Connor Murphy Returning to Blackhawks From Injury

Veteran defenseman Connor Murphy is returning to the Chicago Blackhawks lineup after missing a month of action with a groin injury. He last played on Dec. 31 against the St. Louis Blues in the Winter Classic.

Anders Sorensen spoke to the media and when asked if there are going to be lineup changes ahead of the game against the Florida Panthers, he responded, “Yeah (Connor) Murphy’s gonna come back in.”

Rookie defenseman Nolan Allan is expected to come out of the lineup for him and Murphy will be playing with TJ Brodie on the third pair according to Sorensen.

Blackhawks’ head coach said that, “Obviously we listen to (Murphy) and how his body feels and we’ll see where he’s at after the first game here. We’re not going to play him 30 minutes, but we’ll play him and see how he responds the next day and then we have a little bit of a practice time before our next game so hopefully we can kind of…ease into it here.”

Murphy has a goal and 13 points in 38 games this season. He’s only a -4, which is good for averaging over 20 minutes of ice time per game on the 31st ranked team in the league. The veteran has 45 shots, 70 hits, and 93 blocks this season and if the Blackhawks are thinking about trading him ahead of the trade deadline this season, it is a good thing he’s back with a good amount of time to get back up to speed.

Murphy only suited up for 46 games last season, so injuries have been a concern. Chicago hopes he can stay healthy for the remainder of the season and his contract as he’s a solid piece on the back-end. We’ll have to see how things start in his first game back.

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