Returning home from two tough losses, Chicago will look to right the ship on the season by scoring their first win against division foe Nashville tonight.
The Blackhawks were outscored 8-4 in their first two road games of the year, most of which can be attributed to poor puck movement and a lack of physicality on defense.
Nashville will be looking to at least keep pace with Detroit, as the two teams sit tied in points in this young season.
The Blackhawks will need to stop the bleeding early this year. The Western Conference will be tight, but with an aging Detroit team already showing injury problems, it is certainly winnable provided a team is able to string wins and overtimes together.
For the Hawks, there isn't a lot to write home about. Poor penalty killing and use of power play opportunities have been murderous to Chicago, who went 0-for-8 on power plays against New York and Washington.
- B/R Ticket Guide
They also were lax in the hitting department by frequently allowing both teams to set up for shots and solid passes, which made scoring goals against Cristobal Huet and Nikolai Khabibulin that much easier.
In goal, Huet will get the start in what might be the start of a rotating goalie platoon, where the man with the best career numbers against a given team gets the start over the other. If that is the case, it will help quell any rumblings of a goaltending controversy and give the Blackhawks a good way to evaluate who should be getting the greater number of starts: the younger, free-agent signing Huet or the older, though more impressive in his first start, Khabibulin.
The key for the Predators will be to continue to move the puck well and press what has been a lackluster Chicago back-end, as well as controlling any rebounds that come off of Huet's padding.
For Chicago, the keys are to not turn the puck over against a good shooting Nashville team, force the Predators to take bad shots or make bad passes by being physical on defense, and to slow down J.P. Dumont who has been the Predators sort of "set-up man" in their first two games.
This game will be a huge boost for the Blackhawks, who won't want to fall too far behind in the points column to a team that they will be competing with for a playoff slot yet again this year.
Ray Bogusz can be reached via his comment box or email: raybogusz@yahoo.com.
Is looking forward to writing about the Blackhawks and the rest of the NHL this season.
comments (0) write a comment »
write a new comment
This article has no comments.