season where they made big offseason moves in the hopes of winning more games and being more competitive, only for those offseason moves to not yield the results they had hoped. Nashville’s big three moves in free agency were adding Jonathan Marchessault, Steven Stamkos, and Brady Skjei. While they have held up their end of the bargain with Marchessault and Stamkos leading the offense, the Predators sit in 30th-place in the NHL with 35 points in the standings. The Blackhawks are not far being with just 30 points in the standings and sitting in last-place in the league. Chicago has dropped their last three games and eight of their last ten, being out-scored 44-25. The Predators have split their last ten games 5-5-0.

Connor Bedard recorded his 100th career point in his 112th career game in the last outing for Chicago. He became tied for the seventh-fastest Blackhawks player in franchise history to hit the 100 career points mark, tied with Jeremy Roenick. Bedard also became the 24th teenager to hit the 100 career points mark and the fastest to do it since Sidney Crosby did it in 80 games his rookie season.

Seth Jones is coming off one of his worst games of his Blackhawks tenure after a minus-4 performance that included a turnover on a five-minute powerplay that led to a shorthanded goal for the Calgary Flames. Jones saw his ice-time cut to just 16:19 minutes, down from his average this season of 24:40 minutes. He looks to bounce back against his former Predators team, where he played 199 games after being the 4th-overall draft pick in the 2013 NHL Draft.

Season Series

10/23/24 vs NSH – 3-2 L
1/16/25 at NSH
2/7/25 vs NSH
3/8/25 at NSH

Blackhawks Team Leaders

G-Tyler Bertuzzi (14)
A-Connor Bedard (27)
P-Connor Bedard (39)
PPG-Tyler Bertuzzi (6)
SOG-Connor Bedard (104)
PIM-Pat Maroon (41)

Predators Team Leaders

G-Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault (14)
A-Filip Forsberg (25)
P-Filip Forsberg (37)
PPG-Steven Stamkos (7)
SOG-Filip Forsberg (143)
PIM-Michael McCarron (41)

Blackhawks Team Stats

GF/G-2.55 (30th)
GA/G-3.45 (30th)
PP%-23.4 (12th)
PK%-83.3 (4th)
SOG/G-25.1 (32nd)
SA/G-30.5 (28th)
FO%-44.8 (30th)
PIM/G-8:13 (14th)

Predators Team Stats

GF/G-2.47 (31st)
GA/G-3.14 (22nd)
PP%-19.7 (20th)
PK%-83.0 (6th)
SOG/G-29.0 (12th)
SA/G-29.2 (25th)
FO%-51.2 (13th)
PIM/G-9:15 (24th)

Blackhawks Probable Lines

Forwards
Tyler Bertuzzi-Connor Bedard-Frank Nazar
Teuvo Teräväinen-Jason Dickinson-Ilya Mikheyev
Colton Dach-Lukas Reichel-Nick Foligno
Taylor Hall-Ryan Donato-Pat Maroon

Defensemen
Alex Vlasic-Louis Crevier
Alec Martinez-Seth Jones
Nolan Allan-T.J Brodie

Scratched:
Philipp Kurashev, Wyatt Kasier

Injured:
Laurent Brossoit (knee), Connor Murphy (OUT), Craig Smith (DTD)

Predators Probable Lines

Forwards
Filip Forsberg-Steven Stamkos-Jonathan Marchessault
Gustav Nyquist-Ryan O’Reilly-Vinnie Hinostroza
Tommy Novak-Fedor Svechkov-Zachary L’Heureux
Mark Jankowski-Michael McCarron-Colton Sissons

Defensemen
Roman Josi-Justin Barron
Brady Skjei-Nick Blankenburg
Spencer Stastney-Luke Schenn

Scratched
Luke Evangelista, Kieffer Bellows

Injured
Cole Smith (IR), Jeremy Lauzon (IR), Adam Wilsby (IR)

Probable Goaltending Matchup

Arvid Söderblom (6-11-1, .903 SV%, 2.99 GAA, 0 SO) vs Juuse Saros (9-18-6, .904 SV%, 2.78 GAA, 4 SO)