Injury updates and roster news as Blackhawks are moving forward to their home opener

The Chicago Blackhawks held their first practice back home as they returned from their opening three-game road trip. They are preparing for their home opener tomorrow (Oct. 6) against the St. Louis Blues.

There will be a lot of excitement surrounding Patrick Kane's debut at the United Center, but it is also meaningful as they will be seeking their first win, after starting the season 0-3.

Furthermore, it was a busy day at practice (Oct. 5). Here is the scoop.

Sights from the ice

The Blackhawks had a high-energy practice today, and they also had some familiar faces join them on the ice. One of them was Connor Bedard. As he recovers from his shoulder surgery, he has been skating before the team practices.

Today, he skated with the team and was taking shots. However, he is still not cleared for contact. Either way, it was encouraging to see.

Bowen Byram was also on the ice for practice today. He missed the Blackhawks game against the Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 3 for a family matter. Turns out, he and his wife welcomed twin girls, per Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Congratulations to the Byram family!

Notes from the coach

As we are talking about Bedard, here was the update from head coach Jeff Blashill, "He's not cleared for contact. So on days when you can kind of do some of the stuff that we're doing today at the beginning, it's awesome to have him out there and be able to... for his sake in a sense that you want to have other people on the ice and you want to be used to that. And so I think it's great that he's able to do that. But right now he's not cleared for contact. I don't have a date in which he'll have an exam to be cleared for contact. So I can't really give you guys any kind of update on timeline other than he's out there skating non-contact, which is great."

Other injury updates were shared, as Blashill said Andrew Mangiapane, who suffered a lower-body injury against the Vegas Golden Knights, is week-to-week.

Moreover, when it comes to the three games, there is a lot to point to about what went wrong: defensive breakdowns, offensive struggles, lack of shots on goal, etc. But what is it that they can build on that is a positive for them?

Blashill said, "First of all, I thought more players played better in the Buffalo game than had [previously]. Just individually. Just guys that I know have better games. Not even that you're looking for growth necessarily, but just guys that I know have better games that have proven it throughout years in this league, hadn't played great in the in the first two games. I thought they played much better overall in Buffalo. We had a hard meeting in the morning in Buffalo, and they responded with kind of a recognition of, 'Yes, we have to be way harder. We have to check better.' We weren't perfect, obviously, in that game. But some of that's just the growth of young groups and kind of continuing to grow, and so like our focus has to be on continuing to grow and get better. It's just the reality of it..."

They probably did have their best effort of the season against Buffalo, despite the loss. So, we'll see if the Blackhawks can put on a better performance at home.

Player quote(s) of the day

I spoke with defenseman Ethan Del Mastro, and one of the topics I asked him about was what he was seeing from the team's response heading into tomorrow:

"I think the thing that's good about our team is we are young, and we still have swagger. Like, you know, it doesn't drop off... you start 0-3, some people might just start already looking negative or whatever. But I think the good part about our team is we're close-knit, and we still believe in each other a lot, which is good. You need to have that, and still believe that you're a good team. Even though it doesn't start off the way you wanted to, you can still, obviously, rebound and continue to get better. So I think we're just looking to come in with a lot of swagger and play up to our capability is the real thing."

The Blackhawks are moving forward and hope to put together a winning performance in front of the home crowd.

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