Nashville Predators to return to winning ways against Chicago Blackhawks - NHL Preview
Two struggling teams will take to the rink on Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 to end their respective horror runs when the Chicago Blackhawks will face the Nashville Predators at the Bridgestone Arena.
Both the teams are not having a particularly good month, but the situation is especially critical for Chicago and their coach Joel Quenneville.
The Blackhawks are on an eight-game losing streak, which shows no signs of abating.
Chicago, who are currently on a nine-game road trip, have lost every single encounter in February, with five straight away losses as they dropped from top of the Western Conference standings at one point to sixth with a 29-20-7 record.
The poor road performances have become worse with each game with the Blackhawks shutout 3-0 in their last encounter against Phoenix Coyotes.
The struggles of Chicago’s offence have led to rumours coach, Joel Quenneville, facing the sack, with Blackhawks general manager, Stan Bowman, having to deny the rumours on Monday.
Right winger, Patrick Kane, wants the top players to step up and turn around the doom and gloom in the locker room starting with the Predators.
Talking to the Chicago Tribune he said,
"It's easy to point fingers and look around the room to say what's wrong, but for sure the top players need to step up and be your top players. We need to score some goals. We have to take over games, battle, show leadership with the way we're playing so
everyone can kind of follow us."
Nashville, meanwhile, were doing relatively well in January ending the month on a five-game winning run. That run ended in February, as Nashville lost to Philadelphia Flyers and have now lost four of their five games this month.
Those defeats, unlike that of Chicago, were closely fought and Nashville showed great fighting spirit in each of their games.
After the 4-3 shootout defeat to Boston Bruins on Saturday, Nashville will be l*****g their lips at the prospect of hosting a struggling Blackhawks’ side, which they have already defeated twice to start Chicago’s eight-game skid.
Defenseman, Ryan Suter, was not happy with the Predators performance late in the loss to the Bruins and wants his team to perform better against Chicago.
"That was a terrible game for us, we came out slow. In the second period, we looked like a minor hockey team. Second half of the second period we started to play a little bit better. We were very fortunate to get one point."
With the Blackhawks out of form and Nashville’s offence still firing, the Predators will be favourites to win on Tuesday.
Recommendation: Nashville Predators to win.
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