{"id":324416,"date":"2025-10-22T17:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T17:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/324416\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T17:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T17:50:11","slug":"jeff-blashill-makes-1st-return-to-tampa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/324416\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Blashill makes 1st return to Tampa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coach Jeff Blashill<\/a> is bringing a competitive and scrappy Chicago Blackhawks team to Tampa Bay with a chip on its shoulder.<\/p>\n

While the Hawks (3-2-2) will be looking for their fourth victory in five games Thursday against the Lightning (5:45 p.m., Hulu, ESPN+), Blashill also reiterated his warm feelings for the team for which he spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had an unbelievable experience over my three years there,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t win enough come playoff time, but it doesn\u2019t downplay the experience I had.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great city. I love the group that I worked with there, the coaching staff, the trainers, the equipment managers (and) everybody involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lightning were coming off three straight Stanley Cup Final appearances, including championships in 2020 and \u201821, when coach Jon Cooper hired Blashill to his staff in July 2022. They went 138-86-22 during Blashill\u2019s three seasons as an assistant, losing in the first round of the playoffs each year.<\/p>\n

As the Hawks look to continue exceeding early expectations, the Lightning (1-3-2) haven\u2019t played their best hockey to start the season.<\/p>\n

Still, they\u2019re talented enough to kick into another gear at any point. Blashill knows this as much as anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have some of the best power-play guys in their particular positions in the league,\u201d Blashill said of the Lightning during training camp. \u201cI thought (Lightning assistant coach) Jeff Halpern did a great job as a coach. \u2026 They have some really, really good players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blashill has some surging players of his own. Connor Bedard recorded his seventh point of the season Sunday, assisting on Ryan Donato\u2019s overtime goal<\/a> against the Anaheim Ducks while also showing his ability to angle his shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got such a good shot that it\u2019s really hard to smother those shots, so there\u2019s definitely rebounds,\u201d Blashill said of Bedard. \u201cHe\u2019s a great passer, but I like that he gives that shot vitality because it creates some chaos as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would be a huge gain for the Hawks if they can come out of Benchmark International Arena with a victory. Regardless of the result, Blashill won\u2019t take the return for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get to see my family, so that\u2019s nice,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going (to Tampa) to win a hockey game, but I don\u2019t want to downplay the fact that I\u2019m going to see my family and see great friends.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coach Jeff Blashill is bringing a competitive and scrappy Chicago Blackhawks team to Tampa Bay with a chip…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":324417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,291,5386,1818,86182,16068,3106],"class_list":{"0":"post-324416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-jeff-blashill","13":"tag-nhl-hockey","14":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115419088433979838","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}