Morning Chirps: Kurvers Showcase thoughts, Frondell opens regular season

Prospect game or not, any day the Chicago Blackhawks beat the St. Louis Blues is a good day! Today’s Morning Chirps features some highlights and thoughts from last night’s game in Minnesota. Also, the Blackhawks’ top draft pick from this summer dropped the puck on his regular season yesterday.

Blackhawks Chirps

• Spencer Knight inked a three-year contract extension on Saturday. The shorter-term deal gives him some security and a chance to cash in big at 28. It also provides the Blackhawks some more time to let their young goaltending develop and sort out the position.

• The Blackhawks opened the Tom Kurvers with a 3-2 overtime win over the Blues. I listed the three biggest things I am watching for over the two games. The Blackhawks will play the Minnesota Wild today at 3 pm CT.

• One of the things I wanted to see was the guys with NHL experience be the best players. For the most part, we got that last night as Sam Rinzel, Artyom Levshunov, Oliver Moore, and Ryan Greene all had bright spots. Rinzel played confident hockey all night long, and he used his great vision to set up Taige Harding for the Blackhawks' first goal.

Moore’s speed was noticeable from the hop. He was effective all night at 5-on-5 and on the power play and penalty kill. He kept the Blues on their heels every time he stepped on the ice. He won the game by blowing right through first-round pick Adam Jiricek and potting the forehand inside the far post.

• Goaltender Stanislav Berezhnoy was impressive in his Blackhawks goal. He settled in nicely after surrendering an early goal. He made numerous tough saves to get the game to overtime. He showed a lot of quickness moving side to side in the crease, with very little wasted motion. He will back up Drew Commesso with the Rockford IceHogs this season.

• Anton Frondell and Djurgarden returned to the Swedish Hockey League with a 5-4 win over Skelleftea AIK in their regular-season opener. The third overall pick of last June’s NHL Entry Draft did not get a point in his SHL debut. He had three shots on goal with a plus-1 rating in 11:30 of ice time, centering the third line with fellow 2025 first-round pick Victor Eklund. Frondell won five of his nine faceoffs, as well.

• On this date in 1996, Blackhawks forward Tony Amonte scored the game-winning goal in the United States’ 5-2 win over Canada in the final game of the World Cup of Hockey. He finished the tournament with two goals and six points in seven games. Chris Chelios was named to the World Cup All-Star team, as he spent most of the tournament paired with his Blackhawks teammate, Gary Suter.

• Blackhawks Birthday Roll Call, Sept. 14: Christian Soucy.

NHL Chirps

• Yesterday, multiple reports broke that Corey Perry injured himself during a skating session. On Saturday, the Los Angeles Kings announced that the veteran forward underwent knee surgery and will be out for six to eight weeks.

• Columbus Blue Jackets forward Yegor Chinakov is getting ready for training camp. However, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reminds us that he has not rescinded his trade request. Chinakov for Lukas Reichel? Maybe.

• It feels like it is only a matter of time before Jack Eichel and the Vegas Golden Knights get a long-term contract extension done. TSN’s Chris Johnston reported that both sides are happy with a max-term contract of eight years.

• NHL Birthday Roll Call, Sept. 14: Orest Kindrachuk, Craig Laughlin, Tom Kurvers, Mick Vukota, Petr Prucha, David Desharnais, Alex Killorn, Travis Boyd, and Adam Klapka.