On a first-period power play Friday night in Calgary, Artyom Levshunov held the puck near his own blue line and stood there a moment. You could almost see the idea forming in the impish Levshunov’s head. Instead of turning around and making a drop pass, the 20-year-old defenseman handed the puck off to André Burakovsky, who promptly made the pass.

Conscious or not, it was undeniably amusing after what happened two nights earlier in Vancouver. During that third-period power play — Levshunov’s first as the quarterback of the top unit — everything within him seemed to be telling him not to make that drop pass. He sort of stuttered his steps as he spun, fighting the inertia of moving forward, as if his mind were struggling to puppet his body. But that’s what the Blackhawks do on the power play, they make the drop pass to Connor Bedard or Frank Nazar or someone else who’s coming up the ice with some speed. It’s standard for the Blackhawks, and pretty standard for the NHL.

However, Levshunov is not standard.

Levshunov’s attempt at making a robotic play led to one of the worst turnovers you’ll ever see, as there were no Blackhawks forwards steaming in behind him. Miraculously, it didn’t lead to a Canucks goal.

Later on the same shift, Levshunov fed Bedard, who banked a puck in off Tyler Bertuzzi for a power-play goal. That was Levshunov in the flow of the game. Natural. Instinctual.

Systems and set plays just aren’t for him. Not always. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, either.

“It’s something he and I have talked about,” Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill said. “Do what he thinks is right, don’t necessarily do what he feels like we want him to do. When he plays a little freer, he’s definitely better. He’s definitely an instinctual player. And I think he’s done a good job of that five-on-five. And I think we’ll get him doing that on the power play, as well.”

That adventurous power play in Vancouver was the only one Chicago had in that game. With the Blackhawks 3-for-21 over the previous six games, Blashill shook things up a bit. Levshunov stayed in that spot Friday in Calgary, while Nazar swapped with Teuvo Teräväinen on PP2. And once again, on the Blackhawks’ first power play of the game, it was Levshunov to Bedard to Bertuzzi for a goal.

Of course, that was after he let Burakovsky handle the drop. Hey, whatever it takes to gain that blue line.

Levshunov added a primary assist on Bedard’s opening-minute power-play goal and another assist on Bertuzzi’s third-period power-play goal in Sunday’s 5-1 victory over Detroit, giving him seven assists in his last seven games (and giving the Blackhawks a three-game win streak to close out a 3-2-1 road trip, their longest since 2016-17). Levshunov is a natural distributor who processes the game at a very high level — at least, once he gets in the offensive zone. It’s just sometimes an adventure getting there. But he’s just 20 and Sunday was just his 33rd NHL game, so there’s time to figure that part out.

“That power play’s definitely feeling confident once they get in the zone,” Blashill said. “So we’ve got to make sure we get them there.”

Artyom Levshunov has seven assists in his last seven games, including a primary assist on Connor Bedard’s opening-minute power-play goal in Detroit. (Brian Bradshaw Sevald / Imagn Images)

There’s fast, and then there’s NHL fast.

Last spring, when he left the University of Minnesota to join the Blackhawks for nine games, Oliver Moore looked fast. Now, three games into his second tenure with the big club, Moore looks NHL fast. He’s aggressive. He’s hard on the puck. He’s winning battles and flipping the ice and harassing opponents and playing to a nearly 58 percent expected goals share. In Sunday’s game in Detroit, he came agonizingly close to his first NHL goal, denied by John Gibson on a breakaway and a follow-up in the first period, before finding the back of the net in the final minute of the game. He had five shots on goal in the game.

The difference? In the spring, he was wondering if he belonged in the NHL. Now, he’s sure of it.

“Confidence to me is an amazing thing,” Blashill said. “When he left here, he probably didn’t have the same level of confidence that he’s come back with. And I think that’s the purpose of, at times, going down to the minors.”

Dominating with six goals in nine games in Rockford helped, no doubt. However, Moore’s transformation from speedster to puck hound started long before he was cut from training camp.

