Get your game notes: Blackhawks at Penguins

By Mike HalfordJan 21, 2015, 5:04 PM EST

Tonight on NBCSN, it’s the Pittsburgh Penguins hosting the Chicago Blackhawks at 8 p.m. ET. Following are some game notes, as compiled by the NHL on NBC research team:

TOP STORYLINES

• Hawks look to enter break on a roll: Chicago entered last night’s game vs. Arizona having dropped 3 of its last 4 games, but the Hawks put up 51 shots in a 6-goal outburst to beat AZ 6-1 at United Center.

• Coach Joel Quenneville split up the normal All-Star pairing of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook on defense (Keith played w/ David Rundblad, and Seabrook w/ Niklas Hjalmarsson). He was pleased with the results: “I thought we had more balance, more consistency. It made the minutes more manageable across the board.”

• The Hawks also got important performances offensively:

• Andrew Shaw broke out of a 1-goal-in-22 games skid with 2 goals last night.

• Patrick Kane scored his 200th career goal and added 2 assists; he is now t-3rd in the NHL with 51 pts.

• Jonathan Toews snapped an 11-game goal drought.

• Rookie Teuvo Teravainen scored his 2nd NHL goal and added an assist – his 1st ever multi-point game.

• Penguins heading in the wrong direction: PIT is coming off a 3-2 (OT) loss in Philly last night, and the Pens have now dropped 3 straight (0-2-1 record) and 9 of their last 13 games (4-6-3 record).

• This skid over the last month has turned a 2-pt lead in the Metro Division to a 2nd-place standing, with a much tighter race:

• PIT’s fight-filled game with PHI: Defenseman Kris Letang – the team’s leader in TOI/G and 3rd-leading scorer – was checked from behind in the 1st period last night by PHI F Zac Rinaldo. Letang left the game and did not return, while Rinaldo was given a boarding major and a game misconduct.

• There were 4 fights in the 2nd period, and 93 combined PIM in the game.

• Letang underwent a concussion test, but the results were not divulged. His status for tonight is unknown.

• Rinaldo was offered an in-person hearing by the NHL for the hit, a CBA requirement if a potential suspension is to exceed 5 games. Rinaldo said after the game: “I changed the whole game, man. Who knows what woulda happened if I didn’t do what I did?”

CHICAGO TEAM/PLAYER NOTES

• Patrick Kane has 9 points (3G-6A) in his last 6 games after 1 goal, 2 assists last night.

• With 51 points this season, Kane is t-3rd in the NHL in scoring, 5 points behind league-leader Jakub Voracek. The highest Kane has ever finished in the scoring race is 5th (lockout-shortened 2012-13 season).

• Kane is one of 4 players this season with 20+ goals and 20+ assists (T. Seguin, V. Tarasenko, J. Tavares).

• Jonathan Toews opened the scoring last night vs. AZ, extending his point streak to 6 games (1G-7A).

• He will be one of the two All-Star Captains this weekend, along with CBJ’s Nick Foligno.

• Career vs. PIT: 8 points (6G-2A) in 6 career games.

• Corey Crawford got the night off vs. AZ, and is likely starting tonight. He has lost two straight starts (8 goals against), and has played below his normal standard since injuring his foot at a concert at the start of December.

PITTSBURGH TEAM/PLAYER NOTES

• Chris Kunitz scored shorthanded last night for his 500th career point.

• Kunitz career vs. CHI: 14 points (7G-7A) in 18 career games

• Evgeni Malkin had an assist last night, and now has 10 points (3G-7A) in last 8 games.\

• Sidney Crosby saw his 4-game point streak snapped last night, but he has 8 points (4G-4A), in his last 5 games.

• David Perron also had his 3-game point streak snapped last night, but he has 7 points (5G-2A) in 7 games with the team since being traded from EDM.

• Marc-Andre Fleury was given the night off last night. In his last action, he was pulled from the Penguins 5-2 loss vs. NYR on Sunday early in the 2nd period after allowing 4 goals on 17 shots.

• Fleury’s slump mirrors that of the team; since Dec. 22, he has won just 3 of 11 starts.

• Even though Fleury is on pace for over 65 starts, coach Mike Johnston denied that fatigue or overuse was a serious cause for his All-Star goaltender’s dip in performance: “It hasn’t been a concern for me. I watch him in practice and I watch him in games. Our games have been fairly spread out. There was a string there at Christmas where we had a lot and [backup Thomas Greiss] was out with the mumps. We probably played [Fleury] just a touch more, maybe one game more than we would have at that time.”

• Fleury is still on pace for a career year statistically, and has played especially well this season against the Western Conference in those 8 starts (7-1-0 record, 1.60 GAA, .947 SV%, 3 SO).

Panthers rally, top Golden Knights 3-2 in OT of Game 3 of Stanley Cup final

Associated PressJun 8, 2023, 11:48 PM EDT

Sam Navarro/USA TODAY Sports

SUNRISE, Fla. — Carter Verhaeghe scored 4:27 into overtime and the Florida Panthers pulled off some more postseason dramatics to beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday night.

