Morning Chirps: Frondell to sit for Worlds opener, Canadiens roll to huge road win

The puck drops in Switzerland later today, but one Chicago Blackhawks player will miss his country’s first game. Happy Friday, here are your Morning Chirps!

Blackhawks Chirps

• Roman Kantserov signed his entry-level contract with the Blackhawks yesterday, so I gave you a small taste of what he will bring to the lineup next season.

• Scott Powers of The Athletic spoke to general manager Kyle Davidson about Kantserov, and he’s just as excited about his arrival as the fans are.  

• For even more Kantserov content, make sure you sign up for the Blackhawk Up Newsletter for some bonus content sent right to your inbox!

• The IIHF World Championship starts today. Teuvo Teravainen and Finland take on Germany, who added former Blackhawks Lukas Reichel to their roster. Sweden opens the tournament against Canada, but it appears that Anton Frondell will not be in the lineup. Both of those games begin at 9:20 am CT. The late games, which start at 1:20 pm CT, feature Team USA versus Switzerland and Czechia versus Denmark. Oliver Moore, Wyatt Kaiser, and Sam Lafferty are expected to be in the lineup for the Americans.

• On this date in 1926, the NHL announced that Chicago and Detroit would each have teams for the upcoming 1926-27 season, bringing the league to 10 teams. The Blackhawks and Detroit Cougars made their NHL debuts the following fall. The Cougars changed their name to the Falcons in 1930 before becoming the famous Red Wings two years later.

• In 1967, the Blackhawks made the worst trade in franchise history by sending Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, and Fred Stanfield to the Bruins for Gilles Marotte, Pit Martin, and Jack Norris. While Pit Martin had a good career with the Blackhawks, this was one hell of a lopsided trade. Esposito became one of the greatest goal scorers in NHL history, while Hodge and Stanfield were two key contributors to two Stanley Cups for the Bruins.

• In 1995, the Blackhawks got their first-ever Stanley Cup Playoff win at the United Center, beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 in Game 5 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals. Murray Craven netted a pair of goals, with Tony Amonte and Joe Murphy capping off the scoring.

• In 2013, the Blackhawks and Red Wings began a memorable Western Conference Semifinals series. The Blackhawks drew first blood with a 4-1 victory. Marian Hossa scored the first goal of the series against his former team, with Johnny Oduya, Marcus Kruger, and Patrick Sharp all scoring in the third period.

• Blackhawks Birthday Roll Call, May 15: Paul Ysebaert.

NHL Chirps

• The Montreal Canadiens are one win away from a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals after a 6-3 beating of the Buffalo Sabres in Game 5 last night. Jason Zucker scored two minutes into the game, and the Sabres took a 3-2 lead into the first intermission after scoring on their first three shots of the night. However, Jakub Dobes was fantastic after his disastrous start, stopping the final 33 shots he faced. Alex Lyon replaced Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen for the third period after Luukkonen allowed five goals on 23 shots. Nick Suzuki (1 G, 2 A) and Juraj Slafkovsky (3 A) finished with three points. Ivan Demidov scored his first career playoff goal in his 17th game. The Canadiens can close out the series back in Montreal on Saturday.

• The Vegas Golden Knights have a date with the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Finals after eliminating the Anaheim Ducks with a 5-1 win. Mitch Marner continued his incredible postseason run by scoring a beautiful goal two minutes into the game. Marner then set up Brett Howden’s shorthanded goal about six minutes later. Former Duck Shea Theodore made it 3-0 late in the opening frame. Mikael Granlund scored a power-play goal late in the second period to give the Ducks some life. They came out pushing in the third period, but Pavel Dorofeyev’s eighth goal of the playoffs at 2:52 killed all their momentum. He added another goal late in the frame to ice the series.
  

• The NHL released the schedules for the Eastern and Western Conference Finals.

• After interviewing multiple candidates, the Vancouver Canucks promoted Ryan Johnson to the general manager role, after serving as the general manager for the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks. The Maple Leafs recently gave a Swedish team legend a front-office job with Mats Sudin. The Canucks upped the ante by naming Henrik and Daniel Sedin Co-Presidents of Hockey Operations.

• In addition to being added to Germany’s World Championship roster, Reichel received a one-year contract extension from the Bruins. The two-way deal is worth $950,000. Not a bad Thursday for the former Blackhawks’ first-round pick.

NHL Birthday Roll Call, May 15: Turk Broda, Pat Hickey, Dave Langevin, Dave Reid, Wes Walz, Nick Holden, Mark Fayne, Jordan Eberle, Dakota Joshua, Jalen Chatfield, Daemon Hunt, and Zachary L’Heureux.

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