Morning Chirps: Possible landing place for Murphy, Vanacker pads goal lead

The Chicago Blackhawks didn’t have a lot of time to celebrate last night’s win and Oliver Moore’s birthday. They are right back at it tonight by hosting the scorching-hot Tampa Bay Lightning. If you’re heading to the United Center, make sure you’re bundled up. If you’re staying home under a blanket, be sure to follow our gameday coverage throughout the day and evening.

Blackhawks Chirps

• The Blackhawks stole two points from the Carolina Hurricanes last night, thanks to the hard work of the penalty kill and the youngster doing the heavy lifting. Check out my postgame thoughts in case you missed them last night.

• Our newest contributor, Nicholas Giannone, wrote about a possible reunion between the Blackhawks and star forward Artemi Panarin. It’s highly unlikely they will be in on the dynamic Russian forward at the trade deadline, but they should call his agent if he hits free agency this summer.

• Anton Frondell scored the game-tying goal in Djurgårdens’ 3-2 overtime loss to Brynäs IF. He had three goals and four points in his four games since returning from the World Junior Championship. In 29 SHL games, he has 13 goals and 19 points. Djurgårdens is in the 10th and final playoff spot. They own a two-point cushion on Linköping HC with 14 regular-season games left.

• On Wednesday, Jack Pridham got to within one goal of the Ontario Hockey League lead. Last night, Marek Vanacker extended his lead to two with his 31st goal of the season. He also added an assist in the Brantford Bulldogs’ 5-4 overtime loss to the North Bay Battalion.

• On this date in 1972, Bobby Hull extended his team-record point streak to 21 games with a goal and an assist in a 4-0 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

• Blackhawks Birthday Roll Call, Jan. 23: Randy Boyd

NHL Chirps

• Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic weighed in on the situation in Toronto. The Maple Leafs’ blue line has been ravaged by injury, and they are looking to add someone sooner rather than later. Could this be a landing spot for Connor Murphy? LeBrun also mentioned that the Edmonton Oilers want to add a top-nine forward. Jason Dickinson or Ilya Mikheyev could fit the mold of what they are looking for.

• John Shannon had an interesting conversation about when the Winnipeg Jets will decide to be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline. He had an interesting answer when asked if Jonathan Toews could be moved if the Jets don’t make a move in the standings.

• Scoring in threes was a theme in the NHL last night. The Boston Bruins scored three goals in 54 seconds in the first period of their win over the Vegas Golden Knights. The Pittsburgh Penguins racked up a trio of goals in only 37 seconds to start a 6-2 blowout of the Oilers. This was only the third time in NHL history that two teams scored three goals in less than a minute on the same day.

• Steven Stamkos scored three times last night for his 16th career hat trick, the third most among active NHL players. The third goal was the game-winning goal as the Nashville Predators erased a 3-0 deficit and beat the Ottawa Senators 5-3. His second goal moved him ahead of Marcel Dionne into ninth place on the league’s all-time list for power-play goals with 235.

• Predators’ captain Roman Josi became the first player in franchise history to play 1,000. Everybody wore No. 59 Josi jerseys for pregame warmups, and his kids came in to help dad read the starting lineup.

• NHL Birthday Roll Call, Jan. 23: Brendan Shanahan, Richard Smehlik, Thomas Holmstrom, Joel Bouchard, Scott Hannan, Leo Komarov, Alexander Holtz, and Sandis Vilmanis.