CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Blackhawks captain Connor Bedard is set for his season debut on Tuesday night against Pittsburgh.
Coach Jeff Blashill said Bedard is in the lineup for the matchup with Sidney Crosby and the Penguins. The 21-year-old center had surgery on his left shoulder on July 8.
“It’s only been six games, but when you miss camp and you miss preseason it feels like a lot longer,” Bedard said. “Just to be back with the guys and get to do what I love, it’s exciting. Looking forward to getting back out there, for sure.”
Chicago dropped five of its first six games without Bedard, who had a team-high 45 assists and 75 points last season. The Blackhawks have been outscored 26-12.
“We have to understand we’re adding a good piece to the puzzle, but we can’t expect him to put the puzzle together by himself,” Blashill said.
Bedard is expected to play on the team's top line with Patrick Kane and rookie Roman Kantserov. Nick Lardis was assigned to Rockford of the AHL to make room for Bedard on the roster.
Bedard agreed to a $75 million, five-year contract in July. The No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft became the second-youngest captain in the history of the Original Six franchise on Sept. 15.
He got hurt while skating with a group of NHL players in western Canada this summer. After the operation, the team said he would be sidelined for approximately four months.
“You never really know how things are going to go,” Bedard said. “I put a lot of time and effort into the rehab process to try and maybe come back a little earlier than I guess originally expected, but at the end of the day it’s just when they felt comfortable. So it was safe for me to get back out there. But definitely happy that I didn’t miss quite as many.”
Bedard made his NHL debut against Crosby and the Penguins in 2023. He was heralded as the new face of the Blackhawks, and he won the Calder Trophy as the league’s rookie of the year.
He missed 12 games last season after he hurt his right shoulder on Dec. 12. He wasn't allowed to take faceoffs after he returned, but he has no restrictions this year.
“It’s nice. I mean, you want to just play your full game,” Bedard said. “So just get back out there and you want to play as free as you can. It’s nice that we had two practices for me to get into and feel some bumps and get into battles and stuff where it’s not as controlled.”
While Bedard is back, Frank Nazar will not play against the Penguins. The 22-year-old forward is finishing his two-game suspension for an illegal check on New York Islanders forward Bo Horvat on Thursday night.
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FILE - Chicago Blackhawks center Connor Bedard handles the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Colorado Avalanche, March 20, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)
CAIRO (AP) — A coalition of forces in Yemen led by Saudi Arabia carried out new airstrikes Tuesday on the Houthi rebel-held Yemeni capital of Sanaa, the Houthi-run broadcaster Al Masirah and residents said.
The strikes marked a fresh escalation in the widening Middle East crisis and came shortly after a coalition spokesman urged residents to evacuate the area for their safety. Witnesses reported hearing strong explosions in Sanaa hours after the coalition struck the al-Suhaba fuel facility west of the city.
In a rare statement earlier, the coalition had urged civilians in the Houthi-controlled capital to leave the Yemeni Oil Company site, on a hill overlooking the capital, and nearby storage areas ahead of a possible strike.
Coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki accused the Houthis of using the facility and its underground fuel depots for their arsenal of missiles and drones.
Houthi officials appeared to have anticipated the attack. The oil company said its storage facilities were empty and that a Saudi strike would not affect oil reserves or supplies for residents. Still, witnesses in the city said lines of cars formed at some gas stations amid fears of a shortage.
Shortly after the warning, Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said on Telegram that any Saudi attack on Sanaa would be met with a “firm and painful” response in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Hours later, Saudi Arabia issued alerts for incoming missiles heading for Riyadh and the country’s Eastern Province, a major oil-producing region, but quickly said the danger had passed. The coalition said it had intercepted a series of Houthi-launched ballistic missiles. Riyadh residents reported hearing loud explosions.
It was unclear whether the Tuesday strike in Yemen was a signal of military escalation or a carefully measured response to recent deadly attacks on the Riyadh airport.
The warning and the attack show “the Saudis’ aims of upping the ante and striking deep in the heart of Houthi-controlled territory while attempting to control the narrative by presenting themselves as more careful and humanitarian actors than the Houthis,” said Adam Baron, a fellow at the Washington-based New America institute.
“It may be a warning -- or it may be a sign of things to come," he said.
Saudi Arabia is still scrambling to determine how its air defenses failed to intercept a barrage of missiles and drones fired by the Houthis, including an attack on Riyadh's international airport on Saturday that killed at least 13 people and wounded over 300.
The latest conflict between the Saudis and the Houthis began last month after the rebels seized key areas along the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical waterway for the transport of Gulf oil and other goods at the southern end of the Red Sea off Yemen.
The Saudi-led coalition, backing forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognized government, has been trying to retake them.
Saudi Arabia’s Cabinet on Tuesday warned the Houthis they would “face consequences” for their repeated attacks on the kingdom.
“The Kingdom will not allow any threat to its security or to freedom of maritime navigation in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait,” the Cabinet said in a statement carried by Saudi state-owned Al-Ekhbariya television. The Bab el-Mandeb is another area key to the flow of oil out of the Persian Gulf.
On Tuesday, Yemen’s interior ministry said in a statement on X that Houthi strikes over the past day on Taiz, a major city in the country's southwest, had killed six people and injured 18 amid ongoing battles in the region.
A commander with the Saudi-backed forces said rebels had fought through fierce resistance to reach the edges of Taiz, and some had entered the city. The fight was now critical for Taiz, which has long been a sought-after prize, he said.
The commander, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe battlefield details, said rebel forces were surprisingly large, and bolstered by medium and short-range ballistic missiles.
That fighting is leading to the large-scale displacement of people and growing shortages of food and other supplies, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday, with cooking gas largely unavailable and food prices that have reportedly risen about 50%.
The coalition commander said the fighting was fiercest over control of the Kahboub mountains, which overlook Bab al-Mandab and Aden, seat of the internationally backed government. The commander said his forces have called for reinforcements.
Earlier Tuesday, the Houthis renewed their warning against using Saudi airspace, Houthi-controlled media reported. Several airlines have suspended service to the kingdom because of the Houthi attacks on airports.
In a statement published by the Houthi-controlled SABA news agency, the Houthi-run foreign ministry referred to Saudi Arabia as the “Kingdom of the Horn of Satan” and said the kingdom “must realize that security, stability, and sovereignty must belong to everyone; otherwise, no one will enjoy them.”
Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty called for the Houthis to immediately halt attacks on Saudi Arabia.
“There is no justification for these attacks, and they cannot be accepted,” Abdelatty told Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in a phone call Tuesday.
Abdelatty also called for prioritizing diplomacy and a political solution to the conflict between Iran and the United States to avert “further escalation and instability” in the region, according to the Egyptian readout of the call.
The Saudi-led coalition said earlier Tuesday that three drones had been intercepted north of Riyadh. The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify that claim.
Saudi Arabia has been pushing for the U.S. military to provide more direct support in the fight against the Houthis.
The U.S. has provided intelligence sharing, target identification and planning for a Saudi-led offensive, but has held off on carrying out strikes against the Houthis.
A U.S. intervention could prompt the Houthis to try to halt shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb.
AP writers Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Samy Magdy in Cairo and Aamer Madhani in Jerusalem contributed.
A truck loaded with firewood drives through the Al-Basateen neighborhood in Aden, Yemen, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)