“It didn’t really start at the beginning of the season; it started at the beginning of the summer,” Moore said. “I think I definitely could have done more (in the spring). It motivated me throughout the summer, for sure. Those nine games were a baseline for me. (It showed me) what I need to improve, what the game’s like, the speed, the decision-making, the systems. It’s a different level than college. It’s a big jump, obviously. And everyone has to go through some sort of adversity at some point. It’s how you take that adversity and move forward.”

Moore easily could have been thrown in Ryan Greene’s spot on Bedard’s line, or eased into his minutes in a fourth-line, rotational role. But Blashill wisely slotted him into the injured Jason Dickinson’s spot alongside two savvy two-way veterans in Ilya Mikheyev and Ryan Donato. The early returns have been promising.

Donato’s no slouch when it comes to skating — he credited his own improvements in the summer of 2024 for his breakout 31-goal campaign last year, something that helped inspire Bedard to gain a step this past offseason — but Moore and Mikheyev are absolute burners. Donato loves having two speedy forwards to play with, but it’s Moore’s newfound tenacity that’s really impressed him.

“He’s an animal,” Donato said. “He’s got a crazy engine, but he’s super positive around the group, too. He’s a really nice kid. He keeps everybody nice and light, but he’s also a dog on a bone when he gets on the ice. He works super hard, and it’s obviously fun to play with him.”

Moore said Donato and Mikheyev have given him just enough direction — an occasional chat on the bench or in the locker room after an underwhelming shift or period — without dictating how he should play.

“They’re so good just communicating with me,” Moore said. “They’ve played hundreds more games in this league than I have, so their knowledge definitely doesn’t go unnoticed. (But) you want to be free and you want to be confident. It’s only (three) games in, but I feel free, and I feel like I’m playing confidently. That’s a big tribute to the guys and the environment and the culture in this locker room.”

Seems like a fair question: Why doesn’t everybody just do what Tyler Bertuzzi does? Stand at the corner of the goal mouth, opposite whichever side the puck carrier is on, and have him bank shot-passes off you for easy goals?

Well, because they’re not easy. They’re hard as hell.

“I don’t know,” Bertuzzi said when asked why more players don’t play like him at the net. “I have a sore back. Maybe that’s why.”

Bertuzzi is more than happy to suffer the cross-checks and slashes if it means scoring at this pace — five goals in a four-period span in Vancouver and Calgary, then another one Sunday in Detroit. He’s not just a one-trick pony; witness the one-timer he blasted on a two-on-one with Bedard against the Flames. However, Bertuzzi’s ability to box out in the corner of the goal mouth, and his mastery of the deflection — he braces his stick with his skate, and often goes down to one knee to give the passer more surface area to hit — is his superpower.

“He’s so good at that,” Bedard said. “It looks easy, but it’s really not. That’s why not many guys can do it as good as him. He’s so good at making himself big and getting a stick or leg or chest on it, whatever he has to do. It’s fun for me to always have that as an option.”

Short of going full Billy Smith or Ron Hextall on his ankles, what’s a goalie supposed to do with a guy like that? Spencer Knight said all you can do is “be aware” of him.

“He’s funny, Bert,” Knight said. “He’s probably one of the best in the league around the net. He’s on one leg, slapping the puck in the net. That’s another guy that’s smart. He knows where he needs to get to and I think that’s why he’s so effective.”

Playing with skilled players is a skill. As the Blackhawks learned with Patrick Kane for the better part of a decade, it can be challenging to keep up with a player who thinks the game at an extremely high level and can make plays most others cannot.

However, that’s not a problem for André Burakovsky. It might seem facile to say he’s at his best when he plays with great players, but there’s no disputing it, either. In his three years with the Colorado Avalanche, Burakovsky averaged 0.78 points per game, playing mostly on Nazem Kadri’s line but also a fair amount on the top unit with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. He was a dynamic playoff performer, as well, with seven goals and 10 assists in the 2020 playoffs, and eight points during the Avalanche’s Stanley Cup run in 2022. Burakovsky was able to hang with some of the best players in the world, and he’s able to hang with Bedard, as well. The two have meshed beautifully; another cast-off scooped by on the cheap by Kyle Davidson and put into good use in Chicago.

