Before the Chicago Blackhawks practice on Monday, Connor Bedard took a skate as he tries to recover from his shoulder injury.
The Chicago Blackhawks went 1-1-0 over the weekend. At the Dallas Stars, the Blackhawks pulled off a shootout victory against one of the best teams in the NHL. On Sunday, at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the second half of back-to-back woes continued with a 7-3 loss.
Things are difficult right now without Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar. They were already a young, growing team with those guys in the lineup, and now they are missing an exponential amount of offensive talent.
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Penguins Skate Out Of Chicago With 7-3 Victory Over Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks were run out of their own building by the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday night.
Ahead of Monday's practice at Fifth Third Arena, Connor Bedard was seen skating. He was stick handling and using some speed while skating, but he did not take any shots. Jeff Blashill said after practice that this is a part of his rehab plan.
Blashill also gave an update on Nazar, saying that he has been upgraded to eating solid foods again. Now it is even more obvious that it is a broken jaw keeping him out of the lineup.
Ilya Mikheyev returned to practice following the birth of his child, and the lines/defense pairs looked as such with him back:
Bertuzzi-Greene-Burakovsky
Teravainen-Moore-Lardis
Donato-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Foligno-Dach-Slaggert
Extras: Lafferty, Toninato
Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Levshunov
Grzelcyk-Murphy
Extra: Del Mastro
Knight
Söderblom
There is a lot to unpack with these lines. For one, Nick Lardis is on the same line as Teuvo Teravainen. This is a chance for Lardis to play alongside a forward whose sole goal is going to be feeding him. Oliver Moore and his speed are getting an opportunity to play center on that line, which could lead to good things for Chicago's offensive chances.
Ilya Mikheyev was on the third line with Ryan Donato and Jason Dickinson. This line, no matter what, is going to play hard, be sound defensively, and may chip in some offense here and there.
Landon Slaggert goes down the lineup with Colton Dach and Nick Foligno on the fourth line. Slaggert, who was recently recalled by Chicago from Rockford, deserves to be in the lineup more than the extras based on how he's played since coming back.
With Bedard and Nazar out at the same time, Ryan Greene is getting another chance at the top-line center position. Tyler Bertuzzi and Andre Burakovsky are good wingers for Greene in this experiment.
On defense, Ethan Del Mastro was the extra. They haven't been dressing seven since Sam Rinzel was sent down to the Rockford IceHogs. For now, it is status quo for this group.
Spencer Knight and Arvid Soderblom each played in the 7-3 loss to the Penguins on Sunday. Both of them are going to be needed with a lot of hockey coming up in a short period of time. We won't know until Tuesday who is going to start against the New York Islanders on the same evening.
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