It’s not unusual for NHL teams to downplay injuries late in the regular season and in the playoffs and suddenly expose them after elimination. The Blackhawks had little of that in the aftermath of their first-round loss to the Blues in seven games. But one significant injury finally emerged: forward Artem Anisimov had surgery on his right wrist Tuesday. He is expected to be able to “resume full hockey activities” in 6-8 weeks, the team announced.
Anisimov, acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets for Brandon Saad last offseason, scored 20 goals and 42 points, with plus-8 rating in the 2015-16 regular season — but scored only two goals in his final 22 games. Still, Anisimov scored three goals against the Blues in the playoffs. Only Andrew Shaw (four) had more for the Hawks.
The injury likely affected other parts of Anisimov’s game as well. His faceoff-win percentage of 44.2 (507-of-1148) was a career low, including 38.1 percent (64-of-168) in his last 14 games of the regular season. Anisimov sat out five of the Hawks’ final eight games of the regular season. He won 40. 6 percent of his faceoffs in the playoffs (43-of-106), including 30.2 percent in Games 5-7 (12-of-43).
