Connor Bedard is expected to return to the lineup when the Chicago Blackhawks play host to the Calgary Flames on Thursday.
The timing is perfect for a Blackhawks team sitting a handful of points back of a playoff spot and needing to make a strong run. Not only is Bedard, who missed the last game due to illness, their points leader, but he has feasted on the Flames this season.
In two previous meetings — 4-0 and 5-2 Chicago victories — Bedard collected four goals and three assists. In six career clashes with Calgary, he has netted six goals and six assists.
“I tried to get myself up and go — I was trying to get to the game — but it didn’t work out unfortunately,” Bedard said about his absence Monday against the Edmonton Oilers. “It sucks to miss, obviously, but it is what it is.”
The Blackhawks have a 5-7-1 record without Bedard this season. Forward Sam Lafferty did not skate Wednesday, the latest victim of the illness that has impacted the team.
Whether anyone else is sidelined remains to be seen, but Chicago will be without forward Teuvo Teravainen, who sustained an upper-body injury in the first period of Monday’s 4-1 loss to Edmonton.
Regardless of who laces up, the Blackhawks are aware the time is nigh to make a push, and the focus is to be stronger off the hop.
“A game isn’t 40 minutes long, it’s 60,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “We’ve talked about it being an every-night league, and part of an every-night league is 60-minute games, sometimes 65, and you have to make sure you’re as close to your best as you can.”
This is the finale of what has been a dismal five-game road swing for the Flames, who sit three points behind Chicago in the standings.
On the heels of a 5-3 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday, Calgary has lost five of six games overall and managed just one victory during the trip.
Although the Flames twice erased deficits and made it a 3-3 game in Columbus, they were victimized by a winning goal with less than two minutes remaining in regulation against a squad that was playing its first game after replacing head coach Dean Evason with Rick Bowness.
“We knew they were going to come out, new coach, and we didn’t match their energy in the first (period),” captain Mikael Backlund said. “But we climbed our way back. A minute and a half (remaining), we’ve got to find a way to get it to overtime.”
Calgary’s turnaround, even in an eventual loss, was created on multiple fronts.
The power play — which had been blanked in the five previous games — scored all three goals. The second was a spark from defenseman Rasmus Andersson, who dropped the gloves with Columbus captain Boone Jenner midway through the clash, implored his teammates to get their game going and then scored late in the middle frame.
“Obviously, I want to give the team a spark,” said Andersson, who appears likely to be traded away before this year’s deadline. “It was the first time in a long time I was fighting. I’m not really used to it. It worked out for us, and probably worked out for them in the end, too.”
–Field Level Media
