Morning Chirps: Frondell scores in OT, Murphy nets his first with the Oilers

The Chicago Blackhawks are off today before closing out their season series with the Minnesota Wild tomorrow night. We’ll see if they add a new player to the lineup for their last crack at their rivals from the Twin Cities.

Blackhawks Chirps

• The Blackhawks have been so close to beating the Wild this year, going beyond regulation in all three games, but haven’t found a way to seal the deal. They overcame another rough force period to force overtime last night, but fell short in overtime. Check out my postgame thoughts, including Artyom Levshunov’s big night and Louis Crevier’s cannon.

• I stopped by the CHGO Blackhawks Postgame Show to break down the game, which had a lot of positives to take from it.

• Ty Glenn gave us a little look into what the Blackhawks are hoping to get from Sacha Boisvert. It’s still unclear when he will make his team debut, as he is waiting for his immigration paperwork to be finalized.

• Anton Frondell had an impressive SHL postseason debut, as he scored the overtime goal to help Djurgardens to a 3-2 win over Malmo Redhawks. They lead their best-of-three series 1-0 and can close it out on Thursday.

• On this date in 1940, the Blackhawks became the first NHL team to take a chartered flight as they flew to Toronto for their Stanley Cup Playoff game against the Maple Leafs.

• In 1956, Hall of Fame head coach Dick Irvin earned his 690th and final career victory as the Blackhawks beat the Boston Bruins 3-2. He held the NHL record for coaching wins until Scotty Bowman got win 691 in 1984.

• In 1967, Bobby Hull became the first player in NHL history to have back-to-back 50-goal seasons, scoring in a 9-5 loss to the Maple Leafs.

• In 2019, Patrick Kane had two assists in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks to reach 100 points on the season. He became only the third player in team history to have multiple 100-point seasons, joining Hull and Denis Savard.

• Blackhawks Birthday Roll Call, March 18: Billy Gardner and Kimmo Timonen.

• NHL Chirps

• The Edmonton Oilers released a brief statement on the health of one of their star players. According to the team, “forward Leon Draisaitl is expected to miss the remainder of the regular season after sustaining a lower-body injury in the first period of the team's game versus Nashville on March 15.”

• The Oilers won their first game without Draisaitl, beating the San Jose Sharks 5-3. Connor Murphy scored his first goal with his new team in the victory, with Jason Dickinson getting the primary assist.

• Seth Jones returned to the lineup for the Florida Panthers last night. He had been out of action since injuring his collarbone during the Winter Classic on Jan. 2. He played 20:16 in his first game back, but the Panthers lost 5-2 to the Vancouver Canucks. They are 25th in the overall league standings, which is not great for the Blackhawks, who are getting their first-round pick this year.  

• The Montreal Canadiens announced that Kirby Dach will miss the next two to four weeks with an upper-body injury. He suffered the injury on Sunday from a hard hit by Jeffery Viel of the Anaheim Ducks.

• The Columbus Blue Jackets stayed red hot under new head coach Rick Bowness by beating the Carolina Hurricanes 5-1 last night. They are riding a 10-game point streak (6-0-4) and have just two regulation losses in their last 23 games. The Blue Jackets are now one point out of a wild card spot.

• NHL Birthday Roll Call, March 18: Bob Nevin, Guy Lapointe, Jack Valiquette, Phil Sykes, Gilles Hamel, Guy Carbonneau, Craig Johnson, Zdeno Chara, Jan Bulis, Vitaly Vishnevski, Matthew Lombardi, Cory Scheider, and Robert Bortuzzo.