The Chicago Blackhawks (3-2-2) return to play following three days off when they face the Tampa Bay Lightning (1-3-2) at Benchmark International Arena on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
New head coach Jeff Blashill, who\u2019s got his young team rolling with three wins in the last four games, makes his return to Tampa Bay after spending the past three seasons as an assistant coach with the Lightning. Blashill squares off against his good friend Jon Cooper for the first time since being hired by the Blackhawks.<\/p>\n
Last time out, the Blackhawks bested the Anaheim Ducks 2-1 in overtime on Sunday at the United Center, with Ryan Donato scoring the game-winning goal after a great effort from Connor Bedard. Spencer Knight was tremendous once again in net to earn his second win of the season, stopping 38 of 39 shots faced.<\/p>\n
Donato enters Thursday riding a four-game point streak and has also found the back of the net in three consecutive games. The 29-year-old forward is tied for the team lead in goals (3) and has a three-game point streak (2G, 1A) at Benchmark International Arena (renamed this year).<\/p>\n
With the primary assist on Donato\u2019s game-winner, Bedard has four points over his last three games and is tied with Frank Nazar for the most points on the Blackhawks (7). Bedard has six points (3G, 3A) in four career games against the Lightning.<\/p>\n
The Lightning have been slow out of the gates this season, as they\u2019ve picked up only one win through their opening six contests. Cooper\u2019s squad has lost its last three games entering Thursday, with two coming in overtime. Tampa defeated the Boston Bruins 4-3 on Monday, Oct. 13, for their lone victory.<\/p>\n
Jake Guentzel leads the Lightning in points with six (1G, 5A), while Victor Hedman (5A) and Brayden Point (2G, 3A) have each tallied five points. Anthony Cirelli has a team-leading three goals. Former Blackhawks forward Brandon Hagel hasn\u2019t been his usual self so far this year, with only one assist in six games.<\/p>\n
Blackhawks Regular Season Notes (Last Five Games)<\/p>\n
In the home opener at the United Center, Kaiden Guhle scored the game-winning goal with only 15 seconds left in the third period. That gave the Blackhawks three consecutive losses<\/a> to begin the season. <\/p>\n FINALLY, Jeff Blashill got his first win as the Blackhawks\u2019 new head coach with a 3-1 victory over the Utah Mammoth<\/a>. Ilya Mikheyev led the way with two goals, while Spencer Knight was excellent once again in net.<\/p>\n The Young & Fun Blackhawks<\/a> have officially arrived. Connor Bedard & Lukas Reichel each tallied three points in a dominant 8-3 win over the St. Louis Blues. What a statement made on national television. <\/p>\n Tyler Bertuzzi\u2019s late goal that was waived off for goaltender interference got all the attention, but the Blackhawks\u2019 sloppy second period<\/a> was what cost them in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Canucks.<\/p>\n Connor Bedard wouldn\u2019t be denied in overtime, as he set up Ryan Donato for the game-winning goal to beat the Anaheim Ducks 2-1. Here are 10 takeaways from the Blackhawks\u2019 third win in their last four games<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2024-25 Results vs. Lightning<\/p>\n The Blackhawks split the season series with the Lightning last year, with the road squad winning both meetings. Tampa Bay has had Chicago\u2019s number, however, since coming out on the wrong end of the 2015 Stanley Cup Final. The Lightning are 21-3-2 in the past 26 matchups with the Blackhawks since that postseason series.