Before his injury, Khaira had been one of few Hawks forwards showing at least a little offensive spark. The rest of the bottom-six crew direly need to increase their production.<\/b>
\nJujhar Khaira is expected to make a full recovery. That fact alone provides enormous relief to the Blackhawks and the entire hockey world, which had been collectively hoping for the best after Khaira\u2019s ghastly head injury Tuesday against the Rangers. Khaira was released Wednesday from Northwestern Hospital and placed on injured reserve and in concussion protocol. Hawks team physician Dr. Michael Terry said in a statement that \u201cdespite the significant injury, his prognosis is excellent.\u201d It\u2019s too early to project the length of his recovery timeline, Terry added. However, it seems reasonable to expect the 27-year-old wing will be out at least weeks, if not months or longer. And that will dent the Hawks\u2019 depth. Partially as a result of his injury, Hawks shuffled a number of players before their road trip to Montreal and Toronto. Forwards Mike Hardman and Philipp Kurashev were recalled from the AHL, defensemen Ian Mitchell and Wyatt Kalynuk were sent down and forward MacKenzie Entwistle was activated from long-term injured reserve and also sent down. Although Khaira\u2019s signing over the summer prompted barely a tremor among the Hawks\u2019 earthquakes around that time, he established himself as a decent role player through his first 17 games this season, averaging 14:18 of ice time. His stat line of two goals and zero assists doesn\u2019t look particularly impressive, but he had shown slightly more offensive spark than most of the Hawks\u2019 other bottom-six-type forwards (of which there are many). That\u2019s partly because Khaira had demonstrated some ability to get to the net, some smart instincts near the puck and some ability to play with more dynamic linemates. Interim coach Derek King had used him alongside the likes of Jonathan Toews and Dominik Kubalik at various points over the past month. But that\u2019s also partly because the other depth forwards have universally set the bar extremely low when it comes to actual production. Kurashev, just half a calendar year removed from his 2021 breakout, has zero goals and five assists in 19 games. Hardman has zero goals and two assists in 17 games. Entwistle had two goals and one assist in 12 games before his injury. Henrik Borgstrom has one goal and one assist in 16 games. Ryan Carpenter has zero goals and two assists in 22 games. Reese Johnson has one (gifted) goal and two assists in 16 games. Even Dylan Strome, who would likely argue he doesn\u2019t fit the bottom-six classification, has just two goals and three assists in 16 games. For all of the focus on Toews\u2019 season-long goal drought (while he has nine assists) and Kirby Dach\u2019s now-snapped goal drought, the silence from all of those aforementioned guys explains the Hawks\u2019 offensive woes just as much. The much-discussed depth the Hawks had supposedly assembled entering training camp has really not made a difference on the scoreboard. In terms of goals per minute by forwards, the Hawks rank 31st in the NHL this season, ahead of only the tanking Coyotes. And their three leading goal-scorers \u2014 Alex DeBrincat (14 goals), Brandon Hagel (eight) and Patrick Kane (seven) \u2014 alone account for a whopping 61.7% that total. That\u2019s a striking and alarming quantification of the Hawks\u2019 top-heaviness. Only one team, the Oilers, entered Wednesday with their top three scorers accounting for a larger percentage of their team total. Conversely,22 teams are at or below 50% in that regard. The most balanced team is the Panthers, whose top three scorers only account for 33.7% of their team total; not coincidentally, the Panthers also rank first overall in goals per minute by forwards. So even with the Hawks recently playing remarkably stout defense, receiving stellar goaltending and developing much-needed team unity, they\u2019re still being severely restricted by their lack of scoring. If any of the less-obvious candidates could start chipping in, it would make a big difference. But Khaira\u2019s absence will only make that tougher to achieve.<\/p>\n