The Chicago Blackhawks will be without Duncan Keith for at least a month after the defender underwent surgery on his knee after suffering an injury over the weekend. The Blackhawks have gotten strong play from Patrick Kane to start the season and now the team will have to weather things without Keith.

According to NHL.com, Keith had surgery on his right knee to repair a meniscal tear and the initial timetable has him coming back in four to six weeks. Keith missed practice on Tuesday and Yahoo Sports reports that the injury may have come over the weekend against the Blue Jackets on Saturday, which was a win for the Blackhawks. Keith is a key player for the Blackhawks and he plays a lot of minutes and that means the other blue line players will have to step up.

Keith has never missed more than 10 games in any season and he also averages the most ice time of any defender on the Blackhawks. Michal Rozsival is still out with an ankle injury and the team now has Trevor van Riemsdyk, Niklas Hjalmarsson,, Kyle Cumiskey, Viktor Svedberg, Brent Seabrook, Trevor Daley and David Rundblad. The Blackhawks have had to weather long stretches without key players over the past couple years, as Kane and Patrick Sharp have dealt with injuries that kept them off the ice.

NHL.com reports that Rozsival could come off of the long term injured reserve list towards the end of the month, but that timeline is not official. Kyle Cumiskey was signed to a one-year deal last week and the team also could look at signing another free agent or bring up prospects to help replace Keith. The Blackhawks have opened the season 3-3-0 and they have six points in the Central division.

Keith had two points in six games this season for the Blackhawks and last year he had 35 points in 80 games played, scoring 10 goals and recording 35 assists. Kane comes in with seven points in six games this season and he has scored six goals and added three assists. Kane has been dealing with sexual assault allegations stemming from an incident before the season started and there has not been a major update on the case over the last week.

Check here for more on the Blackhawks and Keith.

https://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=783977

"Duncan underwent successful surgery today to repair his right knee meniscal tear," the team said in a released statement. "The surgery was successful and we expect him to return to full hockey activities in approximately 4-6 weeks."