After an off day on Wednesday, the Blackhawks returned to practice on Thursday at Fifth Third Arena and Patrick Kane did not participate. The team called it a maintenance day, which is encouraging news as he recovers from a lower-body injury.
Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson said after practice that Kane is a "maybe" for Friday's game against the Arizona Coyotes. They wanted to give him an extra day off the ice and see how he responds in the morning.
"He seemed in a good mood today, but it was just a gym day for him just to give him more rest and time to settle down," Richardson said. "Hopefully he'll be trying it tomorrow morning, so that's good. It's possible, for sure.
"There was no sense to flare it up today. It's just settling down, so if he can get through today well and let the inflammation get out of there and he feels good tomorrow, he'll definitely try to push through, so that's good."
Kane left after the second period of Tuesday's 4-1 loss to Tampa Bay and was ruled out for the third period. Richardson said Kane's injury stemmed from a hit he took in Sunday's 5-2 loss to San Jose.
The aggravation likely came from Evgeny Svechnikov's check along the boards late in the third period. Kane left the ice and was seen wincing on the bench, although he did finish the game by playing one more shift.
If Kane can't go on Friday, Lukas Reichel is expected to slide into his spot on the top line with Max Domi and Andreas Athanasiou, who missed practice on Thursday because of a non-COVID illness. Reichel, who was called up on Wednesday with Brett Seney, also skated on the second power-play unit.
Click here to subscribe to the Blackhawks Talk Podcast for free.
