Bowen Byram won't dress for the Chicago Blackhawks tonight in Buffalo, leaving Jeff Blashill to rebuild a blue line that's already leaking goals.
Blashill said Saturday that the defenseman is away attending to a family matter. No timeline came with it.
The timing is ugly. The Blackhawks enter puck drop at 0-2-0, dead last in the league with a -9 goal differential through two road games.
Byram hasn't found his footing in the early going. He's scoreless through two games and went minus-4, tied for the worst rating on the roster.
That's a rough start for a player carrying a $6,250,000 cap hit, the kind of contract built to steady a back end rather than add to the leak.
Then the second shoe dropped. Sam Rinzel was scratched, while Korchinski and Del Mastro will both play.
Rinzel has no points through two games and a -2 rating. Ugly on its own, sure, but hardly an outlier on this blue line.
Sam Rinzel lands in the press box as the Chicago blue line gets reshuffled
Alex Vlasic sits at -3 and Artyom Levshunov at -1. Wyatt Kaiser owns the only point from a Chicago defenseman so far, a single assist.
So why does the 22-year-old get singled out? Pulling him on the same night Byram is unavailable is a bad call.
It's like a restaurant losing its head chef for the evening and sending the sous chef home too. Somebody still has to run the kitchen.
Ian Cole, 37, becomes the anchor by default. He's the only Chicago defenseman still sitting at even through two games.
The goaltending hasn't bailed anyone out. Spencer Knight carries an .889 save percentage, and Arvid Soderblom posted an .813 in his lone appearance.
The Blackhawks were held scoreless in a 6-0 loss in Utah on Thursday, two nights after a 5-2 loss in Las Vegas.
Up front, Andrew Mangiapane is day-to-day with a lower-body injury and expected out until at least October 6. The forward group can't lean on him either.
The Sabres aren't exactly rolling. Lindy Ruff's group dropped a 6-3 decision in Columbus to open the season and comes in on a three-game losing streak.
Tonight is also Buffalo's first home game of the year, and it's the first meeting between these teams this season.
The Blackhawks finally get home Tuesday against St. Louis. What's unclear is whether Byram is back by then, and whether Rinzel gets his spot back when he is.
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Was Jeff Blashill wrong to scratch Sam Rinzel on a night Bowen Byram is out?
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