This one’s going to mean a little something extra.
On Saturday night, the Chicago Blackhawks (3-1-1) welcome the perpetrators of the team’s most shocking playoff exit in this era: the Nashville Predators (2-2-0).
The Hawks suffered their first regulation loss of the season in their last outing, with a controversial offsides challenge triggering a series of events that led to a 5-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild. For the last two games, coach Joel Quenneville has had to do a significant amount of line-juggling among his forwards.
Unfortunately that doesn’t look set to end Saturday with Nick Schmaltz likely to miss the game.