The Chicago Blackhawks held practice on Monday morning. Without Frank Nazar and Connor Bedard, there are some notable changes.
On Monday morning, the Chicago Blackhawks held practice. Assistant Coach Anders Sorensen was the leader of the session in Jeff Blashill's place. Assistant Coach Mike Vellucci spoke to the media once it was done.
Connor Bedard has been out for a handful of games now and won't return until after the new year. To pile onto Chicago's problems, Frank Nazar has an injured jaw and will miss about a month of action.
No team in the league would be able to withstand losing its top two centers for any long stretch of time. The Hawks were already struggling, so this couldn't have come at a worse time.
During practice, Ryan Greene took over as the new top-line center. He has mostly played on the wing this season, but now he will get his chance at center with Nazar and Bedard out.
"Greene has been doing a great job there," Velluci said of the new top center for the time being. "He's been put in a tremendous role for us. He's on the penalty kill, he's on the power play, he is in our top six. He's gotten better every day."
Other promotions in reaction to the injuries include Nick Lardis and Oliver Moore. Each of them started the year with the Rockford IceHogs, and they each were on the second line with Ryan Donato during practice.
Nick Foligno, who has been injured since November 15th, practiced in full and skated on the third line with Jason Dickinson and Ilya Mikheyev. They will determine on Tuesday morning's skate if he is good to go for the game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
"We're not 100 percent sure, he is still day-to-day," Velluci said on Folidno's status. "He looked pretty good for me today. We'll find out more tomorrow morning".
Teuvo Teravainen was missing from practice, but is expected to play in that game as well. Velluci said he's fine and that today was a maintenance day.
Bertuzzi-Greene-Burakovsky
Moore-Donato-Lardis
Foligno-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Dach-Toninato-Lafferty
Missing: Teravainen
Vlasic-Crevier
Grzelcyk-Levshunov
Kaiser-Murphy
Extra: Del Mastro
Knight
Soderblom
Sam Lafferty or Dominic Toninato is the likely scratch, with Teravainen set to play, but the lines may shake up a bit. On defense, Ethan Del Mastro seems to be the one who will take the game in from the press box. Arvid Soderblom started the last game, a loss to the Ottawa Senators, so expect Spencer Knight to get the final start for Chicago before the holiday break.
The power play units got a makeover during Monday's practice as well. The top unit included Tyler Bertuzzi, Andre Burakovsky, Colton Dach, Nick Lardis, and Artyom Levshunov.
The second group had Nick Foligno, Ryan Donato, Ryan Greene, Nick Lardis, and Matt Grzelcyk. Expect Teuvo Teravainen to take one of those spots held by Lardis.
It has been hard to generate offense without Bedard, and missing Nazar won't make it any easier. However, they were able to score four goals against the Senators on Saturday, so Tuesday is a chance to keep that momentum going.
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