Chicago Blackhawks: Notes on first game in Prague, Czech Republic

• The Chicago Blackhawks are back! They are making their season debut in Europe and it should set the Blackhawks off into an important season on a good note.

Hockey is officially back! There are real games to talk about now and the Chicago Blackhawks are opening their season in Prague, the Czech Republic against the Philadelphia Flyers. The game is a part of the NHL’s Global Series and is a great opportunity for Chicago and Philly to help grow the game across the world.

The Blackhawks face a tough challenge in the Flyers. They have lots of great skilled players in their lineup like Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Shayne Gostisbehere, Sean Couturier, and Ivan Provorov. They also have a stud young goalie named Carter Hart that you need to work very hard to beat. This is a solid challenge for the Blackhawks to begin the season.

The Blackhawks are going to need to have a good game defensively to this Flyers team who is very good offensively. They are also going to be interested to see if Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews can get right back on track to where they were last season when they had career years offensively. There is always a surplus of offense early in the season across the National Hockey League so this could be a great game to get going for them.

Alex DeBrincat signed his contract extension on Thursday morning and avoids worrying about negotiations all year long and he is here to stay. He has the next four years locked down to fair numbers and that is great news for the Blackhawks because he is a very productive player. Based on this recent news, you should expect DeBrincat to have a big first game. There is no doubt that he is feeling really good and that might translate into a strong first game of the season. This should be another great year for him and it all starts today.

The Blackhawks defense is still a question as it has been for a few years now. Calvin de Haan is questionable going into the game and Connor Murphy is out for the game. It is expected that Corey Crawford will get the start in this game. Robin Lehner is there to be the backup this season but he is a starter on a lot of NHL teams. The nod should go to Crawford because he deserves it in a game of this magnitude. Either way, this should be a pretty good duo for the Blackhawks this season in net.

This is an exciting time for fans as they will get to see their team play in an event like the Global Series. Hopefully, this is the first good game of many as they are hoping to be back into the playoffs for the first time since the 2016-17 season.