Morning Chirps: Lardis receives rookie honor, Wild win on phantom goal

The Chicago Blackhawks are back in action tonight against the Vancouver Canucks. They will look to right the ship after earning just one point in the first three games of this six-game road trip. Stay tuned for a game preview and postgame thoughts throughout the day and night.

Blackhawks Chirps

Nick Lardis was named the American Hockey League’s Rookie of the Month for October yesterday. The 2023 third-round pick started his professional career off with a bang. In eight October games for the Rockford IceHogs, he scored four goals and 12 points to go along with a plus-11 rating.

• Staying with Lardis, Chris Peters of FloHockey writes that he has proven that he hasn’t lost his scoring touch from the Ontario Hockey League.

• Did the Blackhawks make a mistake by letting Philipp Kurashev walk, or is his recent production with the San Jose Sharks just smoke and mirrors? Todd Matthews stopped by to tackle that question.

• Alex Shapiro writes that there is another Blackhawk, not named Connor Bedard, who should also be considered for the Olympics. Sounds like a thought from someone who knows what he’s talking about!

• Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times spoke to Connor Murphy about his diminishing role and shrinking playing time.

• On this date in 1983, the Blackhawks made league history during a 10-5 loss to the Minnesota North Stars. Ken Yaremchuk and Darryl Sutter set the record for the fastest two goals by the same team to start a period. Yaremchuk scored 12 seconds into the frame, followed by Sutter’s goal nine seconds later.

• Blackhawks Birthday Roll Call, Nov. 5: Victor Posa and Sergei Berezin.

NHL Chirps

• Former Blackhawks defenseman Alec Reguka was activated from injured reserve by the Edmonton Oilers. He creates a logjam on their back end with Ty Emberson and Troy Stecher. Per Elliotte Friedman, Stecher, the oldest of the three defensemen, is working on a resolution with the team. He’s been scratched multiple times and is looking for a fresh start elsewhere.

• The Canucks placed forward Vitali Kravtsov on unconditional waivers to terminate his contract. Rick Dhaliwal reported that he will sign a three-year contract with Traktor Chelyabinsk in the KHL.

• The St. Louis Blues released veteran forward Milan Lucic from his professional tryout contract (PTO). However, he is staying within the organization, as he signed a tryout contract with their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds.

• The Minnesota Wild beat the Nashville Predators in overtime despite never putting the puck in the net. The net was already knocked off its moorings when Marcus Johansson put the puck off the side of the net, not into it. Somehow, the refs awarded the Wild the goal and the win. It’s crazy that the NHL was celebrating a terrible call by the officials.

• Mikko Rantanen scored his 300th career goal to help the Dallas Stars beat the Oilers 4-3 in a shootout. He is the fourth Finnish-born player to hit this milestone, joining Teemu Selanne (684), Jari Kurri (601), and Olli Jokinen (321). The Oilers had a 2-0 lead after the first period, so this is the first time in team history that they have lost four games when leading by multiple goals in the first 15 games of the season.

• NHL Birthday Roll Call, Nov. 5: Baldy Cotton, Cooney Weiland, Neil Komadoski, Brian Curran, Lance Pitlick, Ken Sutton, Alexei Yashin, Sean Brown, Nikita Zherdev, Toby Enstrom, Keaton Ellerby, Matthew Neito, Colton Sissons, and Matty Beniers.