The Chicago Blackhawks practiced on Monday morning, and some injury updates came out of it.
The Chicago Blackhawks returned to practice on Monday morning. After a big win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, the 9-5-4 Blackhawks are looking to keep the good vibes rolling. We all know the facts about being in a playoff position on American Thanksgiving, and the Blackhawks are so close to reaching that checkpoint.
Ahead of practice on Monday, there was a sight to behold. Laurent Brossoit was out there skating in full goalie gear. Since signing with the Blackhawks in the summer of 2024, Brossoit has not played a single game with the Blackhawks due to a knee injury.
The plan for Brossoit from here, according to head coach Jeff Blashill, is for him to keep slowly working his way back to a full practice. It is almost certain that his first game action, if he ever gets to that point, will come in the AHL first before giving it a go in the NHL.
Once practice started, Jason Dickinson was there, but Tyler Bertuzzi was not. Despite this, it is Bertuzzi who is a game-time decision, while Dickinson is not expected to play against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.
Although they declared Bertuzzi a game-time decision, it sounds like he will sit out for another game. That means it will be an 11/7 situation for the Blackhawks once again. Same Rinzel would draw back into the lineup in that case. With Dickinson participating, the lines looked as follows:
Greene-Bedard-Burakovsky
Teravainen-Nazar-Moore
Dach-Donato-Mikheyev
Slaggert-Dickinson-Lafferty
Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Levshunov
Grzelcyk-Murphy
Rinzel
Knight
Söderblom
Although Dickinson is close, he doesn’t want to play in any games until he knows for a fact that he’s at 100 percent. He made it clear that he doesn’t want to keep coming in and out of the lineup by aggravating the same injury over and over.
Nick Foligno is also missing from the lineup. He blocked a shot in the Maple Leafs game on Saturday, and Jeff Blashill announced that the timeline looked like four weeks with a broken hand. Later in the day on Monday, the Blackhawks put him on Injured Reserve, retroactive to November 15th.
Chicago’s going to feel the effects of losing Foligno in the leadership category. With him and Jason Dickinson both out of the lineup, two of their players who wear letters on their sweaters will be out. That leadership will have to come from elsewhere for the time being. Lately, the young guys have been showing they can handle that role both on and off the ice.
Against the Flames on Tuesday, they may need some of that. When they met in Calgary earlier in the month, it was a physical game. Frank Nazar missed a few games because of a play that occurred during that contest, so there could be some fireworks in this meeting as well.
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