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Blackhawks vs Lightning Live Stream: How to Watch Without Cable

Blackhawks vs Lightning watch

Getty Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks and the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning will clash in the regular-season opener at Amalie Arena in Tampa.

In the United States, the game (8 p.m. ET start time) will be televised on NBC Sports Network. But if you don’t have cable, here’s how you can watch a live stream of the Blackhawks vs Lightning online for free:

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FuboTV

You can watch a live stream of NBC Sports Network and 100-plus other TV channels on FuboTV, which you can try for free with a seven-day trial:

FuboTV Free Trial

Once signed up for FuboTV, you can watch the Blackhawks vs Lightning live on the FuboTV app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV, or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV, Android TV, iPhone, Android phone, iPad, or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via the FuboTV website.

If you can’t watch live, FuboTV also comes with cloud DVR space, as well as a 72-hour look-back feature, which allows you to re-watch the game within three days of its conclusion, even if you don’t record it.


Sling TV

You can watch a live stream of NBC Sports Network and 40-plus other TV channels via Sling TV’s “Sling Blue” package. It’s the cheapest streaming service with NBC and NBCSN, plus you can get $10 off the first month, and get Showtime, Starz, and Epix included for free:

Get Sling TV

Once signed up for Sling TV, you can watch the Blackhawks vs Lightning live on the Sling TV app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV, or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV, LG Smart TV, Android TV, airTV Mini, Oculus, Portal, iPhone, Android phone, iPad, or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via the Sling TV website.

If you can’t watch live, Sling TV comes included with 10 hours of cloud DVR.


Hulu With Live TV

You can watch a live stream of NBC Sports Network and 65+ other TV channels via Hulu With Live TV, which you can try out for free with a seven-day trial:

Hulu With Live TV Free Trial

Once signed up for Hulu With Live TV, you can watch the Blackhawks vs Lightning live on the Hulu app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV, or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Samsung Smart TV, LG Smart TV, Android TV, iPhone, Android phone, iPad, or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via the Hulu website.

If you can’t watch live, Hulu with Live TV also comes with 50 hours of Cloud DVR storage (with the ability to upgrade to “Enhanced Cloud DVR,” which gives you 200 hours of DVR space and the ability to fast forward through commercials).


Blackhawks vs Lightning Preview

Chicago finished its 2019-20 campaign with a record of 32-30-8, which was last in the Central Division. Still, the Blackhawks snuck into the postseason and wound up playing spoiler, knocking the Edmonton Oilers out (3-1) before eventually losing to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games (1-4).

The Blackhawks just inked head coach Jeremy Collison to a two-year extension, and he recently revealed that improving his team’s performance on the power play will be a point of focus this season.”

“A lot of it is conversion. When you look at your power play, you got to try to separate that out somewhat because to some extent, you can’t control it. Post and in and post and out, you can’t let that push you in the wrong direction as far as where you’re moving. You’re trying to create volume, you’re trying to create quality on the power play. Certainly, we’re not happy. We know we need to get better there,” Collision said, per NBC Sports.

Patrick Kane led the Blackhawks with 33 goals last year, and the veteran has eight goals and 14 assists in 19 career games against the Lightning, so he’ll be a key player to watch.

As for the Lightning, they finished last season in second place in the Eastern Conference with a 43-21-6 overall mark, beating the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Boston Bruins, the New York Islanders and finally, the Dallas Stars (4-2) in the final. Tampa Bay will be at much more of a disadvantage this season, however, as the team will be without last year’s leading scorer Nikita Kucherov, who is recovering from hip surgery. Kucherov led the team with 33 goals last season, and the Lightning are going to miss him dearly.

How will Tampa Bay fill the incredibly large void left by its top scorer? Head coach Jon Cooper says it’s going to be a group effort.

“I think there’s a group of guys right now who are probably vying for spots. If you lose a third-liner or something like that, usually players can jump in and you’re not really going to miss a beat. But when you lose a guy who contributes so much to our team, especially on the offensive side, I don’t think you can sit here and say, ‘Well, which guys are going to step up?’ I think it’s like, ‘OK, we lost an important player on the offensive side of things for us; how as a group are we going to deal with this?'” Cooper said, per The Score.

These two teams split their series last season, 1-1.