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...
Rangers Could Trigger The Goalie Domino That Reshapes This Market
Connor Hellebuycks situation has become one of the more closely watched threads in the goalie market, and the Winnipeg Jets may not be the only club waiting on a resolution. Elliotte Friedman reported that the New York Rangers could wind up shaping the market even without any interest in Hellebuyck themselves, as their next move in goal might help set everything else in motion. With Hellebuycks suspension nearing its end and Winnipeg believed to be looking to move him, the timing now feels tied to what develops elsewhere first.
The Rangers are being connected to separate goalie possibilities involving Buffalo, Carolina and Los Angeles, and those discussions could create the opening another team needs before a Hellebuyck deal can be completed. For the Jets, that means the path forward may depend less on their own urgency than on a chain reaction they cannot control. It is the kind of market wrinkle that can keep a prominent player in limbo a little longer, even when the general direction of the story already seems clear. [Read more 🡒]
Former Jet Comes Back To Haunt Winnipeg In Painful Loss
The night had a little extra weight before the puck even dropped, with the ceremony in support of the Toba Centre setting the tone in Winnipeg. On the ice, the Jets had their chances and got goals from Mark Scheifele and Alex Iafallo, but Carolina kept answering and ultimately left town with a 3-2 win after holding off a late push to level things.
A familiar face played a central role in the outcome, which only made the finish sting more for Winnipeg. The Hurricanes got the decisive goal from Nikolaj Ehlers, and with that marker he completed a rare personal checklist while leaving the Jets to sit with a loss that felt even harder given how close they came to extending the game. [Read more 🡒]
Cole Perfetti Is Giving The Jets One Early Reason For Confidence
Cole Perfetti is giving the Jets a timely reminder of why they locked him in long term this summer. After Winnipeg signed the young forward to a five-year extension in July, he has opened the season with the kind of early pace that gives a team confidence in both its present and its future, piling up offense while looking more and more comfortable as a top-six piece.
Perfettis start has been especially encouraging because it has come right as the Jets are trying to establish an early-season rhythm around their younger core. The production has been steady and noticeable through eight games, and if this level of play keeps up, Winnipegs bet on him is going to look better and better long before the season reaches its midpoint. [Read more 🡒]