Chicago Blackhawks center Artem Anisimov suffered a lower-body injury in a 4-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday at United Center.
Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville didn’t expand on what the injury was beyond a lower-body injury, but Anisimov did look bothered by his right leg throughtout the game, according to Chris Hine of the Chicago Tribune. Quenneville did say Anisimov “might miss a little bit of time” due to the injury.
Rookie Nick Schmaltz will move down to the second-line center role. Schmaltz did play center in Wednesday’s win and helped set up two of Patrick Kane’s three goals. It’s unclear who will move into Schmaltz’s left-wing role on the top-line alongside center Jonathan Toews and winger Richard Panik.
Anisimov, 28, has scored 22 goals with 21 assists in 58 games this season. His 22 goals match a career-high from his 2013-14 season with Columbus while his point production is two shy of breaking his career-high set in 2010-11 with the New York Rangers.