Slumping Blackhawks lose another key player as Patrick Kane departs with upper-body injury

CHICAGO (AP) — The slumping Chicago Blackhawks lost another key player when Patrick Kane left Monday night's game against Colorado with an upper-body injury.Kane departed in the second period of Chicago's 5-2 loss. Coach Jeff Blashill said the forward “will miss the next couple games, for sure.”“It’s a loss, but again, this is the NHL, so you’re going to lose guys, and you’re going to find a way for other guys to step in,” Blashill said.Kane, who turns 38 on Nov. 19, has one goal and eight assists in 15 games in his return to Chicago. He agreed to a $16 million, two-year contract in July.Kane spent his first 15-plus seasons with the Blackhawks, playing a major role in three Stanley Cup championships. He hasn't scored since the opener at Vegas on Sept. 29, but he picked up his 900th career assist during Saturday's 5-4 loss at Boston.Chicago was already playing without defenseman Bowen Byram, who missed his eighth consecutive game with an upper-body injury. Byram was acquired in a trade with Buffalo in June.“Trying to get him over the last hurdle,” Blashill said, “and he's seeing a specialist to try to work through that, to get him over the last hurdle. So that’s where that’s at.”Chicago was hoping to contend for a playoff spot going into the season, but it’s already in a tough position.The Blackhawks are off to a 4-10-1 start. They face Florida on Wednesday night in the opener of a three-game trip that also includes games against Tampa Bay and Carolina.The franchise hasn't reached the postseason since the NHL used an expanded playoff format in the pandemic-affected 2019-20 season.“We’ve had enough games where we’ve been in position to win games. We haven’t won enough of those,” Blashill said. “If you continuously do it over and over and you get incrementally better, at some point you look back and you say, you know, we did a good job climbing out of that, and that’s what we’re going to have to do.”___See AP’s full NHL coverage here