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Just when it seemed like the spread of the Blackhawks<\/a>\u2019 stomach bug had stopped, it claimed a new victim in Connor Bedard on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n With their star forward scratched, the Hawks struggled to switch back to their sans-Bedard game plan in a disjointed 4-1 loss to the Oilers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were just off with everything: passes, shots, simple plays,\u201d captain Nick Foligno said.<\/p>\n Said coach Jeff Blashill: \u201cYou have to win puck battles and puck races to have any chance, and we just didn\u2019t do that early. You\u2019re going to have zero identity when you don\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n The Hawks also lost Teuvo Teravainen, who didn\u2019t return after the first period due to an upper-body injury. And they nearly killed an otherwise healthy Artyom Levshunov with an absurd five-minute, 33-second shift \u2014 one of the longest in NHL history \u2014 in which he couldn\u2019t get off the ice.<\/p>\n Spencer Knight returned from his prior illness to keep the Hawks in the game with 33 saves, highlighted by some heroics in the first period, and Tyler Bertuzzi briefly cut the deficit to 2-1 with five minutes left. But the Hawks didn\u2019t play nearly well enough to deserve a better result.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one\u2019s Superman here,\u201d Foligno added. \u201cYou\u2019re obviously not going to feel great. But I told guys, \u2018The last time you feel great in the NHL is your first game.\u2019 It\u2019s a hard league. It\u2019s a league where you have to find your game, regardless of how you feel.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t make it hard on [the Oilers]. They were getting passes to the slot. That\u2019s not like us. We\u2019re a team that really protects the middle well, makes it really hard to get through. We\u2019re fast, [but] we didn\u2019t look as fast as we needed to be. It\u2019s all those things rolled into one.\u201d<\/p>\n Even when everyone seemed healthy at morning skate, the illness<\/a> was a big topic of conversation. Louis Crevier, for example, lost about eight pounds in 48 hours over the weekend because he couldn\u2019t keep solid food down.<\/p>\n And Knight was on the fence about starting last Friday against the Capitals when Blashill suddenly found him \u201cviolently vomiting in the bathroom.\u201d<\/p>\n Barring an extreme reaction, though, it\u2019s reasonable to expect Bedard back Thursday against the Flames.<\/p>\n It took mere seconds for another \u201cGreen Bay sucks\u201d chant to echo through the United Center, even with the Packers now vanquished<\/a> in the Bears\u2019 rear-view mirror.<\/p>\n Blashill met Bears coach Ben Johnson during training camp and has admired his work this season.<\/p>\n “[The Bears] did a good job, through the course of the year, of handling the emotional ups and downs,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cThere are a number of games where it looked [like] they may be out of it, and they just stuck with it. There definitely seemed to be a lot of emotional control in the team. That\u2019s an important lesson for all of us to learn from.\u201d<\/p>\n New Cubs signing Alex Bregman, making his first appearance in his new city, was also among the 17,783 in attendance.<\/p>\n Frank Nazar (broken jaw) has been skating individually but not yet with the team, Blashill said. It seems iffy whether or not he will return before the Olympic break.<\/p>\n The Hawks have 11 games left before then, including two meetings against the Blue Jackets \u2014 who shockingly fired coach Dean Evason to hire Rick Bowness on Monday. The Jackets coincidentally entered the day with the exact same record as the Hawks: 19-19-7.<\/p>\n Speaking of the Olympics, Brayden Point \u2014 an initial Team Canada selection \u2014 suffered a serious-looking knee injury Monday in the Lightning\u2019s 5-1 win over the Flyers. If he\u2019s ruled out long-term, that could open a window for Bedard.<\/p>\nNasty bug<\/b><\/h3>\n
Bear fuel<\/b><\/h3>\n
Looking forward<\/b><\/h3>\n
Prospect updates<\/b><\/h3>\n