James Gordon
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Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks.
The reigning Stanley Cup champions Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning face off in the first regular season game at Amalie Arena in Tampa.
In the United States, the game (starting at 8 p.m. Eastern Time) will be broadcast by NBC Sports Network. But if you don’t have cable, you can watch Blackhawks vs Lightning online for free:
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You can watch live NBC Sports Network and more than 100 other TV channels on FuboTV, which you can try for free with a seven-day trial:
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If you can’t watch the game live, FuboTV also offers DVR cloud storage and a 72-hour replay feature that allows you to watch the game for three days after it ends, even if you don’t record the game.
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If you subscribe to Sling TV, you can watch Blackhawks vs Lightning live through the Sling TV application available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV, LG Smart TV, Android TV, airTV Mini, Oculus, Portal, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. You can also watch TV on your computer via the Sling TV website.
If you can’t watch live, Sling TV offers 10 hours of cloud video.
You can watch NBC Sports Network and more than 65 other live TV channels on Hulu with Live TV, which you can try for free with a seven-day trial:
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If you subscribe to Hulu with Live TV, you can watch Blackhawks vs. Watch Lightning live with the Hulu app on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Samsung Smart TV, LG Smart TV, Android TV, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. You can also watch it on your computer through the Hulu website.
If you can’t watch live, Hulu also offers 50 hours of DVR in the cloud with Live TV (with the option to upgrade to Enhanced Cloud DVR, which gives you 200 hours of DVR storage and the ability to fast-forward through commercials).
Blackhawks vs. Lightning Preview
Chicago finished the 2019-20 season with a record of 32-30-8, last in the Central Division. However, the Blackhawks snuck into the postseason and ended up playing spoilers. They defeated the Edmonton Oilers (3-1) before eventually losing in five games to the Vegas Golden Knights (1-4).
The Blackhawks just extended head coach Jeremy Collison’s term to two years, and he recently revealed that improving his team’s performance on the power play will be a focus this season.
This is largely a transformation. When you look at the power play, you have to try to separate it a little bit because you can’t control it to a certain extent. Steering, installation and disassembly can’t be pushed in the wrong direction when you’re on the move. You try to create volume, you try to create quality on the power play. Of course we’re not happy. We know we need to improve there, Collidge said, according to NBC Sports.
Patrick Kane led the Blackhawks with 33 goals last year. The veteran scored eight goals and 14 assists in 19 career games against the Lightning, so he will be an important player to watch.
As for the Lightnings, they finished second in the Eastern Conference last season with an overall record of 43-21-6, beating the Columbus Blue Jackets, Boston Bruins, New York Islanders and finally the Dallas Stars (4-2) in the finals. Tampa Bay will be at a much greater disadvantage this season, however, as the team will be without last year’s top scorer, Nikita Kucherov, who is recovering from hip surgery. Kucherov led the team with 33 goals last season and will be greatly missed by the Lightning.
How will Tampa Bay fill the incredible void left by their top scorer? Head coach John Cooper says it will be a group effort.
I think there’s probably a group of guys fighting over a spot right now. If you lose the third line or something, players can usually get in the game and you won’t miss a beat. But when you lose a player who contributes so much to our team, especially on the offensive side, you can’t just sit here and talk. Now, which one of you is going to come forward? I think it’s something like: Okay, we lost a key player on the offensive side for us; how do we deal with that as a band? said Cooper on The Score.
Last season, the two teams split the series 1-1.
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