The Blackhawks were on the ice at Fifth Third Arena for practice on Monday, following a sleepy 3-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings that snapped their five-game point streak.
Tyler Bertuzzi and Ilya Mikheyev, however, were both absent from the practice session, and their statuses remain in question for tomorrow’s matchup with the Ottawa Senators.
Bertuzzi was out of the lineup for the first time this season on Sunday, and head coach Jeff Blashill confirmed he’s dealing with an upper-body injury. Blashill couldn’t say for certain whether Bertuzzi will be able to play against Ottawa, but he didn’t seem too convinced about his chances.
“Tyler didn’t practice [again], so it probably makes him more doubtful,” Blashill said on Monday. “I’ll know more tomorrow.”
Mikheyev jumped up into Bertuzzi’s spot on the top line versus Los Angeles, and he was arguably the Blackhawks’ most impactful player before exiting early in the third period. The speedy forward crashed hard into the boards after being tripped by Adrian Kempe, and he didn’t return for the remainder of the contest.
Blashill couldn’t provide much of an update on Mikheyev’s injury, other than confirming that it’s only a day-to-day upper-body issue. That’s an auspicious update for the Blackhawks, as Mikheyev is off to an excellent start to the season and plays a massive role defensively. A long-term loss would have been devastating.
Potential Lineup Changes
During line rushes at practice, rookie Ryan Greene was bumped up to the top line with Connor Bedard and Andre Burakovsky, which shows that he’s next in line if Bertuzzi and Mikheyev don’t play on Tuesday. Sam Lafferty, who’s been a healthy scratch in each of the last six games, jumped into a fourth-line spot alongside captain Nick Foligno.
Blackhawks lines in practice:
Greene*-Bedard-Burakovsky
Teravainen-Nazar-Donato
Slaggert-Dickinson-Dach
Lafferty-Foligno
Vlasic-Rinzel
Kaiser-Levshunov
Grzelcyk-Murphy
Crevier
*Greene could be a placeholder with Bertuzzi and Mikheyev out
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) October 27, 2025
Without Bertuzzi and Mikheyev, the Blackhawks are down to only 11 healthy forwards on the active roster. But that’s all that Blashill needs to fill out his lineup, as he’s rolled with seven defensemen in seven of the opening nine games this year.
While that decision makes sense, given the team’s remarkably young defensive core, it’s left the Blackhawks in a vulnerable position a few times. Jason Dickinson has been forced out of two games early because of injury, and Mikheyev was gone for most of the third period on Sunday. That’s left Blashill with just ten forwards on his bench in the latter stages of three contests, which have all resulted in a loss.
Despite that problem, it doesn’t sound like Blashill will divert from his frequent strategy anytime soon.
“It really fits our defensive group to go with seven [defensemen], and I think our d-core has excelled with seven [in the lineup],” he said when asked about switching up the 11F/7D structure. “It will be hard for me to go away from that.”
Power Play Switch Up
One area where Blashill seems more willing to make a change is with the power play. After a horrendous performance on the man advantage against the Kings, he made a few tweaks to his top power-play unit at Monday’s practice.
Burakovsky was moved up from the second unit in place of Teuvo Teravainen, while Bedard was being utilized at the right circle, as opposed to his usual spot on the left dot.
First, I like the addition of Burakovsky, as his size and speed combo will hopefully aid in the entry struggles for the top grouping. Burakovsky has also looked sharp with the second unit so far, as two of his four points on the season have come on the power play.
“I think Burakovsky has been very good on the power play, so maybe it gives us a spark,” Blashill said after practice. “Andre attacks a little more, so he gives us some [added] speed in that spot.”
Bedard getting moved to the right circle also makes sense, even if it takes away his dangerous one-timer. This will allow Bedard to try to set up Frank Nazar for one-timers in the bumper position, which was previously not an option for him at the left circle, as Nazar is right-handed. Nazar hasn’t been a consistent threat in the slot with Teravainen and Bertuzzi on the right side.
“I can’t guarantee that’s what [the power play] will look like tomorrow, but we’d rather try things out in practice than in games,” Blashill said. “The power play hasn’t been good enough, and it has to be better in a sense, too, that it has to give us momentum and [doesn’t] cause frustration.”
In terms of the lack of scoring chances from both power-play units, Blashill didn’t seem too worried about it so early into the season. The Blackhawks are currently third-worst in the NHL in generating scoring chances on the man advantage, per Natural Stat Trick.
“Small sample sizes are small sample sizes. I don’t over-analyze things, especially nine games into the year with stats. We try to let that build, that’s just the reality of it… We’ll keep working on it.”
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