{"id":393309,"date":"2026-01-07T06:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/393309\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T06:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:12:10","slug":"blackhawks-c-connor-bedard-steps-up-his-rehab-in-his-return-from-a-shoulder-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/393309\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackhawks C Connor Bedard steps up his rehab in his return from a shoulder injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 Connor Bedard<\/a> joined the Chicago Blackhawks<\/a> for part of Tuesday\u2019s practice, stepping up his rehab in his return from a right shoulder injury.<\/p>\n

Bedard got hurt on a draw with 0.8 seconds left in a 3-2 loss at St. Louis on Dec. 12. He ranked among the NHL leaders with 19 goals and 25 assists in 31 games at the time of the injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel really good,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cObviously getting to get out with the guys a little bit today and kind of just keep ramping up. It feels really good though.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old center was ruled out for Wednesday night\u2019s game against the Blues, but coach Jeff Blashill left open the possibility of a return this weekend. The Blackhawks host Washington on Friday and visit Nashville on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to have him back out there, kind of involved in some of the team drills,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cThose were kind of the flow-type drills, but we\u2019ll keep progressing. It was great to see him, great to see the jump that he has.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blackhawks forward Frank Nazar<\/a> also was on the ice before practice. Nazar was placed on injured reserve last weekend after he was hit in the face by a puck during a 6-4 loss at Ottawa on Dec. 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood for Frankie to be skating,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cHe\u2019s further away than Connor, but it\u2019s a good step in the right direction for sure. He started with eating solid food and moved towards this, so that\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chicago has won three in a row to improve to 4-6-1 since Bedard\u2019s injury. Asked about the timeline for playing in a game again, Bedard was noncommittal. <\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully pretty soon I can get back out there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With his fast start, Bedard made an argument for a spot on Team Canada for the Winter Olympics. But he was left off the roster when it was announced last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s disappointment, for sure,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cEveryone in Canada would want to be on that team, or any country that\u2019s going. But there\u2019s so many great players. They got tough decisions to make, so obviously you respect that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great team. You can\u2019t really be mad at the roster they picked, so there\u2019s no hard feelings for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bedard, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft, still could be added to Canada\u2019s roster as an injury replacement. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/NHL<\/p>\n

The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 Connor Bedard joined the Chicago Blackhawks for part of Tuesday\u2019s practice, stepping up his rehab…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-393309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}