CHICAGO — Kirby Dach made his season debut Saturday, looking fully recovered from a broken right wrist, but the big center couldn’t help the Chicago Blackhawks overcome a slow start and a couple of costly defensive mistakes during a 3-1 loss to the Nashville Predators at the United Center.
The Hawks entered the game riding high after two consecutive wins over the Florida Panthers, and seeing a familiar No. 77 in a red sweater had to be a huge emotional lift too.
But the Predators jumped to a 1-0 lead on Ryan Johansen’s goal 5 minutes, 10 seconds into the game. The Predators pulled off some slick maneuvers, with Eeli Tolvanen rimming a pass along the boards to Viktor Arvidsson, who backhanded a pass from the goal line to Johansen for a short-range one-timer through Kevin Lankinen’s legs.
Rocco Grimaldi padded the lead with a wrister with 7:02 left in the second period. His goal came after Luke Kunin picked off a David Kampf clearing pass, and the puck dribbled to Grimaldi in the high slot.
Pius Suter scored for a third straight game, punching in a rebound of a Patrick Kane shot with 2:27 left in the second. It was Suter’s 11th of the season.
Any hopes for a rally took a big setback early in the third period when Kunin intercepted Calvin de Haan’s clearing attempt up the slot and connected with Mikael Granlund on a redirect goal to put the Predators up 3-1.
Suter nearly put in a second goal on a rebound, but it bounced around the goal line before Saros knocked it out of danger.
Saros had 29 saves while Lankinen made 31.
With the win, the Predators’ 35 points puts them within two of the Hawks in the Central Division. The Hawks have 21 games left.
For now, they’re likely more focused on the boost Dach will provide as well as salvaging as much time as possible for his development.
Dach, 20, missed the first 34 games while recovering from surgery. He suffered the injury while playing for Canada during a world junior tournament in late December.
On Saturday, Dach played 20 minutes, 9 seconds over 18 shifts and went 4 for 6 on faceoffs. He manned the first-unit power play with Kane, Alex DeBrincat, Carl Soderberg and Adam Boqvist. The power play went 0 for 2.
Dach wasted no time creating a highlight moment, speeding up the ice on a one-man rush and putting a toe-drag deke between defenseman Ben Harpur’s leg to get a clean shot at Saros for the Hawks’ first shot on goal but couldn’t find an opening.
Dach, the No. 3 pick in the 2019 draft, had eight goals and 15 assists in 64 games last season.
