{"id":474652,"date":"2026-02-27T07:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T07:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/474652\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T07:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T07:54:18","slug":"chicago-blackhawks-lose-to-nashville-predators-4-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/474652\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Blackhawks lose to Nashville Predators 4-2"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASHVILLE, Tenn. \u2014 It was 22 days since the Chicago Blackhawks played an NHL game. That changed Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena.<\/p>\n

The Hawks\u2019 last game here against the Nashville Predators was a illness-plagued fiasco that saw the visitors win behind goaltender Drew Commesso\u2019s first career NHL shutout. It wasn\u2019t the flu that clouded the Western Conference matchup this time, but rather rust.<\/p>\n

While the Hawks\u2019 legs were shaky, Connor Bedard was strong enough to carry the team most of the way.\u00a0 But they fell short in a 4-2 loss in their first game out of the Olympic break.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all felt pretty good about where we were there, especially when (Tyler Bertuzzi) gets that goal,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to manage it a little better and figure out how to close it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connor Bedard ready to play \u2018normal hockey\u2019 again as Chicago Blackhawks return to action after Olympic break<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Bertuzzi\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to find a way to win the game, that\u2019s part of this process of growing, (when) you get the lead, you got to find a way to kill the penalty,\u201d Hawks coach Jeff Blashill said. \u201cIt\u2019s 2-2 and then we kind of let the third one in there, (so we\u2019ve) got to find a way to win that game.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s goals on the man advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne-for-5 is 20%, you\u2019d like for it to be 2-for-5, but it\u2019s not 0-for-5, it\u2019s not always going to look perfect,\u201d Blashill said. \u201c(Their) penalty kill had something to do with it. It\u2019s something we\u2019re going to continue trying to improve on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Predators right winger Matthew Wood scored on the power play at 7:12 to tie the game at 2. From there, the hosts didn\u2019t look back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the first half of the game, we kind of hurt ourselves with our puck play,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cI just thought there wasn\u2019t probably enough poise, not enough support (but) I thought as it went along it got better and then we got better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bedard scored his 24th goal of the season \u2014 a career high \u2014 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\u2019t seem to be affected by the lengthy time off as he sent five shots on goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought (Andr\u00e9 Burakovsky) and (Greene) were unreal tonight, like they have been all year and making it real easy for me,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cI think they set me up for five or six Grade A\u2019s. That\u2019s on me to put one more of those in and maybe it\u2019s a different game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Blashill: \u201cCreated a lot of chances, had a lot of chances, had good jump, that\u2019s the Connor we\u2019ve seen lots of. Good to get him back at center at a full-time basis, (he) took a lot of faceoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Hawks want to start stringing wins together, the rest of the team needs to play with more energy.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It was the blueliner\u2019s first game back from the \u201cprogram\u201d the team placed him in<\/a> over the Olympic break. The individual training was meant to improve his balance of offensive and defensive skills.<\/p>\n

The turnover was a bad break, but it wasn\u2019t all negative for the defenseman. He stopped an almost certain 2-on-1 short-handed opportunity in the third period.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the ongoing story of trial and error for Levshunov. For each bad play, there\u2019s a flash of potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy\u2019s all over him, he probably needs to eat it, but he probably needs better support,\u201d Blashill said of Levshunov\u2019s turnover. \u201cWe took off up the ice like there was no pressure, but there was actually tons of pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he was rusty early. \u2026 I thought he got better as the game went along, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASHVILLE, Tenn. \u2014 It was 22 days since the Chicago Blackhawks played an NHL game. That changed Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5115],"tags":[521,37,96,5263,508,5,3140,231,4,30278,488,9793],"class_list":{"0":"post-474652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-blackhawks","8":"tag-blackhawks","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","11":"tag-chicagoblackhawks","12":"tag-connor-bedard","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-jeff-blashill","15":"tag-nashville-predators","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-olympic-break","18":"tag-spencer-knight","19":"tag-tyler-bertuzzi"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116141520624600652","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}