Go ahead and make some history tonight, folks! The first regular-season game in the history of the Utah Hockey Club (permanent name still TBD) includes the Chicago Blackhawks. As a reminder: all stats and records are new for the Utah organization; Arizona left their previous everything behind in the desert. So maybe the Blackhawks could put a few benchmarks in the history books (first goal, first power play goal… first loss?).
The Blackhawks will look to start this season as well as they started last year against an opponent not nearly as formidable. Utah just named their first captain late last week so let’s get the 2024-25 season started right!
Broadcast Info
Puck Drop: 9:00 PM CT
TV / Streaming: ESPN
Radio: WGN 720 AM
Expected Lineups
Chicago Blackhawks
Ilya Mikheyev — Connor Bedard — Teuvo Terรคvรคinen
Taylor Hall — Philipp Kurashev — Tyler Bertuzzi
Nick Foligno — Jason Dickinson — Joey Anderson
Craig Smith — Ryan Donato — Pat Maroon
Alec Martinez — Seth Jones
Alex Vlasic — TJ Brodie
Nolan Allan — Connor Murphy
🥅 Petr Mrazek
Utah Hockey Club
Clayton Keller — Barrett Hayton — Nick Schmaltz
Jack McBain — Logan Cooley — Dylan Guenther
Matias Maccelli — Shane Doan’s son, Josh — Lawson Crause
Liam O’Brien — Kevin Stenlund — Alex Kerfoot
Mikhail Sergachev — Sean Durzi
Juuso Vรยคlimรยคki — Michael Kesselring
Ian Cole — Vladislav Kolyachonok
🥅 Connor Ingram
Injury Report
Chicago Blackhawks
- Wyatt Kaiser is still recovering. Artyom Levshunov (foot) and Laurent Brossoit (knee) are out.
Utah Hockey Club
- Nick Bjugstad and John Marino are on IR.
What to Watch For
- Bedard hasn’t been shy with the bright lights on him. Let’s see if he has anything special for the late night viewing crew tonight.
- Give me all of the Mikheyev-Bedard-Terรยคvรยคinen line. And a couple cups of coffee to stay up for the new year beginning late at night.
- The new-look defensive pairs have some work to do to find their chemistry still with Martinez missing time near the end of camp and barely playing in the preseason.