Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville told Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times that it is his “expectation and hope” that goaltender Corey Crawford will return at some point this season. He also acknowledged that the netminder has done very limited workouts since being shut down with what has been reported to be vertigo-like symptoms and that they won’t be able to provide any sort of timetable for a possible return until he is able to resume working out. In the meantime, they will continue to go with a tandem of Anton Forsberg and Jeff Glass although a trade for short-term help can’t be ruled out either.
More injury notes from around the league:
- In a separate column, Lazerus also reports that Blackhawks center Artem Anisimov returned to practice on Friday for the first time since suffering an upper-body injury in late December. While he won’t play today, he could be back in the lineup as early as Monday against Tampa Bay and should slot in somewhere on the second or third line.
- Wild winger Nino Niederreiter has suffered a setback in his recovery from a lower-body injury, head coach Bruce Boudreau told Michael Russo of The Athletic (Twitter link). As a result, he is not expected to return until after the All-Star break. Niederreiter sits tied for third on Minnesota in goals this season with 13 despite missing 15 games due to injuries already.
- Carolina could be set to get a pair of players back for their game against Detroit tonight. Michael Smith of the Hurricanes’ team website notes that defenseman Brett Pesce and center Derek Ryan could both be ready to return from their respective upper-body injuries. Pesce appears to be ahead of schedule as at one point, he wasn’t expected to be back until after the All-Star break.