Morning Chirps: Ovechkin Scores, McDavid Injured, More Expansion Coming?

The Chicago Blackhawks will hit the practice ice later this morning as they prepare for Saturday’s matinee against the St. Louis Blues. Thursday was a busy night across the NHL, and a Stanley Cup contender suffered more key injuries. Plus, more expansion talk is surfacing. Let’s get to those Friday morning Chirps!

Blackhawks Chirps

• The Blackhawks’ losing streak hit six games last night after a lousy first period doomed them against the Los Angeles Kings.
• CHSN’s Tony Granto sat down with Connor Bedard for a fascinating one-on-one interview that lasted over 20 minutes.
• The Rockford IceHogs put up a nice feature on Samuel Savoie and his road to recovery from a broken leg last season to become one of the most popular players on the team.
• Sacha Boisvert was named the NCHC Rookie of the Year on Thursday. The 2024 first-round pick led the University of North Dakota with 16 goals and 30 points as a freshman. He and his UND teammates will play Western Michigan in the NCHC Semifinals later tonight.

• On Thursday, Ryan Greene and Boston University lost their Hockey East Semifinal against UConn 5-2. BU is ranked eighth in the country, so they will get one of the at-large bids to the NCAA tournament.
• On this date in 1994, the Blackhawks acquired Tony Amonte from the New York Rangers for Stephane Matteau and Brian Noonan.
• One year later, Bernie Nichols scored a shorthanded, power-play, and full-strength goal for his third hat trick of the season. Chris Chelios recorded a career-high five assists in the Blackhawks 7-3 win over the San Jose Sharks.

NHL Chirps

• According to a report from ESPN’s Emily Kaplan, a “strong ownership candidate is emerging” for a potential NHL expansion team in Houston. Dan Friedkin has had multiple meetings with NHL executives to discuss bringing a franchise to the fourth-largest city in the United States. Friedkin is the owner and president of two European football clubs, Roma of the Serie A League and Everton of the English Premier League.
• The Detroit Red Wings’ path to the playoffs got a little more challenging after they suffered two more injuries. Forward Elmer Soderblom and defenseman Erik Gustafsson left Tuesday’s loss to the Washington Capitals with injuries. According to Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now, Soderblom is considered day-to-day, while Gustafsson is still being evaluated. The Red Wings are four points out of the final Eastern Conference Wild Card spot and have to jump over four teams to get there. It’s not looking good in the Motor City.
• Alex Ovechkin scored his 888^th career goal to lead the Washington Capitals to a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. He is now seven goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record. The Great One is expected to start following the Capitals around once Ovechkin gets to within four goals of the record. The Blackhawks play in Washington on April 4. With the victory, the Capitals became the first team to clinch a Stanley Cup playoff berth and reach 100 points.
• The Edmonton Oilers played Thursday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets without the NHL’s leading goal scorer, Leon Draisaitl. To make matters worse, Connor McDavid and Stuart Skinner left the game with injuries. McDavid never came out for the third period after suffering an apparent lower-body injury late in the second period. Skinner was pulled by the concussion spotter late in regulation after he was run into by Gabriel Vilardi. There were no updates on either player from head coach Kris Knoblauch after the game.