Artyom Levshunov shows his ‘best offensive game’ in Blackhawks’ shootout loss

Blackhawks defenseman Artyom Levshunov, even with his limited English, has picked up two of coach Jeff Blashill’s most frequent phrases.

“It’s a process, and it takes time,” Levshunov said Tuesday before the Hawks’ 3-2 shootout loss to the Islanders.

Those mantras apply to Levshunov as much as anyone, considering how long it often takes defensemen to develop and how raw he was when the Hawks drafted him in 2024. As tempting as it is to rush to judgments about his strengths and weaknesses, those won’t be solidified for years.

Tuesday ended up being one of Levshunov’s best offensive performances of the season. He helped the Hawks rally back from another early deficit, and they would’ve won had Nick Foligno not hit the post on an open net with five seconds left in regulation.

Instead, they ended up falling to 2-7 in overtime/shootout games this season. It was an unfortunate result that contained several encouraging signs.

Levshunov consistently moved his legs and kept his head up, picking up pucks off the wall and maneuvering around Islanders to penetrate the interior of the zone. He did exactly that to set up a Teuvo Teravainen goal in the second period, recording his 17th assist of the season — and his fourth in his last five games.

He’s still stuck on one goal because he hit the post/crossbar twice Tuesday — a theme for the Hawks — to increase his season iron total to five.

But Blashill has clearly felt comfortable riding him hard lately. He has averaged more than 23 minutes over the last eight games.

“He was in on the attack a ton, made a ton of plays,” Blashill said. “You’re going to take a little good with the bad when you get that, but we’re OK with that. I guarantee his positives outweighed his negatives tonight. To me, that’s what you judge players on. Not many positives or how many negatives, but where’s the balance? And his balance was on the right side tonight.

“It was definitely his best offensive game, and closer to what we’ve been talking to him about doing. We want to push him to attack the game more, and he certainly did that.”

Olympic outlook

Rosters for the 2026 Winter Olympics will be announced Wednesday, and the Hawks’ eyes will be focused on Bedard and Team Canada — although it seems unlikely he will be selected.

His shoulder injury has hurt the cause, but he made a very compelling case beforehand. Blashill argued Tuesday that Bedard has proven he’s a “world-class player.”

If Bedard doesn’t make the initial cut, he could get added later as an injury replacement. That’s also probably the only route to Milan for Andre Burakovsky, who was born in Austria but competes internationally for Sweden.

That could leave Teuvo Teravainen, who’s a virtual lock for Team Finland, as the Hawks’ lone Olympian. Russia and Belarus’ Olympic bans eliminated any opportunity for Ilya Mikheyev and Levshunov, respectively, to participate.

Dickinson dinged up

Just when it looked like Jason Dickinson might make it through the final month of his injury-filled 2025 calendar year without suffering another injury, he didn’t return Tuesday after the first intermission due to a muscular aggravation.

Blashill called him day-to-day and questionable for Thursday against the Stars. If he can’t play, the Hawks’ center depth will be particularly dire.

Ryan Greene and Nick Foligno would be the only true centers left, although the Hawks also tried out Oliver Moore at that position Tuesday and he played very well, producing his first multi-assist performance of the season.