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The Chicago Blackhawks have placed Connor Bedard on injured reserve because of a fractured jaw, the team announced Saturday. That means he'll miss a minimum of seven days, but it will surely be more.
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Bedard left in the first period of Friday's 4-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils after taking a big hit from defenseman Brendan Smith. He was seen holding his jaw area as he went to the locker room.
Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson didn't have a clear timeline for Bedard, but traditionally these injuries are about 4-6 weeks.
Richardson revealed he once broke his jaw as a player after taking a slapshot to the mouth and he was sidelined for roughly five and a half weeks, although his was "pretty severe" because he had two plates and 15 screws put in.
Chicago Blackhawks
Nick Foligno was also placed on injured reserve due to a fractured left finger he presumably suffered in his second-period fight with Smith.
"He’s having that looked after now and we’re not sure how long him and Nick will be," Richardson said. "It’s just so fresh today this morning to get our people to look at them and make decisions going forward. So, we just have to do what we’ve been doing, scrambling our lineup together and mixing up the chemistry. As soon as we seem to find a little something, someone goes down.
"It’s definitely a challenge but we don’t really have a timeline on them."
The Blackhawks now have nine players on injured reserve, which is borderline ridiculous. The team acquired forward Rem Pitlick from Pittsburgh on Saturday morning to provide some forward help, and later in the day claimed forward Zach Sanford off waivers from Arizona.