Either the Nashville Predators or the Chicago Blackhawks will be in a playoff spot before sunset today, and the Predators will try to start a new winning streak to ensure it's them.
The Preds and Hawks face off this afternoon at 2 p.m. CT at Bridgestone Arena, as Nashville finishes its three-game homestand, and they'll be looking to win its third game in the last seven days against Chicago. The Predators saw their six-game winning streak conclude on Thursday night, as they fell to the Stars, 4-1.
While the loss was disappointing, Nashville has won eight of their last 10 overall, and thanks to their success as of late, the Preds have been able to work their way back into the postseason conversation in the Central. They currently hold that fourth spot in the division just ahead of the cutoff line, and the Predators would prefer to stay there with 18 games to go in the regular season.
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Game Day: Blackhawks vs. Preds Preview
Nashville and Chicago Face Off in Afternoon Tilt for Fourth Place in Central Division
© Nashville Predators
"There's lots of good things that we've done, and obviously, the No. 1 most important thing is, I think we understand what we need to do to be able to win games and be a difficult team to play against," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said following Thursday's loss. "The lesson out of this game is when we get away from that, we're not as good of a hockey team. It's understanding, which we do, what does it take for us to be able to have success? You've got to take a couple things out of this game, but there's a big game coming on Saturday... I think the most important thing is just really take the lesson from it, make a couple points with the group tomorrow and make sure that we're mentally and physically ready to play the way that we need to against Chicago on Saturday."
The Predators did not practice on Friday, and they will not hold a morning skate today with the afternoon start. Earlier in the week, the Preds announced forwards Filip Forsberg, Matt Duchene and Brad Richardson, as well as defensemen Ryan Ellis, Mark Borowiecki and Luca Sbisa were all week-to-week with their respective injuries.
Noon CT Update: The Preds have recalled forwards Michael McCarron and Mathieu Olivier, as well as defenseman Jeremy Davies, from the taxi squad. Forward Tommy Novak has been recalled to the taxi squad from Chicago (AHL). Defenseman Alexandre Carrier is out 3-5 weeks with a lower-body injury. Defenseman Mark Borowiecki has been placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury (week-to-week).
The Good Guys:
Colton Sissons scored the lone goal for Nashville on Thursday and Juuse Saros took the loss in net. Eeli Tolvanen saw his six-game point streak come to an end on Thursday night; he finished with three goals and nine points during the span, and the six-game stretch finished tied for the second-longest point streak by a rookie in franchise history.
Preds Captain Roman Josi is the team's healthy leading scorer with 21 points (4g-17a) followed by Calle Jarnkrok (11g-7a), Tolvanen (9g-9a) and Viktor Arvidsson (5g-13a) with 18 points apiece. Saros is 10-7-0 on the season; Pekka Rinne is 9-11-1 in net.
The Opposition:
After dropping a pair of games to the Preds last weekend in Chicago, the Blackhawks beat Carolina on Tuesday before falling to the Hurricanes on Thursday by a 4-3 count. Patrick Kane leads the Hawks with 49 points (13g-36a), followed by Alex DeBrincat with 36 points (19g-17a) and Dominik Kubalik with 27 points (12g-15a). Kevin Lankinen has gone 13-9-4 in net for Chicago this season; Malcolm Subban is 4-5-1.
All-Time Meetings:
The Predators are 57-50-(4)-10 all-time against the Blackhawks, including a 32-22-(3)-3 record at Bridgestone Arena. The Preds have earned at least a point in 13 of their last 16 games against the Blackhawks (11-3-2). Nashville has limited Chicago to two-or-fewer goals in 14 of their last 16 meetings.
This will be the fifth of eight meetings between the two teams this season and the third at Bridgestone Arena. Nashville is 4-0-0 versus Chicago in 2020-21. A victory would give the Predators five over the Blackhawks this season; it would be their second-most wins in a single season against Chicago and the most since claiming six victories in 2005-06.
Today's contest will be the 122nd time the Predators and Blackhawks clash in the regular season, Nashville's most games played against a single opponent.
Notables Versus Chicago:
Mikael Granlund has 25 points (7g-18a) in 35 career contests versus the Blackhawks. Mattias Ekholm has a goal and seven assists in his last 12 games versus the Blackhawks. He's recorded 14 points (2g-12a) and a +18 rating in 33 career games against Chicago.
Ryan Johansen has 23 points (6g-17a), including six multi-point games, in 37 career regular-season meetings with the Blackhawks. Viktor Arvidsson has recorded a point in five of his last 10 contests against Chicago (4g-2a), including his record-breaking 34th goal of the 2018-19 season on April 6, 2019, the most in a single season in Preds history.
Watch & Listen:
Coverage for today's 2 p.m. CT puck drop from Nashville begins at 1:30 p.m. CT with the Predators Live! pregame show on Bally Sports South hosted by Lyndsay Rowley and Terry Crisp. Willy Daunic, Chris Mason and Kara Hammer have the call on the television side, while Pete Weber and Hal Gill will broadcast on 102.5 The Game and the Predators Radio Network. Pregame coverage on the radio begins at 1 p.m. For broadcast information and channel locations throughout the country,
click here
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All of Bally Sports South's channel locations and programming remains the same
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Streaming Info:
Listen to a Live Radio Feed
(only active during the game broadcast window).
Watch a Live Stream of the game
on the Fox Sports Go App or
Watch on NHL.TV
\As we transition to Bally Sports, one of our primary goals was to ensure that local fans and subscribers everywhere still get their teams whenever and wherever they want. The FOX Sports GO app will remain functional until the transition is complete. Once the Bally Sports app becomes widely available, the FOX Sports GO app will update to the all-new Bally Sports app. If a fan has updates enabled, the app will transition automatically; if not, they will need to manually update the app.
