The final two home games of the Blackhawks 2023-24 season are on the way this weekend, starting off with Friday night’s game against the Nashville Predators at the United Center.
Nashville enters this game with a playoff spot assured, settling into a wild card spot with 95 points in 79 games. The Predators won’t catch any of the top three in the Central Division and are fighting with the Vegas Golden Knights (92 points in 78 games) and Los Angeles Kings (95 in 79) for the top wild card seed. Nashville started the season 5-10 and as of Feb. 16 was four points out of the wild card spot with roughly one-third of the season left to play before going positively nuclear over the next 5-6 weeks, going 18 games without a regulation defeat (16-0-2) while vaulting into the thick of the playoff chase. They’ve cooled mildly since, with five losses in the last seven games, including a 4-3 OT loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night.
As our friends over at On the Forecheck detailed, this wasn’t a wholly unsustainable run, either: the Predators were consistently the better team on the ice during that 18-game stretch and the team has a 53.12 percent expected goal share for the season which is good for sixth in the league. Many of the expected top players have numbers reflective of that label: Filip Forsberg leads the way with 89 points (43 G, 46 A) in 79 games. Roman Josi is just over a point-per-game with 80 (21 G, 59 A) in 79. Gustav Nyquist (22 G, 50 A) and Ryan O’Reilly (26 G, 40 A) are also producing enough to keep the Nashville offense humming. In net, Juuse Saros remains the workhorse (34-23-5 record, .907 save percentage, 2.82 goals-against average) he’s been for much of his career, while old friend Kevin Lankinen has respectable numbers (10-6-0, .905, 2.93) as the backup. It’s a decent team overall, although this is also a franchise that hasn’t won a playoff series since 2018 — so maybe “decent” won’t cut it when the postseason arrives.
Lankinen seems to be the option in net for this game:
The rest of Nashville’s lineup will probably look something like this, which is from the morning skate before the aforementioned Winnipeg game:
As for the Blackhawks, Wednesday’s debacle against the St. Louis Blues led to some roster juggling, with Ethan Del Mastro called up from Rockford and seemingly on the verge of his NHL debut. That coincided with Alex Vlasic having a maintenance day on Thursday, although he’s expected to occupy the spot next to Seth Jones instead of Jarred Tinordi, who was there at the morning skate:
Del Mastro is paired up with veteran Connor Murphy, who appears slated to return from his three-month injury absence after being activated from injured reserve on Thursday.
Chicago’s lost all three prior games against Nashville this season and there should be some extra pep in the Blackhawks’ step for this game after that abysmal display in St. Louis a few nights ago. Plus there are still four remaining nights where Connor Bedard could go off for a five or six-point night just to give us all something to remember during the four or five months awaiting us in the offseason.
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Predators
44.17% (31st) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 51.51% (10th)
42.97% (31st) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 53.12% (6th)
2.18 (32nd) — Goals per game — 3.2 (13th)
3.49 (29th) — Goals against per game — 3.03 (14th)
46.6% (t-29th) — Faceoffs — 50.4% (15th)
16.4% (t-28h) — Power play — 20.2% (19th)
77.7% (t-20th) — Penalty kill — 76.9% (t-24th)
How to Watch
When: 7:30 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: NBC Sports Chicago PLUS
Webstream: NBC Sports App
Radio: WGN 720