NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It was 22 days since the Chicago Blackhawks played an NHL game. That changed Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena.
The Hawks’ last game here against the Nashville Predators was a illness-plagued fiasco that saw the visitors win behind goaltender Drew Commesso’s first career NHL shutout. It wasn’t the flu that clouded the Western Conference matchup this time, but rather rust.
While the Hawks’ legs were shaky, Connor Bedard was strong enough to carry the team most of the way. But they fell short in a 4-2 loss in their first game out of the Olympic break.
“I think we all felt pretty good about where we were there, especially when (Tyler Bertuzzi) gets that goal,” Bedard said. “We’ve got to manage it a little better and figure out how to close it out.”
Bertuzzi’s tiebreaking goal at 3:16 of the third period gave the Hawks a 2-1 lead, but the Predators scored three unanswered goals, handing the guests their seventh loss in eight games.
“We’ve got to find a way to win the game, that’s part of this process of growing, (when) you get the lead, you got to find a way to kill the penalty,” Hawks coach Jeff Blashill said. “It’s 2-2 and then we kind of let the third one in there, (so we’ve) got to find a way to win that game.”
Most of the Hawks were skating back into the NHL pace. They filled six minutes of first-period power-play time with minimal shots on goal, giveaways and no goals.
They broke the dam in the third period when Bertuzzi scored his team-leading 26th goal of the season. Still, the Hawks were 1-for-6 on the power play.
It was a mixed bag, with several shots on goal aligned with giveaways and short-handed chances allowed. Blashill is looking for one thing, though, and that’s goals on the man advantage.
“One-for-5 is 20%, you’d like for it to be 2-for-5, but it’s not 0-for-5, it’s not always going to look perfect,” Blashill said. “(Their) penalty kill had something to do with it. It’s something we’re going to continue trying to improve on.”
Predators right winger Matthew Wood scored on the power play at 7:12 to tie the game at 2. From there, the hosts didn’t look back.
“I thought the first half of the game, we kind of hurt ourselves with our puck play,” Blashill said. “I just thought there wasn’t probably enough poise, not enough support (but) I thought as it went along it got better and then we got better.”
Bedard scored his 24th goal of the season — a career high — at 4:13 of the second period off of a Ryan Greene pass from the boards to tie the game 1-1. The star forward was the only one in white who didn’t seem to be affected by the lengthy time off as he sent five shots on goal.
“I thought (André Burakovsky) and (Greene) were unreal tonight, like they have been all year and making it real easy for me,” Bedard said. “I think they set me up for five or six Grade A’s. That’s on me to put one more of those in and maybe it’s a different game.”
Added Blashill: “Created a lot of chances, had a lot of chances, had good jump, that’s the Connor we’ve seen lots of. Good to get him back at center at a full-time basis, (he) took a lot of faceoffs.”
If the Hawks want to start stringing wins together, the rest of the team needs to play with more energy.
The scoring opened with Predators left winger Filip Forsberg sending an up-close snipe past goaltender Spencer Knight (22 saves) at the 13:50 mark in the first period. Forsberg collected the puck from defenseman Artyom Levshunov, who was forced into a turnover.
It was the blueliner’s first game back from the “program” the team placed him in over the Olympic break. The individual training was meant to improve his balance of offensive and defensive skills.
The turnover was a bad break, but it wasn’t all negative for the defenseman. He stopped an almost certain 2-on-1 short-handed opportunity in the third period.
It’s the ongoing story of trial and error for Levshunov. For each bad play, there’s a flash of potential.
“The guy’s all over him, he probably needs to eat it, but he probably needs better support,” Blashill said of Levshunov’s turnover. “We took off up the ice like there was no pressure, but there was actually tons of pressure.
“I thought he was rusty early. … I thought he got better as the game went along, for sure.”