The Chicago Blackhawks will play the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday in Game 1 of their NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Final 2015. Both teams will know how important it is to draw first blood, and especially the Lightning will see a home victory today as vital.
Tonight's big NHL Stanley Cup Finals game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Tampa Bay Lightning has a scheduled start time of 8 p.m. ET and takes place from the Amelie Arena in Tampa, Florida. The game will be shown on TV on the NBC network, but can also be watched online through live stream via the link below.
The Blackhawks will be looking towards their star line up, which includes names such as Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa, Duncan Keith and Corey Crawford, to carry them to victory tonight and put them on the way to a Stanley Cup title.
Chicago have rode a tough route to the final, and needed a dramatic 5-3 Game 7 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in the Western Conference Final to make it through to face the Lightning in this year's climax game.
Meanwhile, the Lightning also boast a line-up packed with big names, such as Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov, and captain Steven Stamkos, and they will be looking to get their noses in front from the start tonight.
The Lightning had an equally difficult time getting here to face the Blackhawks, needing all seven games to dispose of the New York Rangers. Ultimately it was a 2-0 road victory that saw them home in the Eastern Conference Final, and showed that Tampa Bay's big names can perform under the highest of pressure situations.
While many will see these teams as pretty evenly matched, the Blackhawks have the advantage in one vitally important area - experience. The core of this Chicago team took part in the Blackhawks' Stanley Cup wins in 2010 and 2013, and those experiences could prove the difference when things come to the crunch in this year's final.
The Lightning have done fantastically well this season, but they have nowhere near the experience when it comes to game time in the latter stages of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Tampa Bay in fact have not made a Stanley Cup Final since 2004, and that remains their one and only Stanley Cup title.
Tampa Bay will be desperate to claim the first goal tonight, as they are 9-0 in the Playoffs this year when scoring first. Chicago meanwhile, will see the opening two periods as the time when they can lay the foundations for a win; through the entire regular season and the Playoffs, the Blackhawks have never lost when ahead at the end of the second period, going an amazing 32-0-0.
This year's Stanley Cup Final is set to be a tight and tense one, and one that no NHL fan will want to miss.
Tonight's Game 1 between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Tampa Bay Lightning will start at 8 p.m. ET and can be watched through NBC Sports live stream by clicking here.
