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Pour Myself a Cup of Ambition: Predators 3, Blackhawks 2 (OT)

Posted on by L_B_R
Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

The Chicago Blackhawks extended their point streak to five games Saturday night after earning one in their 3-2 overtime loss to the Nashville Predators.

The Blackhawks opened the scoring about two minutes into the second period. After a scramble in front of the net, Connor Bedard got the puck back to Alex Vlasic, whose long shot deflected off Ryan O’Reilly and past Justus Annunen, making it 1-0 Blackhawks.

The Predators tied the game 1-1 on the power play 40 seconds later. An uncontested Steven Stamkos standing just within the circle whipped a quick wrister through Arvid Soderblom’s five-hole. Jonathan Marchessault with the assist, but really, it was all about Stamkos’ elite release.

Stamkos got his second of the game with 7:40 remaining in the second period with a one-timer from the slot set up by a backhanded pass from O’Reilly below the goal line (helped along by Nick Foligno), putting the Predators up 2-1.

Stamkos thought he finished off a natural hat trick with 3:35 left in the second, but it was waived off because he knocked the puck down with a high stick before scoring.

Not to be outdone, the Blackhawks also picked up an almost goal: Louis Crevier jumped into the cycle, went down low, and banked the puck in at 4:42 of the third period, but the Predators successfully challenge for offsides and the goal was recalled.

Ilya Mikheyev scored for the Blackhawks to tie it 2-2 with 7:38 remaining in the third period. Connor Murphy sent the puck down low to Ryan Donato behind the net, who then set up Mikeyhev for a a one-timer from the slot.

Extra hockey was played for 2:39 before Stamkos scored with a one-timer off a quick dish from Fedor Svechkov.

Notes

The Blackhawks played last night and this was their third game in four nights, so it’s not surprising they had a slow and sloppy start against the Predators, but gosh, I wish they would figure out how to start on time consistently this season. Chicago scores the first goal a lot, but they’re also usually a disorganized mess. The Blackhawks were out-attempted 23-13, outshot 14-6, and they owned just 21.87 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5. The Blackhawks should thank their goalies more often, like in this case, where Soderblom saved basically two goals above expected for the period.

Chicago had a good response for the second period: better on breakouts and passing, longer zone time, and just generally more cohesive defensively at 5-on-5. That’s why it sucks they ended up losing the period on the scoreboard 2-1. There was also a lot of special teams time, which means the even strength time was lower, but you still have to like the push back from the Blackhawks. Shot attempts still favored the Predators slightly (13-12), but shots on goal (8-6) and expected goals (65.93 percent) skewed towards the Blackhawks.

There was more noticeable fatigue from the Blackhawks in the third period, which, again, isn’t surprising. There were more moments where players were dragging after a normal length shift, lunging for pucks instead of taking an extra stride, making a sloppy pass, bad changes, made mistakes under pressure, etc. The Predators basically controlled the period: the Blackhawks owned only 26.92 percent of the shot attempts, 16.67 percent of the shots on goal, and 18.81 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5. Seriously, it was hard for the Blackhawks to muster up much of anything — just two shots on goal, three scoring chances, and one high-danger chance at 5-on-5 — so it was lucky they got it to overtime. Well, luck and Soderblom.

Not much to say on overtime: the Predators picked up where they left off in the third with controlling the pace, had the only two shots on goal, and a bad change from Donato and weak defensive play by Frank Nazar — both likely due to fatigue for the game and especially the end of a shift — turned into a goal against. Apparently, Anders Sorensen agreed about the tiredness:

Despite the loss, there were some nice moments from the Blackhawks tonight, and they are currently on a five-game point streak. And if we’re being honest, losing to the Predators does keep the Blackhawks in second-to-last place in the standings, a place that means they’re guaranteed at least a top-four pick. There are good players to be had at No. 5 or after, but the top-four is definitely the cream of the crop for the 2025 NHL Draft. The Buffalo Sabres are in a bit of a freefall, though, having lost six games in a row, so there could be some complications down the road of having the best chances of getting a game-breaker in the next draft.