<\/p>\n 01\/24\/25 4-3 OTL, United Center<\/p>\n 01\/28\/25 4-1 W, Benchmark International Arena<\/p>\n Projected Blackhawks Lineup<\/p>\n Forward Lines<\/p>\n Lukas Reichel-Connor Bedard-Tyler Bertuzzi<\/p>\n Teuvo Teravainen-Frank Nazar-Ilya Mikheyev<\/p>\n Sam Lafferty*-Ryan Greene-Ryan Donato<\/p>\n Landon Slaggert-Nick Foligno-Colton Dach<\/p>\n Defensive Pairings<\/p>\n Alex Vlasic-Sam Rinzel<\/p>\n Kaiser-Levshunov<\/p>\n Matt Grzelcyk-Connor Murphy<\/p>\n Louis Crevier<\/p>\n Scratched<\/p>\n F \u2014 Andre Burakovsky (maternity), F \u2014 Sam Lafferty*<\/p>\n Injured<\/p>\n G \u2014 Laurent Brossoit (hip), F \u2014 Jason Dickinson (undisclosed)<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n The Blackhawks were without Jason Dickinson and Andre Burakovsky for their morning skate on Thursday. Dickinson will miss his second straight game with an undisclosed injury, while Burakovsky remains away from the team after his wife gave birth to their second child on Monday.<\/p>\n With Burakovsky set to be out of the lineup for the first time this season, Lukas Reichel is getting bumped up to the top line with Bedard and Bertuzzi, which is a big-time opportunity for him.<\/p>\n Blashill had 12 forwards and seven defensemen go through line rushes at the morning skate, and it\u2019s unknown which forward of the group will end up being scratched. It\u2019s likely between Sam Lafferty, Landon Slaggert, and Colton Dach. Lafferty has been scratched in each of the last four games, so perhaps Blashill wants to keep him fresh and gets him into the lineup against the Bolts.<\/p>\n Lightning Projected Lineup<\/p>\n Forward Lines<\/p>\n Jake Guentzel-Brayden Point-Gage Concalves<\/p>\n Brandon Hagel-Anthony Cirelli-Nikita Kucherov<\/p>\n Oliver Bjorkstrand-Yanni Gourde-Pontus Holmberg<\/p>\n Curtis Douglas-Dominic James-Mitchell Chaffee<\/p>\n Defensive Pairings<\/p>\n Victor Hedman-J.J. Moser<\/p>\n Ryan McDonaugh-Erik Cernak<\/p>\n Emil Lilleberg-Darren Raddysh<\/p>\n Scratched<\/p>\n F \u2014 Jack Finley, D \u2014 Charle-Edouard D\u2019Astous<\/p>\n Injured<\/p>\n D \u2014 Max Crozier (undisclosed), F \u2014 Zemgus Girgensons (upper body), F \u2014 Nick Paul (upper body)<\/p>\n GOALTENDING MATCHUP<\/p>\n Spencer Knight (2-2-1, 1.96 GAA, .937 Sv%, 0 SO) vs. Andre Vasilevskiy (0-2-2, 3.50 GAA, .886 Sv%, 0 SO)<\/p>\n Knight looks to continue his remarkable start to his first full season with the Blackhawks in his sixth appearance on Thursday. Knight is 3-1-0 with a 3.11 GAA and .901 Sv% in three career regular-season games against the Lightning.<\/p>\n Vasilevskiy is the unconfirmed starter for the Lightning, but with the team having four days off coming into Thursday, I\u2019m guessing Cooper goes with his No. 1 netminder. Vasilevskiy has also been lights out during his career against the Blackhawks, with a 13-0-0 record, 2.14 GAA, .930 save percentage, and 1 shutout in 13 games.<\/p>\n How To Watch, Listen, & Game Info<\/p>\n Chicago Blackhawks (3-2-2) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (1-3-2)<\/p>\n 5:45 p.m. CT \u2014 Benchmark International Arena<\/p>\n TV\/Stream: ESPN+ (Wischusen\/Mleczko), HULU<\/p>\n Radio: WGN 720 AM (Wiedeman\/Granato)<\/p>\n For more Blackhawks news, visit Chicago Hockey Now<\/a> and like our Facebook Page<\/a>.<\/p>\n Follow us on X:<\/p>\n @chihockeynow<\/a>, @JackBushman2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Blackhawks (3-2-2) return to play following three days off when they face the Tampa Bay Lightning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5105],"tags":[4253,37717,96,508,58,5,4446,3140,189,8669,4,6614,488,540,92,5168,5167],"class_list":{"0":"post-263750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-lightning","8":"tag-andre-burakovsky","9":"tag-blackhawks-game-day","10":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","11":"tag-connor-bedard","12":"tag-featured","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-jason-dickinson","15":"tag-jeff-blashill","16":"tag-lightning","17":"tag-lukas-reichel","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-ryan-donato","20":"tag-spencer-knight","21":"tag-tampa-bay","22":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","23":"tag-tampabay","24":"tag-tampabaylightning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115428718473042886","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}