Chicago Blackhawks: Patrick Kane to miss time after suffering injury, Bowen Byram heads to IR

The Chicago Blackhawks blew another two-goal lead last night, this time to the Colorado Avalanche. After going up 2-0 in the first period, the Blackhawks surrendered 5 unanswered goals and lost their second straight game. They move to 4-10-1 on the season and continue to struggle.

On defense, the Blackhawks have been horrid. They struggle severely to exit their own zone with possession (41.6% rate compared to the 52.0% NHL average), which consistently traps them under heavy pressure. This has been a big reason for blowing multiple multi-goal leads.

On offense, they’ve been bad as well, sporting the worst power play in the league at 10.6%.

And if matters couldn’t get worse, the injuries have been mounting. Today, their big offseason splash, Bowen Byram, was placed on IR as he continues to work back from his upper-body injury. A brutal blow, as it was reported that he could return very soon.

Blackhawks have placed Bowen Byram on IR retroactive to Oct 15, so he’s eligible to be activated at any time.

Dillon Boucher called up from Rockford. He’s an enforcer who was a nice story in the preseason. Will definitely add toughness.

— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) November 3, 2026

This comes after head coach Jeff Blashill recently said that Byram is seeing a specialist to try to get him over the “last hurdle.” The situation is clearly more dire than originally thought.

Byram could miss some serious time if he’s seeing a specialist this close to returning.

Chicago Blackhawks: Patrick Kane exits in a loss after suffering an upper-body injury; will miss time

To make matters worse, Patrick Kane is also injured and will miss a few games (at least). It’s an upper-body injury for Kane as well, and it surely won’t help the scoring issue the Blackhawks currently have.

During most of his shifts, Kane looked to be in some discomfort. This is brutal timing, as Chicago will head to Florida, Tampa, and Carolina during the upcoming road trip. Connor Bedard will need to carry the offense.

Here’s Patrick Kane leaving the Chicago bench. He’s been ruled out for the rest of the game. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/8oTxRkfL5x

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) November 3, 2026

Kane has had a tough start to his 2oth season, as he’s scored just once all season and has tallied 8 assists. Certainly not the production that the Hawks expected when they brought him back to Chicago, but a regression was bound to happen. The injury will not make anything easier.

To fill Byram’s spot is Dillon Boucher, whom the team called up from the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs.

It doesn’t help that Chicago has faced one of the toughest schedules in the league thus far, but the wins are going to need to stack up, and stack up soon. This slow rebuild has made for some rough hockey, and there’s plenty of blame to go around.

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