Chicago Blackhawks: Thinking about the preseason schedule

August is a long boring month for hockey fans, but the preseason is right around the corner and Chicago Blackhawks fans should be pumped.

The Chicago Blackhawks are looking to be a much better team in 2019-20 than they were in the previous two seasons that saw them miss the playoffs each time. They have made some nice additions this offseason and are just a little more than a month away from getting their preseason schedule underway. There is a little wrinkle at the end of the preseason this year that should have fans excited.

Their NHL portion of the preseason starts on September 16th and will go through the 28th. In that span, they will play the Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins, and Detroit Red Wings twice each. Even for the preseason, there are potentially some very fun matchups for the Hawks in those games.

Then to close out the preseason portion of the schedule, the Blackhawks will make a team trip to Europe. They will play their final preseason game of the year in Berlin, Germany when they take on Eisbären Berlin on September 29th. This is always a fun opportunity as the locals get to see what it is like to see an NHL team in person. It is going to be a dream come true for Berlin players and fans for them to be able to take on the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Blackhawks will then remain in Europe to open their regular season against the Philadelphia Flyers in Prague, Czech Republic. It is definitely a fun wrinkle to the end of camp and the beginning of the season for both teams. Fans of the sport should be excited that the league is doing things to grow the game on a global scale.

All of these preseason games are going to be broadcasted on NBC Sports Chicago except for one. The last North American preseason game against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden in Boston is not going to be televised or on the radio. Every other game will be on ESPN Radio 1000 except the home game vs the Bruins which has a TBD station. That is a good amount of access to the preseason action even though we’d like to watch all of the games locally. It is a big step ahead, however, of where the franchise once was as far as television.

October can’t come soon enough for the regular season so you might as well get excited for September so you can at least watch hockey in some form. The preseason will also be fun because it will be an opportunity to watch players who may or may not make the final cut against other NHL players. It is an opportunity to watch how they are developing and get a grasp on where they are at. The games are meaningless but what you are watching is not.