The Chicago Blackhawks are going to play the Nashville Predators on Friday night. They are catching them on a bad time.
The Chicago Blackhawks are going to face off against the Nashville Predators on Friday night. This is going to cap off a five-game homestand with the Preds visiting the United Center for the first time this season.
Nashville got off to a truly horrible start this season. Before finally getting their first win of the season on Tuesday night, They were 0-5-0 out of the gate.
Their win wasn't anything to ignore either. It was a dominant 4-0 shutout victory over the Boston Bruins who most consider a power in the Eastern Conference.
A lot of hype surrounded Nashville coming into the season. Most people believed that they were going to be a playoff team with ease. So far, it's not so good.
The excitement came because they signed Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, and Brady Skjei during the off-season. No team impacted their roster with new players more than Nashville.
Will they be able to rise back up and play the way everyone thought they would? Only time will tell.
The Hawks are catching Nashville at the worst time. They got a confidence boost from their big win over the Bruins after the bad start. This is a squad that is going to come into Friday night's game feeling good and rightfully so.
Chicago is not very deep and Nashville will be looking to take advantage of that. Outside of their new players that everybody is hyped over, they have Ryan O'Reilly, Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi, and Juuse Saros to worry about as well.
The Hawks have already beaten the Edmonton Oilers so it isn't like they can't defend good offensive teams. They need to bring that high-end defensive effort again if they are going to beat Nashville.
Scoring is also going to be a big thing for the Hawks in this one. Taylor Hall, Tyler Bertuzzi, Nick Foligno, and Teuvo Teravainen have brought good depth to this team but they need Connor Bedard to score and create goals.
Bedard had tons of chances on Tuesday night against the Vancouver Canucks but he didn't have any luck. Look for that to change in this one against the Predators.
If the Blackhawks are going to be a better team this year than they were last year, they are going to have to play well during challenging games like this one. You can only play who is on your schedule.
It shouldn't matter to Chicago that Nashville is angry but also confident. They should always believe that they can get it done against anyone.
A win here could do wonders for the morale in Chicago's room much like Nashville's win over the Bruins did for them.
Beating the Predators would bring their homestand record to 2-2-0 which they could live with. If the Hawks are prepared for the situation at hand, they have what it takes to get it done.
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