NHL – FREE PLAY: Blackhawks (51) vs. Panthers (52)

The first game of the NHL season features the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers hosting Connor Bedard and the Blackhawks. Florida enters the season without two of their best forwards, Aleksander Barkov (out for the season) and Matthew Tkachuk (two months). The Panthers have the depth to still be a good team despite these injuries, and I think they’re out to show that they can still shut other teams down. With Blackhawks goalie Spencer Knight being in a revenge spot, factored in with the earlier than usual start time of 5 PM ET, I think we’ll get more of a grinding pace. I normally favor overs early in the season, but I’ll go under the 5.5 in this particular spot.