The Blackhawks are 2-4-1 and come into Friday night’s home game against Nashville… ahead of the Predators (1-5-0) in the Central Division. After bringing in some marquee free agents and becoming one of the teams many of us circled as a potential division winner in July, the start of this season has been a disaster for the Preds. Which makes them extremely dangerous tonight.
Nashville has only played one of their first six games on the road. The good news is they finally picked up their first win of the season in their last start, so some of that pressure is off. But this is still a very good, talented, veteran team coming into the United Center. The Blackhawks must start this game on time to avoid the same script we watched against Vancouver.
Broadcast Info
Puck Drop: 7:30 PM CT
TV / Streaming: ESPN+ / Hulu
Radio: WGN 720 AM
Expected Lineups
Chicago Blackhawks
Nick Foligno — Connor Bedard — Teuvo Teräväinen
Taylor Hall — Philipp Kurashev — Tyler Bertuzzi
Ilya Mikheyev — Jason Dickinson — Ryan Donato
Pat Maroon — Lukas Reichel — Craig Smith
Alex Vlasic — Seth Jones
Wyatt Kaiser — Connor Murphy
Nolan Allan — TJ Brodie
🥅 Petr Mrázek
Nashville Predators
Filip Forsberg — Ryan O’Reilly — Gustav Nyquist
Steven Stamkos — Colton Sissons — Jonathan Marchessault
Mark Jankowski — Tommy Novak — Luke Evangelista
Zachary L’Heureux — Michael McCarron — Cole Smith
Brady Skjei — Roman Josi
Jeremy Lauzon — Alexandre Carrier
Marc Del Gaizo — Luke Schenn
🥅 Juuse Saros
Injury Report
Chicago Blackhawks
- Alec Martinez (groin) and Laurent Brossoit (knee) are on IR.
Nashville Predators
- Spencer Stastney is on IR.
What to Watch For
- The Blackhawks will need to be aware of L’Heureux on every one of his shifts. He’s a cheap shot artist who has been suspended ten times in his hockey career, including once for sucker punching Colton Dach in the back of the head last year.
- Bedard has one goal this season. The dam is going to break at some point. Let’s hope he gets that party started tonight.
- The Predators come into tonight’s game playing poorly. They’re last in the Central Division. And yet this will be the first time we see Stamkos in a non-Lightning jersey in Chicago. I’m always fearful of really good teams that are struggling when they face the Blackhawks. The team should be, too.