just returned from a shoulder injury<\/a> on Friday against the Washington Capitals. He has two assists in Saturday\u2019s 3-0 win at the Predators, increasing his season point total to 46 on the year.<\/p>\nAs a result, the Hawks were dominated in their defensive zone and unable to get McDavid and company past the blue line. Edmonton had 35 shots in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got to win puck battles (and) puck races to have any chance, and we didn\u2019t do that early,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have zero identity when you don\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard\u2019s absence may have thrown things off, but the Hawks won\u2019t use that as the reason for the loss. They won their previous four without Bedard, so they know they can function without him.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously would prefer Connor in the lineup, we prefer Frank (Nazar) in the lineup, we prefer any of our great players in the lineup,\u201d Foligno said. \u201cThe reality is when you don\u2019t have them, you come together.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, we allowed them to get to their game right away. We didn\u2019t make them hard on them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Things weren\u2019t pretty from the get-go for the Hawks. Edmonton did whatever they wanted in the Hawks\u2019 defensive zone, but Knight (31 saves) was able to keep his team in the game.<\/p>\n
The Hawks only put up five shots on goal in the first period. The second period was better with 12 shots, but Edmonton goaltender Connor Ingram (29 saves) kept the Hawks scoreless for a while.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpencer (Knight) kept us in it through that stretch, I thought the last five of the first and the rest of the game were not bad, and then we were really good in the third,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cUnfortunately, game isn\u2019t 40 minutes long, it\u2019s 60.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Oilers were able to get past Knight with a ricochet from left winger Zach Hyman at 14:41 in the first period. Defenseman Evan Bouchard sent a soft shot that hit Knight\u2019s skates and then into the net six ticks into the second period.<\/p>\n
McDavid had two secondary assists on the night. It\u2019s his 19th straight game with at least one point, scoring 44 points in that span.<\/p>\n
Tyler Bertuzzi scored his 24th goal of the season at 14:46 in the third. Despite being outplayed all game, the Hawks were in a position for a miracle win.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a monster around the net,\u201d defenseman Wyatt Kaiser said. \u201cAny loose puck battles, he\u2019s winning it (when) it\u2019s bouncing to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Blashill: \u201cHe\u2019s a winning hockey player (that) does a lot of little things right. He\u2019s playing great hockey because he\u2019s really doing it at both ends of the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hawks emptied their net at the end of the third period, and any hope for a Hawks comeback win was dashed. Bouchard (19:07) and Leon Draisaitl (19:15) scored goals within eight seconds of each other.<\/p>\n
Teuvo Ter\u00e4v\u00e4inen exited the game in the first period due to an \u201cupper-body\u201d injury. He\u2019ll be evaluated on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everyone \u2014 besides a healing Frank Nazar \u2014 participated in the Chicago Blackhawks\u2019 Monday morning skate. Louis Crevier,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":512589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,291,123097,3260,2997,155510,5386,1818,16068,123389,157590,59706],"class_list":["post-512588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-connor-bedard","tag-connor-mcdavid","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-frank-nazar","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-nhl-hockey","tag-spencer-knight","tag-tyler-bertuzzi","tag-united-center"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115886477111165475","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Spencer](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ctc-z-2255469359_258214454.jpg\")
Spencer Knight of the Chicago Blackhawks looks on during the first period against the Edmonton Oilers at the United Center on Jan. 12, 2026. (Geoff Stellfox\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n