Still, the most important thing is the young players getting confidence, building a culture on and off the ice that could persist beyond this season.

Speaking of the young players, Vlasic had a really nice individual game, especially offensively. The goal was big, but more than that, he activated well and his passing was just really good this game. He’s had some iffy games as of late, but tonight was not one of them.

Among the other young defenders, it’s really exciting to see Ethan Del Mastro playing top-three minutes (19:31) for the defense, including the top TOI at 5-on-5 (18:22). Last season, he was Rockford’s best two-way defenseman, but there was some concern when his offense tapered off this year in the AHL after his role changed to be more defense-first. His start in the NHL was kind of rough, if we’re being honest –really nice moments coupled with ones where his timing was way off — but he’s settled and been one of the more steady guys as of late.

I’ve said this many times in the past, but the offsides rule really needs to be altered a little bit to factor in timing. If the referees missed an offside a certain amount of time before a goal is scored, then the goal should still count.

None of the Skamkos goals against were egregious to me. Would I have liked Soderblom to have gotten the first one? Sure, but, despite having a down season, Stamkos is one of the best goal scorers in NHL history — literally, he moved into 23rd all time spot with that goal — and he had all day to pick his spot on that shot. Original Raise summarized the issues on that goal in the game thread better than I could (see below). It was another game in which the Blackhawks goalies saw 35+ shots — 41 in this case — and Soderblom still managed a .927 save percentage despite the loss.

For the second goal against, I’m not sure I’d classify that as a turnover by Foligno because O’Reilly already had the puck going towards Stamkos — the Blackhawks captain just couldn’t corral and stop it properly.

The two best lines for the Blackhawks were obviously Donato, Mikheyev, and Teuvo Teravainen and then Connor Bedard, Nazar, and Colton Dach. Not only were both lines on the ice for a Blackhawks goal, they were the only ones to have any shot possession. The Blackhawks, with Bedard’s line on the ice, owned 52.63 percent of the shot attempts and 57.14 percent of the shots on goal, though just 45.73 expected goals. Donato’s line was even more favorable with 71.43 percent of the shots on goal, 60 percent of the shot attempts, 81.40 percent of the expected goals.

Bedard’s line would have even better shot chances if they hadn’t attempted an extra pass on a few different plays. See below for an example of when Bedard passed despite being wide open, but Dach and Nazar both did the same thing at least once each as well. Despite this, Bedard finished with a team-high in shot attempts (5) and shots on goal (4) and tied for the lead in scoring chances (2) at 5-on-5. Dach didn’t have the same quantity, but his quality (0.33 expected goals) just edged out Bedard’s (0.29). Nazar was more of a playmaker in this game than a shot-taker.

Understandably, Dach wanted to stand up for his teammate after the hard hit to Nazar, but he needs to realize this was clean and the timing of giving Nashville a power play in the third period during a one-goal game isn’t ideal.

Joe Veleno joined the team in Nashville, replaced Philipp Kurashev on the fourth line, and did fine in his first game as a Blackhawk. He told reporters before the game that he thinks he’s “got more to [his] game offensively than [he’s] shown,’’ though he’s focused on playing a well-rounded game first. We’ll have to really see about the former — the trio of Veleno, Pat Maroon, and Lukas Reichel couldn’t get anything going offensively and were pretty buried in terms of possession (shot attempts 13-3 favoring Predators) — but individually he was solid defensively for the most part. At 25, he’s neither considered young nor old by hockey standards, so it’ll be interesting to see what he can bring to the table. And his arrival does allow for Reichel to play wing, where he is objectively better.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Steven Stamkos (NSH) — 3 goals
  2. Arvid Soderblom (CHI) — .927 save percentage
  3. Alex Vlasic (CHI) — 1 goal

What’s Next

The Blackhawks only get a day to rest before they head to Denver to take on the Colorado Avalanche Monday at 8 p.m.

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