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Game Time: 7:30PM
TV/Radio: WGN Ch. 9, WGN-AM 720
Mike Fisher Foundation For Women’s Rights: On The Forecheck
Nothing like a quick turnaround to act as a palate cleanser after the Hawks’ first 0-2-0 start ever in the Quenneville era. Or for the more reactionary set, another opportunity to get in line to get off a sinking ship.
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PUCK DROPS: 7pm Tonight, 7:30pm tomorrow
TV: CSN Tonight, WGN Tomorrow
YELLOW COLLARED TWEEKERS: On The Forecheck
POWER PLAY (’15-’16): Hawks 22.6% (2nd) Predators 19.7% (10th)
PENALTY KILL (’15-’16): Hawks 80.3% (22nd) Predators 81.2% (16th)
Trends To Watch: James Neal has 14 goals in 23 career games against the Hawks, Jonathan Toews has 35 points in 41 games against Nashville
With some personal commitments for all of us and Game 1 taking most of our attention anyway tomorrow, let’s just set up this old school divisional home-and-home all at once. After a pretty stinging loss to open the season, it’ll get no easier for the Hawks as they’ll open the Predators season, perhaps the most anticipated in Music City in their entire history.
How many Yellow Submarine references am I allowed for this? That should be the last one. After all, there’s nothing jolly about the Russians, right?
After winning two of the past three World Juniors, one would think that youth would be starting to spread onto the top international team for Finland. It doesn’t usually work out like that for international teams though. Russia’s win in Buffalo five years ago didn’t propel them to much, and the US team that won in 2013 hasn’t made huge inroads to the senior team (mostly because the core of that junior team is jammed up on Team North America).
So while the future could be bright for Finland, the present just isn’t quite there. Though it might help if their coach wasn’t making a baffling decision in net.
Well, that kicked up a notch, didn’t it?
After Brooks Orpik’s pretty gross hit on Olli Maatta in Game 2 you figured that there would be some kind of retribution. You would have gotten pretty short odds on it being known-hothead and lunatic Kris Letang taking a late run at Marcus Johansson, because that made sense. Once again the refs made things worse when they thought they were making things better by keeping Letang in the game. When you don’t eject someone for a hit that late and that malicious, you’re basically asking the other team to take runs at him all night which is just going to escalate the silliness into something no one wants. And that’s what they got. Maybe one day the NHL will hire refs with balls, but I’m fairly sure I’ll be nothing but dust in the wind by the time they do.
It was one of those weird games where the game was taking a backseat to news off the ice. Do the Hawks always lose the game where they make a trade? Or am I basing that off them getting thoroughly beaten in Tampa last year when they got Timonen and Vermette? I’m probably just making that up. Anyway, the Hawks did have a game to play while the Andrew Ladd trade was being polished off, and it ended in a loss where the Hawks didn’t do anything particularly wrong other than run into Pekka Rinne during his only streak of competence this season. That’s his fourth straight start of giving up two goals or less, and thanks to some spectacular saves, especially in the 1st period, he backstopped the Preds to a 10th unbeaten on the road in a row.
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Game Time: 7:00PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN, NBCSN, SportsNet East, WGN-AM 720
Napalm The University of Tennesee Athletic Department: On The Forecheck
Tonight’s game will conclude the season series between the Hawks and Preds. And while the Hawks have already won the season series outright(3-1-0), the Predators have exposed some of the flaws in the composition of the Hawks’ roster in the process. And they’ll catch the Preds during their most productive streak of the season, having taken points in 7 straight games, and winning four straight games on the road, and eight of their last nine.
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FACEOFF: 7pm Central
TV/RADIO: CSN, NBCSN, Sportsnet, WGN 720
WHERE YOU GOIN’, CITY BOY? On The Forecheck
The Hawks hit the home stretch before the All-Star break with a trip down south. It starts in Nashville before doing the Florida swing later in the week. They’ll see a Predators team that last week thought it had solved its biggest problem, and this week may have figured out it has one it can’t do anything about.
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Game Time: 7:30PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN Plus, SportsNet, WGN-AM 720
All The Young Dudes: On The Forecheck
Tonight with the visiting Predators on the frigid near west side, the Hawks will close out a four game homestand before a swing through the two self-appointed capitals of the hockey universe in Toronto and Montreal, and close out January playing 6 of its final 8 games on the road. And the team the Preds ice tonight is drastically different than the one they brought about a month ago, and not necessarily for the better.
We have Kristopher Martel from OnTheForecheck.com (@kmartel_sports) and JRLind from NashvillePost.com (@JRLind) to answer our questions about the Preds before tonight’s game.
Easy enough to know where we’ll start. Your feelings on Johansen-Jones? We know the Preds have never had a #1 center and Johansen is very good, but Jones looked to be a future Norris winner and it seems at least a little steep.
JR: Obviously Seth Jones is already amazing and is going to be amazing for years to come. What this trade tells us is A) David Poile is comfortable with Ellis and Ekholm long-term and B) Shea Weber isn’t for sale. The trade upset me for a lot of non-hockey reasons – Seth was great with kids, good in the community, really committed to growing the game and really easy to deal with – but from a hockey standpoint, the Preds obviously felt like Jones was going to get in a traffic jam and the franchise has needed a center for 18 years now. With Johansen at 23, under contract for a couple of years and headed into another RFA period, it’s a good deal to make.
Martel: Plenty of folks weren’t bothered at all that Nashville gave up Jones for Johansen, however I may be one of the few that felt as if the price was steep, but necessary, for a player of Johansen’s caliber. Johansen has already shown Nashville what he’s capable of and how dynamic of a center he is, but was it worth giving up Jones? Right now, it’s impossible to tell. Jones had a definitive ceiling with Nashville in the name of Shea Weber — as long as he was around, Jones would never see his true potential realized with the Predators. Now with Columbus, he’ll be able to play those top minutes. Ultimately, I think Nashville wins the trade now, but it could even out as time goes on.
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PUCK DROP: 7pm
TV/RADIO: CSN, WGN Radio
GIMME GIMME GIMME THE HONKY TONK BLUES: On The Forecheck
The ol’ home and home. This used to be a staple of the NHL schedule when you had to play everyone in your division 12 times or whatever it was back in the day. They were usually on Saturday and Sunday nights, and the Sunday nights at the Old Stadium against either the North Stars or Leafs generally became something our Lord Jim Ross would describe as “Looks like a Saturday night on a payday weekend in Muskogee!” Why yes, I do have a requirement of how many times I use that phrase per season. And yes, I did go the long way round to get to it today. And I don’t care!
