Ryan Donato took a hit in the first period that left him sprawled on the ice, staring a hole through the referee. He laid a frustration hit on left winger Mason Marchment and defenseman Ivan Provorov scored in the chaos.<\/p>\n
![\"Ryan](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ctc-z-2259981422_259011460.jpg\")
Ryan Donato of the Chicago Blackhawks passes the puck against Cole Sillinger of the Columbus Blue Jackets during the first period at Nationwide Arena on Feb. 4, 2026, in Columbus, Ohio. (Jason Mowry\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Hawks blueliner Wyatt Kaiser was injured and helped off the ice after defenseman Zach Werenski \u2014 who opened the goal scoring and Columbus cannon firing \u2014 fell on his leg. Kaiser was quickly ruled out for the rest of the game and his status is to be determined heading into the break.<\/p>\n
Ohio\u2019s NHL team cruised to its seventh straight win and will look to keep that momentum come their next game on Feb. 26 in Boston. The Hawks \u2026 well. It\u2019ll be nice to take a break from the pressure for a few weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m viewing the break to see how long it takes for the family to get sick of me, because that generally happens,\u201d Hawks coach Jeff Blashill said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a grind of a schedule right now, so certainly we\u2019ll take advantage of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hawks are 22-26-9 after a 4-0 loss to the Blue Jackets on Wednesday. The shutout is their sixth defeat in seven games.<\/p>\n
Connor Bedard found his post-injury stride despite a quiet Columbus game. Upon return from the break, it is presumed he will be at full strength and back to his pre-injury self.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plan when he gets back is to start taking faceoffs, when you\u2019re not taking faceoffs ever, it puts you on the wall a lot,\u201d Blashill said of Bedard. \u201cI know he\u2019s healthy enough to play, and so at that point, you\u2019re 100% if you\u2019re out there playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others are hoping for revitalization upon their return. The Hawks aren\u2019t in a playoff spot right now, so that automatically means there\u2019s work to be done upon returning.<\/p>\n
The step back from the ice can kickstart that process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity for us to rebuild our foundation and fundamentals, both individually and as a team,\u201d Blashill said.<\/p>\n
Artyom Levshunov has been a healthy scratch for the past three games as he takes part in a \u201cprogram\u201d to touch up on his two-way game. Blashill is looking for him to improve in three areas: shooting technique, defensive positioning and footwork, and \u201cdelivering the puck in the right spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The defenseman will spend some time practicing in Florida during the Olympic break, where he also spends his summers. He has two goals and 19 assists on the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo say that we have a miracle cure on in two days is not a reality,\u201d Blashill said on Tuesday. \u201cThis is something that\u2019s really going to build through when we come back as much as we can over the course of the last month in time, and certainly this summer, it\u2019s going to be huge.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the other hand, some players will take some time to clear their heads before returning. The number of skaters who will take that path, though, may have gone down after Columbus cruised past them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d rather after that one to be playing tomorrow night, (but) I think (the break), it\u2019s good for everybody,\u201d said Nick Foligno, the Hawks\u2019 current captain and former Blue Jackets captain from 2015-21. \u201cI think it\u2019s important if we use it wisely, and we\u2019ll come back with a ton of energy and make sure we have a good push here, and use the practice time that we have to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team will be together in cheering on their lone Olympian, Teuvo Ter\u00e4v\u00e4inen. The 31-year-old will have infinite Hawks support as he flies to Milan to play for Finland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have one player that will be in the Olympics, so we\u2019ll have the majority of our team together,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cSo, that\u2019s a pretty unique opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Ter\u00e4v\u00e4inen: \u201cEverybody\u2019s cheering for me, so I\u2019m happy about that. A lot of other good teammates here and they\u2019re cheering for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014 The NHL\u2019s roster freeze went into effect Wednesday afternoon, but not before forward Artemi Panarin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,96,897,230,5179,5,4,292,54241],"class_list":{"0":"post-446630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-columbus-blue-jackets","8":"tag-blue-jackets","9":"tag-bluejackets","10":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","11":"tag-columbus","12":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","13":"tag-columbusbluejackets","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-nhl-hockey","17":"tag-olympic-schedule-freeze"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116016895227224613","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}