The Blackhawks will play their first game overseas in almost 10 years Sunday when they face Eisbären Berlin in the NHL Global Series at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin, Germany.
Chicago started its 2009-10 Stanley Cup championship season overseas with two exhibition games in Zurich, Switzerland, with a 9-2 win over HC Davos then a 2-1 loss to the host ZSC Lions in the second and final Victoria Cup game. The date of that game coincidentally happens to be exactly 10 years ago from Chicago’s game in Berlin.
The single game competition saw the Champions Hockey League champion play an NHL team. The Rangers defeated Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL 4-3 in the inaugural game.
After splitting a back-to-back in Zurich, Chicago opened the regular season in similar fashion against the Panthers with a 4-3 shootout loss and 4-0 win at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland.
This season’s Blackhawks hope for some better fortunate when they play Berlin, but would gladly take the final season result of the 2009-10 team.
The Blackhawks do not have a German player on their roster for the game after trading forward Dominik Kahun and a 2019 fifth-round pick to the Penguins for defenseman Olli Maatta.
Let’s see how many Hawks jerseys, past or present, I can find tonight.
1. Dominik Kahun (who is Czech-born but grew up and played pro hockey in Germany.)
Worn by Torsten Luck, 22, who lives two hours outside Berlin.
“I was very disappointed he was traded to Pittsburgh.” pic.twitter.com/QRFvfSwVyu
— Jimmy Greenfield (@jcgreenx) September 29, 2019
Chicago, however, does have eight European-born players: Carl Dahlstrom, Erik Gustafsson, Robin Lehner, Anton Wedin and Maatta (Sweden); David Kampf and Dominik Kubalik (Czech Republic); and Brendan Perlini (England).
Perlini and Wedin both rotated in and out of the fourth line during the Blackhawks’ practice Saturday. Corey Crawford will play the first half of the game before Lehner takes over the net.
Gustafsson will see a familiar face in Berlin winger and former Rockford IceHogs teammate Pierre-Cedric Labrie, who was in the Blackhawks organization from 2014-17. Labrie had 30 goals and 58 points and 311 penalty minutes in 178 AHL games for Rockford, but never saw the ice with the Blackhawks.
Related
FEATURE: Blackhawks to Face Former IceHog Labrie in Germany
Blackhawks lineup
Nylander — Toews — Kane
Shaw — Strome — DeBrincat
Saad — Kampf — Kubalik
Caggiula — Carpenter — Perlini
Keith — Gustafsson
Maatta — Seabrook
Koekkoek — Dahlstrom
Crawford
Lehner
How to watch
When: 12:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Mercedes-Benz Arena; Berlin, Germany
TV: NBC Sports Chicago-Plus, NHL Network