With seven goals and seven assists in 15 games (including a primary assist on Teräväinen’s power-play goal in Detroit and an empty net goal), Burakovsky looks every bit the top-liner Davidson hoped he would be. And Burakovsky’s speed and ability to transport the puck have freed up Bedard to do what he does best: find soft spots in the offensive zone and fire away, almost like a catch-and-shoot player in basketball.

Andre Burakovsky has seven goals and seven assists in 15 games to start the season and has meshed well with Connor Bedard. (Sergei Belski / Imagn Images)

“The chemistry has been really good,” Burakovsky said. “For (Bedard), it helps that he doesn’t have to carry it the whole time. I can help him with that workload and carry the puck, and then it takes a little bit off his shoulders. And then I can set him up instead of him having to find his own way through.”

Burakovsky said he didn’t feel any real emotions upon returning to Seattle earlier on the road trip. His three years with the Kraken were marked by losing and frustration. It had started great, with 13 goals and 26 assists in 49 games in his first season, but a groin injury cut his season short. Then came a broken collarbone and a broken rib. Burakovsky was spending his summers rehabbing instead of training, so when he got to training camp, he was already behind the eight ball and kept dropping down in the lineup. The injuries affected his training, which affected his confidence, which affected his game, which affected his minutes and his usage, which only further affected his confidence and his game. He was trapped in something of a vicious cycle — “the snowball effect,” as Burakovsky put it.

When Davidson made the trade, he didn’t promise Burakovsky a spot on Bedard’s line, but he did promise him a better chance than he had with the Kraken. That was all Burakovsky needed to hear.

“He said they’re going to give me an opportunity, and then it’s up to me if I’m taking it or not,” Burakovsky said. “But he was clear where they saw me fit in the lineup, and that they were going to give me opportunities to prove my game.”

MacKinnon last year said Bedard was well ahead of where he was at the same age. MacKinnon didn’t break out until his fifth season, while Bedard is doing it in his third. And Burakovsky wasn’t shy about comparing the two.

“He’s already up there,” Burakovsky said. “His skill set and his skating, the way he sees the ice and the way he competes, the way he’s trying to win every battle — that’s really fun to see. He’s definitely up there, competing with the best already. And he’s so young. I’m excited to follow him and see how far he’s going to go.”

If he keeps playing this well, he’ll have the best seat in the house.

Goalies always live in their own little worlds. Spencer Knight is no exception.

Asked right after the game in Vancouver what was said in the locker room during the second intermission — right after one of the Blackhawks’ worst periods of the season and right before one of their best — Knight searched the recesses of his mind before giving up.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” he said. “Blash was talking about some O-zone, D-zone, neutral-zone stuff. Player stuff. It was good.”

Player stuff.

Goalies are technically players, too, and there might not be a more important one on the Blackhawks right now than Knight — Bedard included. Knight leads the NHL in goals saved above expected at a whopping 17.38 in 11 starts, per Evolving Hockey. That’s more than four goals better than second-place Connor Hellebuyck, the three-time Vezina Trophy winner, and seven goals ahead of third-place Lukáš Dostál. His .926 save percentage is second in the league, behind only Logan Thompson. He’s had just one clunker all season, against Winnipeg in the game that opened the road trip. Blashill is always careful to note that Arvid Söderblom has been good, too — he made 44 saves in a fabulous performance in Detroit — but Knight has been leading the way, and has to at least be entering the conversation to join Hellebuyck and Jake Oettinger on Team USA in Milan.

This surprising Blackhawks start would look a lot different without him.

“He’s done a good job of when we aren’t playing our best, finding a way to keep us in the game,” Blashill said. “He gives you a chance to win.”