Chicago Blackhawks' Connor Bedard unlikely to return soon from broken jaw, coach says
CHICAGO (CBS) – The Chicago Blackhawks won't have rookie Connor Bedard back for Friday's home game with the New York Rangers or any games in the near future.
It's been a month since Bedard's jaw surgery. The initial recovery timetable was six to eight weeks.
The rookie phenom had hoped to beat that timetable but head coach Luke Richardson said that's highly unlikely.
"I think it's not going to probably be before six weeks, as much as he wants it to be," Richardson said. "You know, he's out and he's progressing at practice, other than contact drills. Just to get him into a couple practices, get him used to looking for contact and avoiding contact, bracing for it and being ready for it, once he gets a few of those in, then I think he'll be ready to go because he's skating and in the gym quite a bit."
The Hawks could certainly use his offense. They've gone just 3-9 since Bedard went down. They've scored a paltry 16 goals in those 12 games, suffering three shutouts over their five-game losing streak.