The Blackhawks need to catch the Predators in order to make the playoffs.
The Hawks are winless in five matchups against the Predators so far this season.
And the Hawks have three games against the Predators this week — first Monday in Nashville, then Wednesday and Friday in Chicago.
The objective couldn’t possibly be simpler.
“It’s not really a situation you see too often where you play a team three times in a row in the regular season,” Patrick Kane said Sunday. “For it to be Nashville and [for us to be] where we are in the standings, we all know the importance of these games.”
The Stars are in the mix, too, and actually now hold the final Central Division playoff spot based on points percentage. They’ll enjoy four consecutive games against the last-place Red Wings this week, too, so the Hawks-Preds series victor likely still won’t find themselves in a playoff spot come Saturday.
But the Hawks can deal with the Stars later — May 9 and 10, their final series — and can’t afford to fall further behind in the meantime.
For all of the challenges and pressures this Nashville series presents, it also offers the Hawks an opportunity to finally get over two humps they’ve been unable to traverse recently.
Coach Jeremy Colliton’s teams have built up a three-year history of faltering in their most important regular-season games.
In 2018-19, the Hawks had won 10 of 12 and pulled within two points of a playoff spot entering two crucial home games Feb. 22 and 24: first against the Avalanche, with whom they were tied for fifth in the Central, and second against the Stars, who occupied fourth.
The Hawks outshot the Avs and Stars 91-60 yet lost both games, 5-3 and 4-3. They ultimately missed the playoffs by nine points; Colliton later described that weekend as the season’s crucial moment.
In 2019-20, the Hawks were 13-6-2 over their last 21 games and within three points of a playoff spot entering a crucial five-game Western Canada road trip from Feb. 9-16. But the Hawks similarly went 1-4-0 on the trip, including two blown-leads-turned-losses against the Jets, the team holding that last playoff spot.
And so far in 2021, the Hawks’ most momentous series was March 27-28 at home against the Preds, when they hoped to build off sweeping the Panthers and getting Kirby Dach back. But they lost both those games, too.
This week, the Hawks can dispel that narrative.
“We’re going to lay it all on the line and see how it comes out,” Colliton said. “We understand you can’t take for granted the opportunity to play in these types of games.”
“The success hasn’t been here as a team...lately where we want it to be,” Kane added. “It’s important for the young guys and [their] development...to play in important games. But it’s just as important for the team and organization, as well.”
The Hawks’ second hump is the Predators themselves, who have dominated their northern rivals dating back to the 2017 first-round debacle.
Since Game 1 of those 2017 playoffs, the Hawks are 5-12-4 — including 0-3-2 this season — against the Preds. Even more pitifully, they’ve scored more than two goals only twice in those 21 meetings (and conceded more than two goals 13 times). They’ve scored just six goals in this year’s five matchups to date.
For the Hawks to finally thrive in a high-pressure moment in a playoff chase would be huge. To do it against the Preds would be even sweeter.
“They play a good team game and they don’t really give up much space through the neutral zone,” Kane said. “We really want to play with speed. If we have to get it in deep and have to forecheck and do it that way, that’s what it is. We have to find a way to beat these guys.”
