(7) NASHVILLE PREDATORS vs (2) CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Hawks have many strengths on their side. For most of the year, their success came from the blueline out. The tandem of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook may be the league\u2019s best. That said, they\u2019re not as deep as they were earlier this season on the back end. They shipped Cam Barker to Minnesota and his replacement, Kim Johnson, is day-to-day with what is likely a concussion. Puck mover and power-play specialist Brian Campbell is also out with a broken clavicle and rib after he took a vicious hit from Alexander Ovechkin in March.<\/p>\n
The Hawks\u2019 blueline remains solid \u2013 especially since Keith and Seabrook will play 30 minutes a game \u2013 but they\u2019ll turn to their extremely deep forward corps as their main backbone in these playoffs. Jonathan Toews should be a force in the playoffs. Given his size, hands and outstanding faceoff ability, it\u2019s no wonder he plays his best in big games. Patrick Kane is the team\u2019s top scorer and extremely tough to handle given his speed and stickhandling ability. Then there\u2019s Marian Hossa, who is looking to reach a third consecutive Cup final.<\/p>\n
All that and we haven\u2019t touched on Chicago\u2019s outstanding supporting cast, comprised of role players like Dustin Byfuglien, Patrick Sharp and Andrew Ladd. All of them are comfortable playing a physical game but have scoring touch, too.![\"Sports](\"http:\/\/affiliates.commissionaccount.com\/processing\/impressions.asp?btag=a_3953b_677\")
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So how will the plucky, well-coached Nashville Predators keep pace? First off, they\u2019ll rely on their excellent defense corps. Shea Weber is the envy of most NHL teams thanks to his bonecrushing hits and howitzer of a slap shot.<\/p>\n
To have a chance, Nashville needs him to dominate like he did for Canada in the Olympics. Dan Hamhuis and Ryan Suter are also excellent minutes eaters who can chip in offense when needed.<\/p>\n
But Nashville\u2019s downfall in this series will be its inability to score. Sure, the Blackhawks\u2019 netminding tandem of Anti Niemi and Cristobal Huet is a major question mark entering the playoffs, but I\u2019m not convinced Nashville has the firepower to test them. Its leading scorer, Patric Hornqvist, finished with a measly 51 points this season.<\/p>\n
Five Blackhawks finished with 51 or more points; Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith both had more than 51\u00a0assists<\/em>.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s nothing against Preds starter Pekka Rinne, but he\u2019s simply not the type of talent who can steal a series in goal.<\/p>\n
Even if he stands on his head, he won\u2019t get enough help from the team in front of him offensively.<\/p>\n
Given that Chicago scored the third most goals and allowed the fifth fewest in the league this season, it\u2019s simply too deadly a matchup for Nashville to handle. Expect a very short series.<\/p>\n
Prediction: <\/strong>Blackhawks in five.<\/p>\nCLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT SPORTSBOOK.COM\u2019S NHL HOCKEY BETTING LINES FOR THIS WEEK’S MATCHUPS!!!!<\/h3>\n
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\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 7 game series between the Nashville Predators and the Chicago Blackhawks opens on Thursday night, here’s the odds and our prediction for the series. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[10330,27701,27694,21458,27734,27735,27736,27737,27738,27683,27691,27692,27674],"class_list":["post-21197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nhl","tag-10330","tag-2010-stanley-cup-futures","tag-2010-stanley-cup-playoff-picks","tag-hockey-betting-picks","tag-nashville-predators-vs-chicago-blackhawks-predictions","tag-predators-blackhawks-lines","tag-predators-blackhawks-picks","tag-predators-blackhawks-predictions","tag-predators-vs-blackhawks-series-preview","tag-predators-vs-blackhawks","tag-stanley-cup-playoff-picks","tag-stanley-cup-playoff-prediction","tag-stanley-cup-playoffs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21197"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108177,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21197\/revisions\/108177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}