Chicago at Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay is the defending Stanley Cup champion and the Lightning are favored to win again this season, even though it did suffer a huge loss with Nikita Kucherov. The winger will miss the entire season due to hip surgery. Chicago is also missing a big part of its team as Jonathan Toews is out indefinitely with an undisclosed illness. Tampa Bay has the clear edge in net with Andrei Vasilevskiy, who finished with a 2.56 goals-against average in 2019-20. The Blackhawks will go with Malcolm Subban, who was a backup with the Vegas Golden Knights and has made 66 NHL appearances, mostly in that role. Chicago is in a rebuilding stage after the departure of several top players. Tampa Bay has won eight of the last nine meetings and it is 44-17 its last 61 games overall. Play the Lightning.