The Nashville Predators and the Chicago Blackhawks meet in NHL action from the United Center on Sunday.
The Nashville Predators come into this game looking to bounce back from a 3-2 loss at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks in their last game. Roman Josi leads the Predators with 12 points including a team-high 8 assists and a team-best +4 plus/minus rating while Mikael Granlund and Matt Duchene each have 10 points with Granlund logging 8 assists of his own while Duchene has a team-high 5 goals. Ryan Johansen, Filip Forsberg and Tanner Jeannot each have 4 goals as well this season. Juuse Saros has made 9 starts in goal for Nashville, going 5-4 with a 2.34 GAA and a .923 save percentage this season.
The Chicago Blackhawks will look to bounce back from a 5-1 loss at the hands of Winnipeg in their last game. Patrick Kane leads the Blackhawks with 11 points including 5 goals and 6 assists while Seth Jones has a team-high 10 assists. Alex DeBrincat also has a team-high 6 goals while Jonathan Toews and Dominik Kubalik each have 6 points with Toews logging 6 assists while Kubalik has 3 goals and 3 apples. Marc-Andre Fleury has made 8 appearances for the Blackhawks, going 1-7 with a 4.11 GAA and an .881 save percentage while Kevin Lankinen is 0-2-2 with a 3.56 GAA and an ,881 save percentage this season.
Nashville is 5-1 in their last 6 games overall and 37-16 in their last 53 games against a team with a losing record while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games following a win. Chicago is 1-6 in their last 7 home games and 6-20 in their last 26 games overall while the under is 2-0-2 in their last 4 games against the Western Conference.
I get the case that can be made for the home team in most spots, as home ice is a definite advantage in the NHL. However, the Chicago Blackhawks are a diaster to put it nicely, and there’s just no saving this team right now. I’m not the biggest fan of the Predators, but we’re getting a coin flip price with Nashville playing the far better hockey right now. Give me the Preds in this one.