The Chicago Blackhawks and Nashville Predators had a Black Friday matchup at the United Center on Nov. 28, the first of four division matchups throughout the season. The Blackhawks wore iconic black jerseys as another part of their season-long Centennial celebration. But the festive post-Thanksgiving mood was squashed by a Predators’ team that came to play, and a Blackhawks’ team that didn’t.
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The Blackhawks lost their fifth straight game, 4-3 to the Predators, who currently rank last in the league in the standings. It was a tough loss, for sure. Let’s get to some takeaways, and where the Blackhawks can go from here.
Not the Blackhawks’ Best Effort
The Blackhawks just never seemed to get their feet under them in this game. You could call it a trap game since the Predators have the worst record in the league. But it’s pretty hard to do that when you’ve lost four straight contests. The Blackhawks should’ve come motivated to win, and they just didn’t.
“I didn’t think we weren’t very good, honestly,” said head coach Jeff Blashill after the game. “We talked last game about how we played probably two pretty good games in a row and didn’t win; and you just keep repeating that, and you’ll get results. I just thought, maybe the first few minutes of the game we were all right, but I didn’t think we were good enough the rest of the way.”
Head coach Jeff Blashill didn’t mince words after the Blackhawks’ loss to the Nashville Predators, saying they didn’t play well at all. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)
The Blackhawks were up 6-1 in shots at the start of the game, and got the first goal of the game as well, courtesy of Ryan Donato. But they finished the first period pretty even, up 11-10 in shots. Their second period woes continued, with the Predators outshooting them 11-6, out-chancing them 14-10 and outscoring them 3-1. The Blackhawks managed nine shots to the Predators seven in the third, and a tally by Teuvo Teravainen brought the score to within one. But then they got into penalty trouble and weren’t able to gain the equalizer.
They just didn’t seem to have their legs or their usual energy, and credit to the Predators for coming with their A-game.
Confidence at an All-Time Low
It’s hard to lose five straight games and not have some confidence issues, especially since four of those five contests were on home ice. The Blackhawks ended their previous road trip a commendable 3-2-1. This home stretch of eight out of nine games was supposed to be an opportunity to build on that. Instead, they’ve only won two of their last eight matchups.
Andre Burakovsky, who returned after three games out due to a hit to the head, alluded to a confidence issue when talking about the team’s struggles in the second frame.
I think it’s got to be a mentality thing. I don’t know, we talked about it, and it happens again. So, I don’t know. We got to figure it out, and we got to figure it out now.
Andre Burakovsky recently returned to the Blackhawks’ lineup after being out with an injury. Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images
Blashill can get a bit philosophical at times, and he did so again when talking about confidence.
Confidence is a funny thing. It’s a huge thing in this game, in sports in general, I guess, in life. My only answer is, you have to kind of earn your own confidence. And you earn it by doing things right. You earn it by competing, your work ethic; you just have to dig in. And I think only the most mentally tough survive in this league, and so we’re gonna have to be mentally tough and dig in.
The Blackhawks are a young group this season, so a losing streak like this (their longest of the season so far) can be a hard thing to fight your way out of. But as always, improving is a process. This will be a test to their resiliency, and hopefully something they can learn from for the future.
Ryan Greene a Bright Spot
Some good news in this game was that 22-year-old forward Ryan Greene continues to impress. He had a stellar outing, scoring a power play goal in the second frame, and generating four shots on net and nine shot attempts in an impressive 18:38 minutes of ice time.
Oliver Moore, who drew the penalty, sets up Ryan Greene, who scores on the power play for his 3rd goal of the season. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/jfR76AnMIW
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) November 29, 2025
Greene logged 2:26 minutes on the power play, as well as 1:28 minutes on the penalty kill. He also added two blocked shots and won four-of-eight faceoffs (50%) when no one else on the team was even close to being even at the dot.
It’s a pleasant surprise the defensive forward is fitting in well on the top line, and his offensive side is coming out. Besides this game, he’s had numerous chances in recent games as well. He was asked how he felt about one finally going in.
It felt good. There’s still some that I feel like I obviously need to score on, and some I’m trying to work on. But yeah, felt pretty good to see one go in.
Blashill likes Greene’s game enough to keep him on the top line even with Burakovsky returning to the lineup, and Tyler Bertuzzi playing on the top line while he was out. He was complimentary of Greene after the game.
Greene is playing really good. He’s just a little bit snake it. If he finishes on some of those, he’s probably one of the top three stars of the week (in the league), to be honest. He’s had a lot of opportunities … stick with it. He’s had a lot of opportunities. (If) you just keep getting those opportunities you’ll score.
The stats back up Greene’s strong play, and the eye test does as well. You can just see Greene’s confidence growing game by game. He’s being extremely aggressive, battling hard on both sides of the puck. It’s been fun to watch.
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The Blackhawks will host the red-hot Anaheim Ducks on Sunday (Nov. 30), who have won four of their last six games and currently rank seventh in the league with 31 points and 15 wins. Then they’ll head out west for a rough four-game road trip. Things aren’t going to get any easier. But the the show must go on. Said Greene,
Obviously it sucks that we’re on a bit of a skid right now. But we’re going to be ready to go for the next one, and then hopefully continue to grow from there.
It’s a long season of ebbs and flows, and the Blackhawks have certainly shown they have the talent and fortitude to turn things around. “What’s encouraging is I know when we play great hockey we can match up with anybody. I think we’ve shown that,” said Blashill. “So now we got to go play great hockey.”
