The Blackhawks hit a rare breather this week, but there’s still plenty to watch as they sit at 2-2-0 through the first half of their seven-game homestand.
Chicago is coming off a stretch that brought Connor Bedard back into the lineup against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 13 and a thrilling overtime win over the Winnipeg Jets on Oct. 15. After that, the Blackhawks have five days without a game, and that pause could matter for a roster still sorting itself out early in the season.
One of the biggest health questions centers on Bowen Byram. The defenseman remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury, and the team has not said exactly what the issue is.
Ethan Del Mastro has filled in for the last two games, including a role on the top line with Artyom Levshunov against the Jets and with Sam Rinzel against the Dallas Stars on Saturday. With the time off, Byram is likely to be back by the end of the week.
Bedard’s return has already changed the feel around this team. The Blackhawks have shown more life since getting their captain back, even if Saturday’s shutout loss to Dallas fit the early-season numbers more than the recent optimism. Bedard wasn’t ducking responsibility afterward.
“I don’t think we were in the right spots for each other as much as we’d like, giving the guy an easy play. We want to play fast and fly the zone, but we’ve got to make sure guys have an easy out,” he said.
“We just weren’t getting the puck out of our end tonight, and that’s on the five-man unit; that’s not on the D-men. That’s on us to be in a good spot for them” (from ‘Connor Bedard gets first chance as captain to keep Blackhawks accountable after loss,’ New York Times, Oct.
18, 2026).
Coach Jeff Blashill pointed to the same larger issue. “To start the year, we gave up a lot of chances and didn’t create much,” head coach Jeff Blashill said.
“Now we’re creating way more but still giving up too much” (from ‘Stars hand Blackhawks first loss with Connor Bedard this season,’ Chicago Sun-Times, Oct. 17, 2026).
The wins over Pittsburgh and Winnipeg were driven by the young core. Roman Kantserov scored twice against the Penguins, while Levshunov and Spencer Knight stood out against the Jets. Frank Nazar also scored in his first game back from suspension.
That youth movement is very much still in place. The issue now is whether Chicago can clean up the defensive mess before the schedule tightens again. The giveaways told part of the story against Dallas, with both teams finishing with 19 turnovers, but the Stars had the finishing power to make Chicago pay.
The Blackhawks do get to keep working at home, which at least gives them a little consistency during this five-day window. Their next opponent is the Montreal Canadiens on Friday, another young team. If the Blackhawks use the break to sharpen the defensive side of their game, that matchup could look a lot different than the one they just played against Dallas.
In Other News...
Blackhawks Just Got A Reminder Of The Gap They Still Face
The Blackhawks brief uptick hit a wall at the United Center, where Dallas walked away with a 4-0 win and reminded Chicago how much work still remains against the Wests better teams. Jason Robertson got the Stars going, Arttu Hyry and Roope Hintz added goals, and Jake Oettinger finished off the night with a shutout as Chicagos two-game winning streak came to an end.
For a team trying to show it can string together real progress, this was the kind of game that exposes the gap between improved stretches and sustained competitiveness. The Blackhawks had been building a little momentum, but against a Stars group that dictated the pace and cashed in chances, they never found a way to answer or make the scoreline closer than it looked. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Hit A Frustrating Bedard Problem Against Top Defenses
The Blackhawks ran into the kind of opponent that can make a night feel longer than the score suggests, falling 3-0 to the Stars at the United Center in their first loss with Connor Bedard in the lineup. Dallas controlled enough of the key moments to turn Chicagos push into a frustrating blank sheet, with Jason Robertson striking on the power play before Arttu Hyry and Roope Hintz added insurance.
For Chicago, the bigger concern was how little room Dallas gave its young core to operate. Jake Oettinger was steady all night and repeatedly shut down the Blackhawks when they found looks in dangerous areas, the kind of performance that shows why top-end defenses can be such a problem for this group as it tries to build around Bedard. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Slow Start Puts One Veteran's Future In Focus
The Blackhawks 3-6-0 start has already nudged some of the organizations bigger questions into the foreground, and Teuvo Teravainen is among the names now being watched most closely. The veteran forward entered the year on the fringes after opening the season as a healthy scratch, a reminder that Chicagos early-season evaluation has been about more than just wins and losses.
Teravainen has shown some signs of settling in as the schedule has worn on, but the larger picture still points back to where the Blackhawks sit in the standings. If Chicago stays outside the playoff race, his situation could become one of the more interesting ones on the roster, though no formal trade decisions have been made yet. For now, it is another layer to a season that already has the front office thinking ahead while the team tries to climb back into contention. [Read more 🡒]