If you have Chicago Sports Network available, tonight we’ll get the Blackhawks’ debut on the new network. So we’ve got that going for us, which is nice. The Blackhawks are sending a veteran group to Minnesota tonight and we should expect Friday night’s game, also against Minnesota, to look like Opening Night.
With most of the extra bodies already in Rockford, there are only a few roster spots still up for grabs. So tonight will be a big tryout night for a few guys hoping to open the season with the Blackhawks.
Broadcast Info
Puck Drop: 7:00 PM CT
TV / Streaming: Chicago Sports Network (where available)
Radio: WGN 720 AM
Expected Lineups
Chicago Blackhawks
Tyler Bertuzzi — Connor Bedard — Philipp Kurashev
Taylor Hall — Andreas Athanasiou — Lukas Reichel
Nick Foligno — Jason Dickinson — Ilya Mikheyev
Pat Maroon — AJ Spellacy — Craig Smith
Alex Vlasic — Seth Jones
Kevin Korchinski — Connor Murphy
Isaak Phillips — Louis Crevier
🥅 Drew Commesso (full game)
Arvid Söderblom
Minnesota Wild
Karill Kaprizov – Ryan Hartman – Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson – Joel Eriksson Ek – Liam Ohgren
Marcus Foligno – Marco Rossi – Yakov Trenin
Jakub Lauko – Marat Khusnutdinov – Frederick Gaudreau
Jonas Brodin – Jared Spurgeon
Daemon Hunt – Brock Faber
Declan Chisholm – Zach Bogosian
🥅 Filip Gustavsson
Marc-André Fleury
Injury Report
Chicago Blackhawks
- Artyom Levshunov (foot) and Laurent Brossoit (knee) are out. Wyatt Kaiser is still out.
Minnesota Wild
- n/a — it’s preseason
What to Watch For
- Again, today is the first day of Chicago Sports Network. Let me know if you have it. Because… I don’t. Not yet.
- I will be watching AJ Spellacy in what might be his last NHL preseason game.
- Kurashev is getting a night back on Bedard’s wing after playing so well there last year.
- This is a big night for both Reichel and Athanasiou; neither has been overwhelmingly impressive in camp but Hall has seemed to elevate the play of whomever has been on his line.
- Lots of NHL regulars on both sides tonight so should be a good battle (if you can see it). Oh, and Faber is on Minnesota’s second defensive pair.