Connor Bedard cannot be kept off the ice for long.
The Blackhawks’ star rookie, just seven days after undergoing surgery on his fractured jaw, resumed skating Monday at Fifth Third Arena.
After the rest of the team ran through a power play-focused practice, a three-man group comprised of Bedard, Nick Foligno (who broke his finger in the same Jan. 5 game in which Bedard was injured) and Samuel Savoie (a prospect missing the season with a broken femur) all did individual non-contact drills with Hawks skills coach Brian Keane.
Bedard wore a full cage to protect his jaw but unsurprisingly looked as agile, adept and accurate as usual. He’ll have to keep wearing that full cage for a while — including in games when he returns — so it’ll be useful for him to get accustomed to puck-handling and maneuvering around the rink despite its effects on his vision.
Connor Bedard cannot be kept off the ice for long.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 15, 2024
Just seven days after surgery, he’s skating with Nick Foligno and Samuel Savoie after Blackhawks practice, just wearing a full cage: pic.twitter.com/BFFilNJUGs
Coach Luke Richardson said Bedard’s quick return to the ice probably won’t change his recovery timeline of six-to-eight weeks. That keeps his projected return likely in late February.
“He has been begging [to skate],” Richardson said. “They said it’s OK, but he has been given specific instructions: he’s not allowed to take slap shots, so he’s not allowed to really clench [his jaw]. If they see that, they might pull a rug out from under him.
“He’s just eager, and it will be good for him to get moving. He just has to be very careful... I don’t know if he can even put anything in [his mouth] because...[it’s] not completely wired shut, but it has elastic bands on it that keep it so there’s a minimal amount of movement.”
Hawks defenseman Jarred Tinordi — who endured the recovery process from a much more severe, destructive jaw injury last season — is around to give Bedard advice, and Richardson actually ran into a Hawks nutritionist carrying all sorts of food that requires little chewing into Bedard’s apartment last week.
So he’ll be taken care of well throughout his recovery, but boredom and frustration might be difficult to avoid. That’s where being able to skate will help.
“He’s itching to get back, and once he gets back, he’ll be fresh and ready to go,” fellow rookie Kevin Korchinski said Monday. “It’s probably the longest break he’s had off hockey for a while.”
As for Foligno, he was holding a stick but doing so using a modified glove on his left hand to accommodate his fractured ring finger.
The veteran forward remains week-to-week to return, meaning it might not happen before the Hawks’ bye week and All-Star break begins Jan. 28. But he and Tyler Johnson are nonetheless considered the closest to readiness among the Hawks’ injured players, Richardson said. Anthony Beauvillier slots after them, then Bedard and Andreas Athanasiou after Beauvillier.
During the main team practice, the Hawks tried out another tweak to their power-play breakouts by having one forward — usually Taylor Raddysh — linger near the offensive blue line rather than swinging back into the defensive zone with the other four guys.
“[It’s] just a different look,” Korchinski said. “Teams adapt to what you’re doing, so if you can switch those as much as you can, it gives you a better chance to get a clean entry.”
It’s the second consecutive practice in which they’ve tweaked the power play. They switched personnel Friday to have two defensemen (Seth Jones and Alex Vlasic) and three forwards (Raddysh, Philipp Kurashev and Rem Pitlick) on the top unit.
The power play has gone just 2-for-21 over the last seven games. It will face the Sharks’ 32nd-ranked penalty kill Tuesday in a battle between the NHL’s two worst teams. The Hawks have lost 14 of their last 17 games whereas the Sharks have lost 13 of 14.
