Morning Chirps: Maroon Nominated for Masterton, Panarin Joins Elite Group

The Chicago Blackhawks are back in action tonight as they wrap up this quick two-game road trip at the Boston Bruins. There will also be plenty of prospects in postseason season action tonight. The NHL was saddened by another unexpected loss, while hat tricks were the theme of Wednesday night’s action.

Blackhawks Chirps

• Pat Maroon was named the Blackhawks’ nominee for the Bill Masterton Trophy by the Chicago chapter of the PHWA. The Masterton Trophy is given annually to the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey. Two Blackhawks have won the award since its inception in 1968: Pit Martin (1970) and Bryan Berard (2004).
• General manager Kyle Davidson was Wednesday’s guest on John Shannon’s 100% Hockey Podcast.
• Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times shares Kevin Korchinski’s approach to the upcoming offseason as he looks to gain strength.
• The puck drops on the Frozen Four today in St. Louis. Aiden Thompson and Denver will take on Western Michigan in the first semifinal at 4 pm CT. The nightcap, which starts at 7:30 pm CT, features Ryan Greene and Boston University squaring off with Penn State. The two winners will play for the NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Championship on Saturday at 6:30 pm CT. All three games will be shown live on ESPN2.
• The Ontario Hockey League playoffs continue as all four second-round series begin tonight. Nick Lardis, Marek Vanacker, and the Brantford Bulldogs, the top seed in the Eastern Conference, take on the Oshawa Generals. In the Western Conference, the fifth-seeded Erie Otters, with Martin Misiak and Ty Henry, will face the London Knights, the top OHL team in the regular season. The other side of the bracket has a Blackhawks prospect on each side. The Windsor Spitfires, with AJ Spellacy, will battle with Jack Pridham and the Kitchener Rangers. All series are best-of-seven.

• The Blackhawks won their first Stanley Cup in franchise history on this date in 1934. Mush Marsh scored in double overtime of Game 4 to beat the Detroit Red Wings 1-0. This was the final game for Hall of Fame goaltender and team captain Charlie Gardiner, as he died of a brain hemorrhage the following June.
• On April 10, 1993, Chris Chelios broke Doug Wilson’s single-season team record for assists by defensemen by recording his 55^th helper of the season in a 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. He finished the season with 58 assists, which he tied in 1995-96, and still holds the team record.
• On this date in 2011, the Blackhawks almost became the fourth defending Stanley Cup champion to miss the playoffs the following season. They concluded the regular season with a 4-3 loss to the Red Wings and needed to sweat out the outcome at the Xcel Energy Center. Thankfully, the Minnesota Wild beat the Dallas Stars 5-3, which allowed the Blackhawks to sneak into the final playoff spot.

NHL Chirps

• For the second time this week, the NHL was shocked by a sudden death. Ray Shero, the former Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils general manager, died at 62. Dave Molinari of Pittsburgh Hockey Now remembered Shero, who put together the final pieces of the Penguins team that went to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals in 2008 and 2009 and won it all in 2009.
• Get ready for tonight’s game with all the updates from yesterday’s Bruins practice, courtesy of Boston Hockey Now’s Andrew Fantucchio.
• As James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now recaps, the Devils clinched a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They will play the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round.
• Wednesday was a night of hat tricks across the NHL as Matthew Knies (Maple Leafs), Tyson Foerster (Flyers), Macklin Celebrini (Sharks), and Joel Eriksson Ek (Wild) all lit the lamp three times. Eriksson Ek netted a natural hat trick on his way to his first career four-goal game during a crazy 8-7 overtime win over San Jose. Celebrini became the first 18-year-old in Sharks history to score a hat trick and established a new franchise record for points by a rookie.

• Former Blackhawk Artemi Panarin scored during the New York Rangers loss to the Flyers to become the fifth undrafted player born outside North America to score 300 goals. He joins Stan Mikita (521), Peter Stastny (450), Steve Thomas (421), and Ken Hodge (328). Statsny is the only player on that list who never played for the Blackhawks.