TORONTO — Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill chewed out rookie defenseman Artyom Levshunov during practice Monday in Chicago, then took him out of the lineup Tuesday against the Maple Leafs.
Blashill’s eruption was prompted by Levshunov absentmindedly missing his turn through a five-on-five drill, which led to forward Tyler Bertuzzi shouting at him to get back on defense.
The coach paused practice and gave Levshunov a loud, lengthy, expletive-laden lecture about not only missing that rep but also apparently showing up at Fifth Third Arena at 9:20 a.m. for a scheduled 10 a.m. practice (which always begin before the scheduled time).
On Tuesday, the consequence of Levshunov’s tardiness became clear as recent AHL call-up Ethan Del Mastro took his place in the Hawks’ six-man defensive rotation.
“He was late coming to the rink yesterday,” Blashill said. “We have a standard of times guys have to be there. He didn’t mean to do it, but nonetheless, our standard is not going to slip, so he’s out tonight. He knows what the consequences are ahead of time.
“He’s a good kid. One of the things that, as a young player, you have to do is learn how important preparation is. We’ve had conversations about what he needs to do to make sure he prepares himself to get ready for practice and get ready for games. It’s just a learning process for him.”
Scratches due to tardiness are not rare around the NHL; longtime Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad just suffered the same consequence Monday for missing a meeting. And it’s easy to have sympathy for Levshunov as a 20-year-old Belarusian with limited English fluency trying to navigate Chicago.
Still, he — like the rest of the Hawks — has his fair share of defensive miscues in recent games, so a brief reset and a new fire lit underneath him might not be a bad thing.
Bedard on trip
Despite his injury, Connor Bedard traveled with the Hawks to Toronto. Blashill explained that was partially because Bedard had some prearranged personal “meetings with some people” to attend.
“He won’t be around for probably the entirety of the trip, and he’ll certainly get going with his rehab,” Blashill added. “But we like having him around.
“Similar to Nick Foligno being on the trip, you like to have your leadership group around, even when they’re injured. I think it’s important when guys are injured, especially for long periods of time, that they don’t lose the connection with the group. Sitting in the meetings, making sure they know what’s going on, is important.”
Bedard’s injury was reported Tuesday as specifically a separated right shoulder by ESPN’s Kevin Weekes, which makes sense given his reaction during the moment last week in St. Louis. He’s expected to remain out until early January at the earliest.
