Daniel Carcillo waited a year to get back on the ice. After a little less than 11 minutes of ice time, he'll have to wait about another month to do it again.

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said after Sunday's morning skate in Glendale, Ariz., that Carcillo will miss about a month, but won't require surgery, after suffering a "lower-body injury" in the third period of Saturday's victory over the Kings. Quenneville said it's not the same injury -- a torn ACL in his left knee -- that ended Carcillo's season last January, but declined to be more specific. He appeared to be favoring his right knee when being helped off the ice on Saturday.

Carcillo -- who is still with the team and is not on crutches -- was skating on the top line with Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa. Rookie Brandon Saad is likely to slip into that slot tonight against the Coyotes.

"It's unfortunate," Quenneville said. "He finally gets back in, he had 10 great minutes of ice time, I thought he looked very good on that line. It was a very dangerous line for us. But keep your spirits up, work through it, get excited to get back again. He knows the process of working on that rehab, and the commitment that's needed to get his game back to where it was. It'll be a process, but we'll look forward to getting him back."

For Saad, it's a tremendous opportunity. Instead of being a healthy scratch as he was in Los Angeles, or starting on the fourth line like many rookies, he'll be starting with two of the best players in the world.

"It's exciting," Saad said. "It's never good to see a player go down, especially with the history he had with his knee. [But] it's going to be exciting to get a chance to play for sure."

Quenneville also said that Ray Emery will start in goal tonight for the Hawks. This is the first of 12 back-to-back sets for the team during the compressed 48-game season. Corey Crawford made 19 saves and looked sharp against the Kings, but Quenneville wants to keep both his goaltenders fresh and ready.

"Back-to-back games, you've got six games in nine days this week, and I want to get Ray in the game and [make] him part of the team right off the bat, get a game under his belt," Quenneville said. "He played well for us when he played last year."

Emery was 15-9-4 last season, with a 2.81 goals-against average and a .900 save percentage.