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Blackhawks' Murphy to make season debut, but Forsling out with hurt shoulder

One step forward, one step back.

That pretty much sums up the state of the Blackhawk's blue line as they get set to host the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday.

The good news for coach Jeremy Colliton's squad is that Connor Murphy is finally set to make his season debut after sitting out two months with a back injury. He was paired with Erik Gustafsson at practice Saturday.

The bad news is the Hawks placed Gustav Forsling on injured reserve with a shoulder injury.

The Hawks' top four defensemen are now Duncan Keith, Henri Jokiharju, Murphy and Gustafsson. Brent Seabrook and Brandon Manning skated on the third pair.

Murphy said Saturday that he hopes to go out, have fun, compete at his hardest and help turn around the fortunes of a team that has just 3 victories in its last 20 games.

"It's hard any time you miss games, whether it's one or 30," said Murphy, who had 2 goals and 12 assists in 76 games in 2017-18, his first season with the Hawks. "It's not fun and especially seeing the team struggle a little bit is harder. … The recent (slump has) been hard and you feel for the guys.

"Everyone's working hard and wanting to win, and (we're) not getting the results. But we show spurts in games (where we're) doing things well. So I think it'll come and I'm really happy to start contributing."

As for Forsling, he has 1 goal and 4 assists in 11 games since being called up from Rockford. He also saw at least 19 minutes, 47 seconds of ice time in his last seven games.

"Obviously we want him playing because he's played well for us and he's a big part of what we're trying to build here," Colliton said. "But it's important that he's feeling he can play at his highest level and he's not there."

On the farm:

Dylan Sikura had 3 goals in his last two games for Rockford before the IceHogs' hosted the Chicago Wolves on Saturday. Sikura was someone many thought would make the Blackhawks out of training camp, but he ended up being one of the last cuts.

"It's been positive," said Hawks coach Jeremy Colliton. "Certainly he's finding a way to have an impact on the game. That's exciting for the organization and for him too."

Colliton wouldn't put a timeline on when - or if - Sikura would get a call-up.

"Any young player when you come up, you'd like it to be for good," Colliton said. "So it's important not too be too itchy on the trigger despite our results right now.

"The more competition we have, the better. We'd like to have three or four or five guys in Rockford who think they deserve to play here."

Slap shots:

The Blackhawks rank last on the power play with just an 11.5-percent success rate. Since 2000-01, only three teams have done worse than that over an entire season: The 2000-01 Minnesota Wild (9.6 percent), the 2013-14 Florida Panthers (10.0 percent) and the 2003-04 Carolina Hurricanes (10.7 percent). … Jonathan Toews is on pace for 36 goals, which would surpass his career high of 34 in 2008-09. He is also 2 points away from 700 for his career. ... Heading into Saturday's games, former Hawks forward Brandon Pirri was leading the AHL with 31 points (11G, 20A) for the Chicago Wolves.

Scouting report

Scouting report

Blackhawks vs. Montreal Canadiens at United Center, 5 p.m. Sunday

TV: NBCSCH

Radio: WGN 720-AM

The skinny: Montreal (14-10-5) has won three of four and is right in the middle of the wild-card picture in the East. … Former Blackhawks forward Andrew Shaw has 7 goals and 7 assists in the last 14 games. He had just 10 goals and 10 assists in 51 games during an injury-plagued 2017-18 campaign. … Max Domi and Brendan Gallagher are the Canadiens' leading goal scorers with 13 each. Domi, who spent the first three years of his career in Arizona, is just 5 goals away from tying his career high. … Montreal ranks 29th on the power play (14.1 percent). ... The Blackhawks are 3-for-37 on the power play in Jeremy Colliton's 15 games as coach.

Next: Winnipeg Jets at Bell Centre, 7 p.m. Tuesday

- John Dietz

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