Matthew Tkachuk tied it with 2:13 left in the third period for the Panthers, who got the franchise’s first title-series game win in seven tries. Florida had to fend off a power play to start overtime, and Verhaeghe got the winner from the slot to get the Panthers within 2-1 in the series.

Game 4 is Saturday night.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 25 shots for Florida. Adin Hill made 20 saves for Vegas, but got beat on the only shot that came his way in overtime.

Brandon Montour also scored for Florida, which pulled Bobrovsky down 2-1 late in the third for the extra attacker and Tkachuk — who left for parts of the first and second periods after taking a big hit — made that move pay off when he tied the game.

His goal breathed life into a very nervous building. But the Panthers were furious — and replays showed they had a case — when Gustav Forsling was sent to the box with 11.2 seconds remaining for tripping. Florida survived that scare, and a few minutes later, had life in the series again.

The odds are still long, but the Panthers at least have a bit more statistical hope now. Of the previous 55 teams to trail 2-1 at this point of the Stanley Cup Final, 11 have actually rallied to hoist the trophy.

It’s improbable, sure. So are the Panthers, who were the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, were down 3-1 to Boston in Round 1, were 133 seconds away from trailing this series 3-0 — and now have tons of reasons for optimism.

Jonathan Marchessault and Mark Stone each had power-play goals for Vegas.

Marchessault’s goal was his 13th in his last 13 playoff games, his fourth of this series and his third with the man advantage.

As if all that wasn’t enough, there was a little history in there as well. Vegas joined the 1980 New York Islanders as the only team with at least two power-play goals in three consecutive games in the Cup final. And Marchessault became the third player in the last 35 years to score in each of the first three games of a title series — joining Steve Yzerman in 1997 with Detroit and Jake Guentzel with Pittsburgh in 2017.

But it wasn’t enough to give Vegas a 3-0 lead in the series.

AROUND THE RINK

Before Thursday, Florida’s last home game in the title series was June 10, 1996, when Uwe Krupp scored in the third overtime for a 1-0 win as Colorado finished off a four-game sweep of the Panthers for the Cup. … Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was in the crowd, as was NBA great Charles Barkley, and former Dolphins star Dan Marino was the celebrity drummer to welcome the Panthers onto the ice.

Blackhawks, Athanasiou agree to 2-year, $8.5 million contract

Associated PressJun 8, 2023, 9:28 PM EDT

Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports

CHICAGO — The rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks locked in one of their top scorers, agreeing to a two-year, $8.5 million contract with forward Andreas Athanasiou on Thursday.

The 28-year-old Athanasiou tied for the team lead with 20 goals and ranked third with 40 points in his first season with Chicago. He matched career highs with four game-winning goals and three power-play goals.

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Athanasiou has 125 goals and 111 assists in 459 games with the Detroit Red Wings (2015-20), Edmonton Oilers (2020), Los Angeles Kings (2020-22) and Blackhawks.

Chicago went 26-49-7 and finished last in the Central Division. The Blackhawks dealt Patrick Kane to the New York Rangers prior to the trade deadline and announced in April they would not re-sign Jonathan Toews, parting with two players who led them to Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015.

Florida Panthers in familiar territory, backs to the wall once again down 0-2 in Stanley Cup Final

Associated PressJun 8, 2023, 12:42 AM EDT

Stephen R. Sylvanie/USA TODAY Sport

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Panthers need a miracle. Again.

Such is the story of Florida’s season, and it makes all the sense in the world that the plot has reappeared in the Stanley Cup Final. The Panthers needed a furious late-season push just to get into the playoffs as the lowest seed, then needed to win three consecutive elimination games to oust a record-setting Boston team in Round 1.

And now, another huge challenge awaits. Down 2-0 in the title series to the Vegas Golden Knights, the Panthers return to home ice on Thursday night looking to spark one more epic turnaround and get right back in the hunt for hockey’s biggest prize.

“Desperation and winning a game,” Florida veteran Marc Staal said. “We’ve approached every game in the playoffs the same way. We just try to take it – like everyone says – one at a time. But our backs are against the wall, obviously. We’re down by two. But we’re coming home. Love our team, love our resiliency. We’re going to go out and give our best effort and play our best game tomorrow and go from there.”

To say the odds are stacked high against the Panthers is a bit of an understatement.

– They’ve beaten Vegas in four of 12 all-time meetings between the franchises. And now they’ve got to beat them in four of the next five games to win the Cup.

– They’ve been outscored 10-2 in the last four periods against Vegas.

– Matthew Tkachuk has two more misconduct penalties (three) than he has points (one, a goal) in the series.

– Former Panthers Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith have as many goals so far in the series (four) as all the current Panthers do in the series, combined.

– Vegas hasn’t dropped four out of five games since going 1-2-2 to start a six-game road swing that began in late January.

– Teams that start a Stanley Cup Final with two home wins have won the Cup 38 times in 41 past instances.

But by now, Florida’s penchant for pulling off the improbable is well-known. Almost expected, really.

“Of course, we’ve had three really tough series,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “Boston is a good example. We were down, we found a way, we started playing a little better, we found a way to come back and get out of there. Same thing here – we’ve just got to work a little harder, work a little smarter and find a way to win games.”

