The up-and-coming Chicago Blackhawks will look to snap their four-game losing skid when they host the Nashville Predators on Friday.
The Blackhawks have been mired in some tight contests as three out of the four games on their current losing streak (0-3-1) have been one-goal defeats, surrounded by a 9-3 torching by the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 21.
Their most recent effort culminated in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday.
Connor Bedard and Jason Dickinson each scored for the Blackhawks and 2024 second overall draft selection Artyom Levshunov tallied his first career NHL goal in the loss.
Wednesday marked Chicago’s second straight loss to divisional opponents as they fell 1-0 to the league-leading Colorado Avalanche on Sunday.
Bedard, the Blackhawks’ leading scorer with 33 points (14 goals, 19 assists) in 23 games, was asked about the team’s mindset following back-to-back critical losses.
“Immediately after you’re always going to be frustrated after a loss, but I think there are so many games and you can’t take every game as a Game 7,” Bedard said. “At the end of the day it’s everyone in our conference and our division is so tight and every point matters, so we gotta figure out how to win, but at the end of the day it’s over now.
“We gotta see what went right, see what went wrong and just keep improving.”
While Nashville is also a divisional opponent for the Blackhawks, the Predators haven’t given many Central Division rivals much reason to worry so far this season.
Heading into Friday’s action, the Predators sit dead last in the NHL with just 18 points through 23 games.
Nashville did pick up an impressive come-from-behind victory Wednesday when they took down the Detroit Red Wings 6-3 on the road.
Entering the final frame down 2-1, the Predators pulled together a five-goal third period to snap their three-game losing skid in which they were outscored 15-3.
Michael Bunting tallied the Predators’ opening goal, while Nick Blankenburg, Roman Josi, Ryan O’Reilly, Erik Haula and Steven Stamkos all scored in their triumphant third period.
Blankenburg was asked about Nashville’s outburst in the final frame.
“It’s just huge,” Blankenburg said. “There’s no quit in this team, I think we’ve seen that throughout this year. It’s just huge for us. We just said we just need one game to kind of get us going and obviously feels good (Wednesday) and we’ll enjoy it.”
Josi’s third-period goal marked his first goal since returning on Nov. 22, following a 12-game absence due to an upper-body injury.
Nashville’s captain and former Norris Trophy winning defenseman has now collected a total of seven points (two goals, five assists) across 11 games this season.
Chicago will be hoping that donning their fan-favorite black alternate jerseys for the first time this season will bring them some added luck against a Predators’ squad that has dominated this matchup of late, winning 19 of the previous 23 meetings.
