Connor Bedard will be placed on injured reserve as an upper body issue will sideline him for the foreseeable future. That includes the game against Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Meanwhile, the Chicago Blackhawks have added two players to the roster.
The Blackhawks communications team announced that they recalled both defenseman Ethan Del Mastro and goaltender Laurent Brossoit from the Rockford IceHogs, which play in the American Hockey League.
While not replacements for Bedard, the team needed to make some moves. Del Mastro has one game for the Blackhawks this season. For the IceHogs, Del Mastro has scored 11 points in 27 games. As for Brossoit, he has a .900 save percentage and 3.39 goals-against average in three games with Rockford.
The Maple Leafs will be a tough challenge
With no Bedard, the Blackhawks will face the Maple Leafs who do have Auston Matthews ready to go. Matthews has played in 26 games this season, scoring 21 points in the process.
It’s going to be a tough task for the Blackhawks to beat Toronto without Bedard, who is undoubtedly the team’s biggest star. Chicago has two straight losses and has lost four of the last five games.
The Maple Leafs are also on a bad spell
Toronto is not having the best of days either. The Maple Leafs have lost three of the last four games. Hence, they are also needing to bounce back from this bad spell.
The NHL is a league where streaks matter and this is not the first bad streak the Maple Leafs have had this season. In early November, they lost five straight, including one against the Blackhawks.