If you were to print out the Blackhawks’ list of unavailable players right now, you might need two sheets of paper.
Forward Joey Anderson became the latest to join the crew when an upper-body injury prevented him from returning for the third period of the Hawks’ 4-3 loss Sunday to the Canucks. Coach Luke Richardson said the team likely will know more about the severity of the injury Monday.
Defenseman Alex Vlasic also missed the game because of the upper-body injury he suffered Thursday against the Kraken. Richardson suggested Vlasic’s issue is minor, joking, ‘‘If it was the playoffs, maybe we would force him to play.’’
Anderson, Vlasic, defensemen Seth Jones (upper body), Kevin Korchinski (bereavement) and Jarred Tinordi (concussion) and forwards MacKenzie Entwistle (illness), Andreas Athanasiou (out since Nov. 9), Colin Blackwell (out since February), Taylor Hall (out for season) and Corey Perry (contract terminated) make up the full list of unavailable players.
‘‘I don’t even know if I want to practice anymore because guys are going down,’’ Richardson said tongue-in-cheek, although the Hawks aren’t going to practice Monday before hosting the Avalanche on Tuesday.
Defenseman Connor Murphy nearly joined the list, too, but he was able to return after blocking a shot by the Canucks’ J.T. Miller with his knee in the first period.
The already-decimated defense would have been in unbelievably thin shape without Murphy. It has become clear this roster might be even worse than the one last season, but the talent and experience missing from it right now make the Hawks’ uphill battle to contend every night even steeper.
With Wyatt Kaiser now back in the NHL lineup, rookies Nolan Allan and Ethan Del Mastro are the only remaining defensemen on NHL contracts who could be called up from Rockford, if necessary.
Leaning on Bedard
Connor Bedard played a season-high 23 minutes, 16 seconds as Richardson leaned heavily on his star rookie to spearhead the Hawks’ third-period rally, which fell just short.
Bedard was double-shifting most of the period, maintaining his spot as the first-line center (between Lukas Reichel and Philipp Kurashev at the moment) and doing most of the filling-in for Anderson. He played 9:55 of the 20 minutes in the third period.
‘‘He was doing some great things in the third period, so it was easy to do,’’ Richardson said. ‘‘We’ve had that conversation before where [we’ve told him]: ‘Take short shifts. Do the right things. You can’t do it all by yourself — not yet anyway.’ I think he bought into that tonight. He got to the bench and was ready to go back out there, and he’s fresh. It’s a good sign.’’
It was Bedard’s first game against the Canucks, his hometown team while growing up in Vancouver. He said he talked with his parents Sunday morning and reminisced about how ‘‘not too long ago, I was just cheering for them pretty hard.’’
This was with 33 seconds left, a clear trip by Pettersson on Bedard that was not penalized.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) December 17, 2023
Bedard: “I’m sure the ref made the right call.” pic.twitter.com/aWmZiN5fL6
Power-play conversions
Bedard had two points, both of which were primary assists on power-play goals by Nick Foligno and Cole Guttman.
It marked the first time this season the Hawks had scored multiple power-play goals in a game. Their 2-for-4 afternoon improved their season conversion rate to 11.6%, which is still poor.
Because Jones, Korchinski and Vlasic were out, the Hawks decided to deploy five forwards as their No. 1 power-play unit, with Kurashev manning the point instead of a defenseman. The results were good enough to justify exploring that concept further.