They’ve done it before.

There was the 6-0-1 stretch late in the season to hold off Pittsburgh for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot. The winning three elimination games against a Boston team that had the best regular season in NHL history in Round 1; Game 5 there was on the road in overtime, Game 6 required a rally late in the third period to erase a 5-4 deficit and Game 7 was another road OT victory. There was a four-overtime win at Carolina in the East final, setting the table for a sweep where the Panthers got four one-goal wins and allowed only six goals.

They’ve given up 12 goals in two games against Vegas. And it’s not all on Sergei Bobrovsky, either. Panthers coach Paul Maurice found it funny that it was considered a surprise to some that Bobrovsky – who carried Florida to the final round – will remain the starter for Game 3.

“He was outstanding in Game 1,” Maurice said. “And he was as good as our team was in Game 2.”

The message was simple: Everyone has to be better. The Panthers have a history of rising to those moments.

“We never lose doubt in this room,” Florida forward Ryan Lomberg said. “Obviously, they’re a good team. They got here for a reason. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. It’s kind of the theme of our whole year is we make it tough. Whether we wanted it this way or not, it’s this way, so we’ve got to play the hand we’re dealt now.”

NOTES: Maurice said he expects D Radko Gudas, who left Game 2 injured, to play in Game 3. Forward Eetu Luostarinen will remain out. Maurice declined to offer specifics on Luostarinen’s injury, but quipped “he’s a good human.” … Thursday will be Florida’s first Stanley Cup Final game on home ice in FLA Live Arena. The Panthers’ 1996 final appearance was at a long-demolished arena in Miami.

Flyers trade Pride-night boycott defenseman Provorov in 3-team deal

Associated PressJun 6, 2023, 10:12 PM EDT

Dennis Schneidler/USA TODAY Sports

PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Flyers have traded Ivan Provorov, sending away the defenseman who boycotted the team’s Pride night as part of a three-team trade that included the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Los Angeles Kings.

The seventh overall pick of the 2015 draft, the 26-year-old Provorov lands in Columbus and is set to enter the fifth season of a $40.5 million, six-year contract. He was the centerpiece Tuesday of the first major move under new Flyers’ leadership.

There were plenty of moving parts in the three-team deal.

— Philadelphia traded Provorov and forward Hayden Hodgson to Los Angeles in exchange for goalie Cal Petersen, defenseman Sean Walker, defenseman Helge Grans and the Kings’ 2024 second-round pick. The Kings lost in the first round of the playoffs.

— Columbus acquired defenseman Kevin Connauton from Philadelphia in exchange for a 2023 first-round pick (22nd overall) and a conditional second-round pick in either the 2024 or 2025 NHL Draft. Columbus acquired Provorov from Los Angeles in exchange for Connauton.

The Flyers already hold the No. 7 pick in this season’s draft and now also have the 23rd pick as they start accumulating key assets for long-range success in what is expected to be a deep draft.

Flyers general manager Danny Briere had said no player was untouchable after the Flyers missed the playoffs for the third straight season and went to work with the Stanley Cup Final still underway. The Flyers named broadcaster Keith Jones team president last month and he is still working the Final for TNT. But it’s clear the overdue rebuild is underway for a franchise that hasn’t won a Stanley Cup in 48 years.

“We felt that the picks and the direction that we wanted to go in, it was really enticing, very exciting,” Briere said. “We have a chance to really start building the team the way we wanted. The right way.”

Briere said the Flyers are “open for business” this summer and that included potentially listening to offers for No. 1 goalie Carter Hart. Coach John Tortorella, Briere and Jones have all tempered offseason expectations for any fan looking for a quick fix. The trio all insist the Flyers have a cohesive plan for the future.

Provorov had 65 goals and 217 points in 532 career games with the Flyers. The Russian was widely criticized in January when he cited his Russian Orthodox religion as the reason he did not participate in pregame warmups when the Flyers wore Pride-themed jerseys and used sticks wrapped in rainbow Pride tape.

“I respect everybody’s choices,” Provorov said after the game. “My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion.”

Now, he’s traded during Pride month.

Briere said the backlash over Pride night had nothing to do with trading Provorov.

The Blue Jackets, who missed the playoffs this season, were ready to take a flier on a defenseman seemingly with many productive years ahead.

“Improving our blue line has been a priority for us and acquiring Ivan gives us an established left-shot defenseman who is still a young player with his best seasons in front of him,” Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said. “He immediately improves our group on defense as he is durable, has great skill, skates well, is an excellent passer with an accurate shot and can effectively play at both ends of the ice.”

Provorov said at the end of the season he wasn’t necessarily happy the Flyers planned to rebuild but understood the decision. Briere declined to say if Provorov wanted out of Philadelphia.

“I wouldn’t say it’s the most positive news you can hear, but there’s a bright future here, and there’s a lot of great players that can keep growing,” Provorov said in April. “Obviously, it depends on how quick everybody gets better and how quickly the team game gets better. I think that’s what determines the length of the rebuild.”

Turns out, the potential success out of the haul the Flyers got for Provorov just may determine the length of the rebuild.