Game Day: Preds at Blackhawks Preview

For the eighth and final time this season, the Nashville Predators and the Chicago Blackhawks will meet, and the stakes have never been higher. The Preds are 6-0-1 through seven outings against the Hawks in 2021, and the lone blemish came on Wednesday night in Chicago, a result Nashville will be eager to avenge.
The Predators took a 4-1 lead early in the third period at United Center just two nights ago, but the Blackhawks scored three goals in fewer than three minutes, before eventually winning, 5-4, in overtime.
Tonight, with eight games remaining on their regular-season schedule, the Preds need to collect every point they can with the playoff race tightening in the Central Division. Tonight in Chicago, they intend on doing just that.
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"This time of year, it's about the end result, and you've got to move past it," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said following the loss. "You can't get too high, you can't get too low, the message doesn't change, the mentality shouldn't change; we've got to make sure that we're ready to go. When you lose a game like this, that's why you stress that when you win or when you lose, you can't get too caught up in the game. We've got to take the lessons, you've got to move on, we get a day here and we will be ready to go Friday."

Forward Eeli Tolvanen returned to the Nashville lineup on Wednesday night after missing seven games due to injury and scored his team's first goal of the contest. Fellow forward Brad Richardson remains day-to-day and is with the Preds in Chicago.
The Predators held meetings and off-ice workouts on Thursday in Chicago. Prior to Wednesday's game, the team reassigned forward Philip Tomasino to AHL Chicago from the taxi squad.
Update: Following Friday's morning skate, John Hynes confirmed the Preds will not have any lineup changes tonight in Chicago.

The Good Guys:
In addition to Tolvanen's tally, Colton Sissons, Mikael Granlund and Luke Kunin scored for the Preds in the loss, while Juuse Saros minded the net. Sissons has eight points (4g-4a) in his last 11 games, and Captain Roman Josi, who recorded an assist on Wednesday, has 21 points (4g-17a) in his last 24 games.
Josi leads the Preds in scoring with 29 points (6g-23a), followed by Viktor Arvidsson with 25 points (10g-15a) and then Granlund (12g-10a) and Calle Jarnkrok (12g-10a) with 22 points each. Tolvanen has 11 goals to go along with 20 points; six of those goals have come on the power play. Saros is 16-9-1 in net for the Predators; Pekka Rinne is 9-12-1 on the season.
The Opposition:
The Blackhawks have 49 points and sit three points behind the Predators for the fourth spot in the Central Division. Chicago has wins in four of their last six games after their first victory of the season over Nashville.
Patrick Kane leads the Hawks with 58 points (15g-43a), followed by Alex DeBrincat with 44 points (23g-21a) and Dominik Kubalik with 30 points (15g-15a). Malcolm Subban, who got the win on Wednesday, is 6-5-1, while Kevin Lankinen is 16-13-4.
All-Time Meetings:
The Predators are 59-50-(4)-11 all-time against the Blackhawks, including a 25-28-(1)-8 record on the road. Nashville is 6-0-1 versus Chicago in 2020-21, tied for its most wins in a single season against the Blackhawks (2005-06).
The Preds have earned at least a point in 16 of their last 19 games against the Blackhawks (13-3-3), holding Chicago to two-or-fewer goals 16 times in that span. This will be the 125th 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 29 points (8g-21a) in 38 career contests versus the Blackhawks. Mattias Ekholm has two goals and eight assists in his last 15 games versus the Blackhawks. He's recorded 16 points (3g-13a) and a +20 rating in 34 career games against Chicago.
Ryan Johansen has 25 points (6g-19a), including six multi-point games, in 40 career regular-season meetings with the Blackhawks. Viktor Arvidsson has recorded a point in six of his last 13 contests against Chicago (4g-3a), including his record-breaking 34th goal of the 2018-19 season on April 6, 2019, the most in a single season in Preds history.
Luke Kunin shares the Preds lead in points against the Blackhawks this season with Granlund, posting seven (3g-4a) in seven games.
Watch & Listen:
Coverage for this evening's 7 p.m. CT puck drop from United Center begins at 6:30 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 6 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.