The Blackhawks are in Nashville on Thursday night to face off against the scuffling Predators for the second time this season — and the first meeting between the two teams since way back in October 2024.
Fun Super Depressing Fact: If you combined the point totals of the Blackhawks (30), and Predators (35), you would have a terrifying franken-team that’s only two points ahead the current NHL leaders in the Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets, who both clock in with 63 points each.
The good news for Nashville is they’re in the midst of a five game home stand, and their 9-8-3 record at Bridgestone is basically the lone bright spot they can point to so far in the midst of a monumentally disappointing season.
GM Barry Trotz spent the summer of 2023–24 throwing wads of cash at a bunch of slightly serviceable and available old guys in an attempt to paper over his problems — and it worked out well enough that Nashville earned 99 points and a first round playoff bouncing at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks last year. So he figured: why fix what’s already unequivocally broken when he could just do the same thing again by handing out $111.5 million dollars worth of contracts to players like 34-year-old forward Steven Stamkos (four years, $32 million), 34-year-old forward Jonathan Marchessault (five years, $27.5 million) and 30-year-old defenseman Brady Skjei (seven years, $49 million). Probably not the greatest sign when all of your major free agents come to you after spending significant time on a contending them that’s decided they no longer need them, huh?
Stamkos is assuredly the biggest disappointment, as he’s currently on pace (14 G, 14 A in 43 games) to accumulate his lowest point total since all the way back in his rookie season. His points per 60 has dropped significantly (from 3.4 to 2.2) and his shooting percentage (13.3%) is slightly lower than it typically is. But what has to be most alarming is his expected goals has cratered all the way down to the lowest rate it’s ever been in his career (save for two different short/skewed seasons when he was injured), tumbling from 52.1% percent in Tampa last season to 27.3% percent now. This means his calling card of a one-timer has either rapidly diminished to the point of return or he’s not nearly the same player without Nikita Kucherov feeding him the puck. Chances are it’s probably a nasty combo of both, but that’s what tends to happen to even the best of players once they hit the wrong side of 30 as age is undefeated, etc, etc.
While Marchessault has been fine, what’s also majorly doomed the Preds this year is they haven’t gotten their typical high-end scoring contributions from either Roman Josi (just 8 G, and 21 A so far after going off for 85 points last season) or Filip Forsberg and his ridiculous mustache (12G, 25A after scoring 94 points last season).
If you had to point to a single culprit that’s been the catalyst for most of Nashville’s problems — and stop me if you’ve heard this one before — it’s their inability to generate goals. While they’re still among the top half of the league overall possession wise (11th in the league at 50.98% Corsi For), they’ve failed miserably at turning that possession into goals, as they rank 31st (just behind the Blackhawks) with an average of 2.47 goals-per-game.
As for the Blackhawks, every time we think it can’t possi-bli get much worse, somehow it does. First, they broke Ben Pope:
Then yesterday Taylor Hall and his shiner decided it was a good time to get emo and kick-start his exit interview:
There were some interesting new line pairings at practice yesterday, with the two most notable changes being Frank Nazar inserted at wing on the top line with Connor Bedard and Tyler Bertuzzi, and Lukas Reichel getting another shot in the top six, this time centering Colton Dach and Nick Foligno:
It appears as though Wyatt Kaiser will continue to sit in favor of Louis Crevier and/or TJ Brodie for some reason. And all signs point to Phil Kurashev’s days being just about done here.
Tonight’s game is part of the dad’s trip, which unfortunately for them has to take place on the road, because for as bad the Blackhawks have been at home, this is a truly sobering stat:
And the honor of trying to keep them in it tonight has been awarded to Arvid Soderblom:
Soderblom has struggled of late, losing four of his last five starts while allowing 19 goals in that span.
For as bad as it’s been in Chicago, the Preds are in such a precarious position that they’re one of the few teams the Blackhawks can point and laugh at, so it would be nice to see them walk into their building and pants them, even if only just to postpone us all from going winter crazy for a few more days.
Do it for the dads. Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Predators
44.89% (31st) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 50.98% (11th)
44.32% (30th) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 49.88% (20th)
2.55 (30th) — Goals per game — 2.47 (31st)
3.45 (30th) — Goals against per game — 3.14 (22nd)
44.8% (29th) — Faceoffs — 51.2% (12th)
23.4% (12th) — Power play — 19.7% (20th)
83.3% (4th) — Penalty kill — 83.0% (6th)
(All stats from this season)
How to Watch
When: 6 p.m. CT
Where: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, TN
TV: CHSN
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720