DENVER — It was already after 1 p.m., and the bus was scheduled to leave the dank, dingy and bitterly cold Big Bear Ice Arena in less than 20 minutes. Most of the Blackhawks were milling about, grabbing a pre-packaged lunch and heading for the exit and the 70-degree Denver sunshine. But on the ice, the kids were hard at work, gathered around the center-ice circle and playing keep-away/puck-protection games that looked like something out of a U10 soccer practice. It was Kevin Korchinski, Wyatt Kaiser, Lukas Reichel, Cole Guttman and, of course, Connor Bedard out there.
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Finally, Dad stepped in.
“Let’s go!” 38-year-old Corey Perry yelled from outside the rink.
No response. A moment passed.
“OK, Connor wins!” Perry hollered. “Let’s go!”
Eventually, the young guys relented, gathered all the pucks and came off the ice.
Hey, you can always get better, right?
That’s how Bedard is looking at his first four NHL games. By almost any measure, Bedard has been sensational so far. The eye test shows how crafty and creative he is, and how incredibly smooth he is at zone entries, making one of the most important skills in the modern NHL look so easy. The analytics show that he leads the league with a whopping 20 individual scoring chances (per Natural Stat Trick), eight more than any other player (and eight of them of the high-danger variety). And the counting stats show a goal and two assists through four games, as strong a showing as you can reasonably expect from an 18-year-old.
So why, during games, is Bedard slamming his stick on the boards coming off the ice, grimacing after shifts, muttering to himself on the bench?
Well, because he wants more. He expects more.
“I feel I’m playing well,” he said. “Just trying to find the back to the net, and that’s been the hardest part so far. You’re going to get a little frustrated.”
Bedard isn’t used to not scoring basically at will. In 64 total games last season (including the playoffs), he potted a ludicrous 81 goals, handing out another 82 assists. He scored in 48 of those 64 games last season, and only twice went consecutive games without scoring.
Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson, for one, isn’t concerned at all.
“You don’t really have to stray from the system — he’s getting his opportunities and they’re going to go in,” Richardson said. “I think one of them hit the goalie’s glove and then I saw his head move (back and forth) the other day, he didn’t even see it. Those are going to start hitting the bar and going in for him. He’s playing with confidence and playing well. We won our last game (in Toronto) so there’s no desperation to change our game plan as a team, or individually as a player.”
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As emotional as Bedard can get on the ice, he seems to have a veteran’s ability to move on quickly. If he’s really concerned about the relative dearth of goals early on, he certainly didn’t show it on Tuesday. He seemed more bemused by it — after all, this just doesn’t happen to him — than anything else.
“I’ve created chances,” he said. “It’s pretty wild, just kind of can’t score. But the big thing is creating chances. I’ve had so many good looks. The goalie makes a good save or I just miss or whatever. Just sticking with it. You should be more worried if you’re not getting those looks. Of course, I want to see some go in, but it’s only been a few games.”
Bedard mostly shrugged off any specific reasons why the puck hasn’t been going in at its usual clip. Yes, the goalies in the NHL are better than the goalies in the Western Hockey League. No, he doesn’t think he’s shooting from too far away, though the thing about NHL goalies is that if they see the puck, they usually stop the puck. Goals in the NHL tend to be scored from close range or directly off a pass — particularly one that forces the goalie to move side to side. Just flat-out beating goalies with the puck on your stick is awfully difficult in the NHL. So what worked in the WHL might not work as well in the NHL.
Only eight of Bedard’s 33 unblocked shot attempts have been from within 10 feet of the net. According to data culled from Evolving Hockey, Bedard’s average shot distance is 28.2 feet. For comparison’s sake, the average shot distance for Toronto’s Auston Matthews — who has a similarly spectacular shot and who scored six goals in his first two games — is just 14.7 feet.
Here’s a look at Bedard’s shot attempts (on the left) versus Matthews (right), via Evolving Hockey. Not all shot attempts are the same.
“I don’t know, I think I have a pretty good shot,” Bedard said when asked if he needed to get closer to the net more often. “And there’s a lot of times where it’s been close. Hit a couple posts. They’re good goalies. Not going to argue with that. They’re the best in the world and it’s going to be hard to score goals with how good they are. For me, just keep shooting, try to keep that confidence in my shot. I’ve been close a lot of times, so just try to stick with it.
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That self-assurance is one of the many things that sets Bedard apart from most teenagers in the NHL, and Richardson is grateful for it.
“He’s just like most hockey players, he shows emotion right away but he pulls himself right back together, and that’s a good thing,” Richardson said. “He’s been playing a lot. The next shift is always the most important, so it’s a good perspective for him to keep.”
The brutal Blackhawks schedule isn’t making things any easier on Bedard. Montreal last week and (depending on your expectations for the Coyotes) Arizona on Oct. 30 are the only non-playoff contenders the Blackhawks face between the start of the season and the night before Thanksgiving. Boston twice, Toronto twice, Vegas twice, Florida twice and Tampa Bay twice, with Pittsburgh, Colorado, New Jersey and Buffalo in there, too. Thursday night will be Bedard’s fifth NHL game, and he’ll already have squared off against Sidney Crosby, Auston Matthews and now Nathan MacKinnon. (“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Bedard said of facing MacKinnon.)
That the Blackhawks have a chance to come out of this five-game gantlet with three wins is a testament to the stellar goaltending of Arvid Söderblom and Petr Mrazek as well as the surprisingly stout defense of a back end with three rookies playing every night. Bedard, meanwhile, has been consistently driving play on the Blackhawks’ top line. So just imagine what could happen — what will happen, the way Bedard sees it — when the puck starts going in.
“You never want to accept not scoring on a prime chance,” Bedard said. “But goalies are so good, and sometimes they’re going to beat you. Sometimes the shooter’s going to win, sometimes the goalie’s going to win. That’s how it is. They’re the best of the best. (But) I’ve been close. They make some good saves. And hopefully that kind of changes.”
(Top photo of Connor Bedard and Auston Matthews: Claus Andersen / Getty Images)