The Blackhawks led for the majority of the game Thursday night but were unable to close Nashville out as the Predators tied the game late in the third period, then finished the job in the shootout.
The Predators drew first blood eight minutes into the first period when Roman Josi found Steven Stamkos for a sharp angled one timer just 12 seconds into Nashville’s first power play:
With fifteen minutes gone, the Blackhawks appeared to tie it at one after Nick Foligno muscled in the rebound of an Alex Vlasic point blast, but the goal was immediately waved off due to Foligno making contact with Juuse Saaros in the crease. The Blackhawks challenged the goaltender interference call, but the ruling was ultimately upheld:
At the 6:30 mark of the second period, Tyler Bertuzzi fed a bouncing puck to Connor Bedard in open ice, and Bedard did what he (and only a few others) are able to do when he ripped one by Saaros to tie the game at one:
Just a minute and a half later, another strong shift by the Bedard line gave the Blackhawks the lead after an Alec Martinez shot took a crazy carom off the boards, bounced back into Saaros’ leg, then trickled into the net:
With three minutes left in the third, the Predators tied it up when a Nick Blankenberg stretch pass found a wide open Filip Forsberg who had all kinds of time to wind up and wire a heat seeker over Arvid Soderblom’s shoulder:
The two teams traded multiple chances in overtime before Nashville ultimately won it in the shootout.
Notes
Huge props to the Hawk’s penalty kill for keeping them in the game in the first period while the Predators were given three straight power plays. Yes, Stamkos scored almost immediately into their first one, but they held fast during the next two while limiting Nashville to just five shots on goal for the entire period.
Also, kudos to the Blackhawks’ stat finders for identifying this truly bizarre set of splits:
The Blackhawks were engaged for a majority of the game in a way it doesn’t feel like we’ve seen in a while. Maybe it was the presence of the dads/mentors or the battle drills they ran during Wednesday’s practice, but they won a ton of puck battles along the boards and forced a lot of turnovers in the Preds’ zone to extend possession. There was a level of effort there that has been severely lacking lately. None of us should have any big ideas about them moving up the standings in any kind of meaningful way for the rest of the season, but a lot more games with the habits from this one would certainly give us something to be excited about for the next few months.
And waaaaaay more of the Bedard, Bertuzzi, and Frank Nazar line, please. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, they should just dip that line in concrete and leave it alone for the rest of the season. If not for a few monster saves from Saaros in the third and a few passes that just missed, all three of them could have had a couple goals each. Even though Nazar didn’t get an assist on the first goal, his speed on the forecheck forced Brady Skejei into making a hurried pass that skipped past Blankenburg and went straight to Bertuzzi. Not only were they the Hawks’ best line by possession (as well as being the only one in the positive), but they also out chanced Nashville 11-9, out shot them 11-3, had an expected goals percentage of 79.72, and generated the most scoring chances and the most high danger chances as well. Bedard and Bertuzzi have established their chemistry at this point, but I’m really curious to see what Nazar can do with them after a few more games of experience.
The Blackhawks were certainly on their heels for most of the third (the Predators dominated all the fancy stats), even though Forsberg’s goal resulted from a perfectly timed stretch pass off a weird broken play at the end of a long shift. It would have been nice to see the Blackhawks get the win tonight for a multitude of reason, but primarily to reward Soderblom.
This might have been Soderblom’s best professional game so far. His rebound control and his positioning, were both outstanding. He got a little scramble-y — as did the team in front of him — in the third, but he absolutely kept them in it. He made a season-high 30 saves tonight and continued his trend of, for whatever reason, being a much better goalie on the road — to the tune of a 2.62 GAA and .917 save percentage — even though he isn’t getting the wins to show for it.
Seth Jones had a solid bounce back game, and led all defensemen with 21:57 of ice time after finishing with a season-low 16 minutes during the loss to Calgary on Monday. The trade chatter surrounding him seems to have picked up considerably in the last few weeks, so if he really is as miserable on this team as he often seems to be, this would be an ideal time for him to step it up across the board.
The Hawks are 1-8-3 in their last 12 games against the Perds, and something about losing this much to the recent incarnations of their team bothers me a little extra. I’m looking forward to the end of this rebuild for a multitude of reasons, and eviscerating future versions of a very bad and very expensive Nashville team is absolutely one of them.
Game Charts



Three Stars
- Arvid Soderblom – Season-High 39 saves
- Tyler Bertuzzi – 2 assists
- Connor Bedard – 1 goal
What’s Next
The Blackhawks head back to Chicago to take on the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night at 7 p.m.