The Chicago Blackhawks, fresh off of trading away seemingly half of the roster at the trade deadline, came into Saturday evening’s action having lost their last three games in a row, and doing their best to ice a terrible team night in and night out that can get them hopefully to the first-overall pick in the upcoming draft. Oh wait, it is not tanking, sorry; it is building for the future. In either case, the Blackhawks would look to see if they could get back into the win column at home against the visiting Nashville Predators.
— In the first period, the Blackhawks looked like they might make good on picking up a win, with Lukas Reichel making a breakout pass to Seth Jones. He then got the puck over to Andreas Athanasiou, who got the puck back to Jones to backhand it past Juuse Saros to make it 1–0 Blackhawks early in this one.
— At the 9:36 mark of the frame, the Blackhawks were shorthanded, and on the power play, Yakov Trenin ripped a shot from the middle of the ice that was saved by Petr Mrazek, but Philip Tomasino was right there to clean up the rebound and tie everything up at 1–1.
— The Blackhawks would get another really good chance, with the 14-15-16 line out on the ice. Jujhar Khaira kicked the puck to his stick and got it out in front to Joey Anderson, who rang a shot off of the crossbar, meaning the game stayed tied through the end of one.
— After a lot of back and forth, with the Blackhawks honestly getting way more chances than the Predators, Tyson Barrie got the puck at the point, and one-timed a shot that deflected in past Mrazek, giving the Predators the lead, 2–1. Philipp Kurashev tried to block it, the puck went off of his stick and past Mrazek. The period would end with the score keeping the Predators ahead of the Blackhawks.
— Unfortunately, the third period would come and go as well without the Blackhawks being able to put a puck past Saros to tie it. They got a few good chances, but with the goaltender pulled, the Predators’ Colton Sissons was able to put the puck into the open net, giving the Predators the 3–1 win.
The Blackhawks are back in action on Monday night against the Ottawa Senators. Coverage begins at 8 p.m. CST on NBC Sports Chicago.