And so we’ve arrived at the dawn of another Blackhawks hockey season, this one with similarly low expectations with regards to where the team will end up in the standings but with a little more intrigue on how it’ll get there based on the influx of young talent over the last season or two that makes this side more interesting to watch than it’s been a while. The initial ask ahead of them? Only a trip to the barn of the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers for Tuesday’s season opener.
But the Panthers are nowhere near 100 percent for this game and won’t be that way all season after team captain, No. 1 center and three-time Selke winner Aleksander Barkov was lost for the season to a knee injury during the preseason. His absence creates a void in the Florida lineup that simply cannot be replaced. Also out for this game is forward Matthew Tkachuk, who is expected to be out until December with a groin injury. Florida still has plenty of talent to fly through the regular season and Tkachuk’s return will likely ensure they find a way into the postseason. But Barkov will be missed most when the team needs him most during those ultra competitive moments between April and June.
As for players who’ll be on the ice in this game: leading scorer Sam Reinhart returns after scoring 81 points (39 G, 42 A) last season along with Carter Verhaeghe (20 G, 33 A) and freshly paid Sam Bennett (25 G, 26 A), who inked an 8-year, $64 million contract extension to remain with the Panthers this summer. Brad Marchand and his annoying face are also here after re-signing with the team that traded for him late last season. The blue line features the mountain of a man that is Aaron Ekblad along with old friends in Seth Jones and Gustav Forsling, with the latter offering a lesson in patience regarding the development of Chicago’s current crop of young d-men, given how much Forsling has ascended in his mid/late-20s. In net, Sergei Bobrvosky remains the fixture at No. 1, although the now 37-year-old goalie is in the final year of a his contract with the Panthers.
Even with a few players out, the Panthers will still offer plenty of problems for the Hawks, boasting a physical, hard-hitting style of hockey that’ll present a rude awakening for Chicago’s youth. As is customary, Florida will be raising its 2025 Cup banner ahead of this game. Once the puck drops, though, the Panthers could still be an ornery bunch after the debacle that unfolded during its preseason finale against Tampa over the weekend.
Panthers lines vs Blackhawks:
— 32 Hockey Updates (@32HockeyUpdates) October 7, 2025
Luostarinen – Lundell -Reinhart
Verhaeghe -Bennett – Marchand
Samoskevich -Rodrigues – Boqvist
Greer -Kunin -Gadjovich
Forsling -Ekblad
Mikkola – Jones
Kulikov -Petry
Bobrovsky
Tarasov
Scratched: Schwindt, Balinskis.
Injured: Tkachuk, Nosek,…
As for the Hawks, there’s not much else to say around these parts that hasn’t been discussed ad nauseum for the last few weeks. We’ll be getting our most thorough look yet at all the kids who will hopefully achieve a level of success similar to what the guys on the other bench have achieved in the last few years.
Alex Vlasic remains out while healing from that preseason skate cut and Landon Slaggert is on IR, replaced by Ryan Greene on the fourth line. Everyone else is accounted for, with the lineup on Tuesday likely being what was on the ice during Monday’s practice:
Blackhawks in practice Burakovsky-Bedard-Donato Bertuzzi-Nazar-Teräväinen Mikheyev-Dickinson-Dach Foligno-Greene-Lafferty Grzelcyk-Rinzel Kaiser-Levshunov Del Mastro-Murphy Vlasic-Crevier
— Scott Powers (@scottpowers.bsky.social) October 6, 2025 at 12:12 PM
No one said any of this was going to be easy. Might as well rip off that band-aid and crank the difficulty up to 11 for the first game of the season, eh?
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Panthers
44.09% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 55.52% (2nd)
43.03% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 55.14% (2nd)
2.73 (26th) — Goals per game — 3.00 (15th)
3.56 (31st) — Goals against per game — 2.72 (7th)
44.8% (31st) — Faceoffs — 49.4% (20th)
24.9% (7th) — Power play — 23.5% (13th)
79.3% (14th) — Penalty kill — 80.7% (10th)
(All stats from last season)
How to watch
When: 4 p.m. CT
Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
TV: ESPN
Webstream: ESPN+, Hulu
Radio: WGN 720