CHICAGO -- Eight days after a scary collision at Joe Louis Arena left Columbus Blue Jackets center Artem Anisimov motionless on the ice, he will get back into a game Friday night at United Center.
Anisimov, a big-bodied Russian forward, will have missed three games because of the upper-body injury that stemmed from the incident against the Detroit Red Wings. He will center a line between Matt Calvert and Cam Atkinson on Friday (8:30 p.m. ET), when Columbus plays the Chicago Blackhawks (17-0-3), who haven't lost in regulation and have twice beaten the Blue Jackets (5-12-3) in a pair of one-goal games.
"He hasn't done a whole lot leading up to it, so we're going to have to be smart in how we manage his minutes," Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. "He needs to be really solid 5-on-5 and then we'll go from there. If his energy's good and he feels good, we can start using him maybe on the power play or penalty kill, as well. [Just] having that big presence up the middle of the ice, some size and some skill, [is good for us]."