What We Learned: Who's to blame for Connor Bedard criticism?
It was a wacky week for Connor Bedard.
He got called out on two separate national broadcasts for the capital crime of Not Playing The Right Way and then a few days later was thrust into a role where he had to Play The Right Way against the other team's top players.
In the end, he mostly acquitted himself well, if not always spectacularly, in games against Edmonton, Nashville, and St. Louis: a goal, three assists, a 4-2 edge in scoring at full strength, 55 percent of the high-danger chances, and a roughly 50/50 split of the expected goals.
And he did that playing between Ryan Donato and Landon Slaggert.
Bedard would probably be the first to admit he needs to be better. In fact, I know he is, because he was talking about how poorly he'd been playing back in November, which is around the time his coach got fired for, among other things, not using Bedard in a way that put him in a position to succeed. The new guy has had more success with that in large part because it shouldn't be hard to squeeze a lot of production out of a player with Bedard's talent.
Incidentally, I saw something over the weekend where Donato — who, to be clear, I've always thought had more to give than his previous employers seemed to — has turned himself into a really good trade chip for Chicago, which is the idea when you bring in veterans on short-term deals for rebuilding teams. Probably a coincidence that report came out after a stretch where he played a bunch of games with Bedard, who has been on the ice for 15 of Donato's 37 points and with whom he has strong underlying numbers almost across the board.
Ultimately all the stuff about whether Chicago can win with Bedard playing this way is moot because, again, look at his most common linemates this season. One of the guys criticizing him spent the better part of the first decade of his career with Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri, and Glenn Anderson as teammates, so it might be hard to contextualize Bedard's most common 5-on-5 linemates over his first 123 games being Philipp Kurashev, Nick Foligno, and Donato. With all due respect to those guys, they aren't exactly the all-time greats that made up the bulk of the roster for the '80s Oilers. We don't need to think too deeply about why it hasn't been the runaway success everyone expected in June 2023. Chicago is, intentionally, horrible in a way we've rarely seen for teams getting Generational Talents.
Anyway, the reason I bring all this up is Bedard hasn't been good enough to play for Canada in the Four Nations tournament for which the league is now on a two-week break. That's a huge disappointment for all involved. There's no downplaying it. But it's something Hockey Canada needs to be thinking about with the Olympics a year away.
Not being good enough for the Four Nations is not ideal, but let's be honest about what this tournament is: a glorified three-or-four-game training camp for Milan 2026. Most participating teams brought what will basically be their full Olympic rosters, minus the injured players, but you know the bottom-of-the-lineup spots will be up for grabs and of course Bedard ought to be in the running to make next year's roster even if he deservedly(?) isn't on this one.
Not that Canada would let him within a mile of a top-six center role given the country's depth at the position, but I just kinda get the feeling that if he were playing between, say, Mark Stone and Carter Verhaeghe, the results might be a little better than they've been in Chicago.
There is a path here.
A lot of people might not remember how openly derided Sidney Crosby was in his first few years in the league. He was seen as such a whiner who Didn't Play The Right Way — as evidenced by the 100-plus PIMs he racked up as a rookie — that he didn't win the Calder as a rookie, and even after he won the Stanley Cup, the hockey media spent something like five years looking for someone, anyone, who could be cast as the Actual Best Player In The World. He probably didn't fully beat the stigma that he wasn't as good as the hype until he won those Cups in the mid-2010s (just in time for Connor McDavid to come along). And Crosby, by the way, had guys like Mario Lemieux, Ziggy Palffy, Mark Recchi, Sergei Gonchar, and John LeClair on his team as a rookie. Hard to think of better guys to learn what it takes to be a pro from, even before Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal showed up. Bedard is still waiting for similar help on that front, and Crosby had a few extra years in the league before he was even asked to step into a best-on-best tournament.
Bedard is supposed to be the future of Canadian hockey and some criticism of his rate of improvement is fair. If he doesn't make the Olympic team a year from now, it might just be time to panic. I don't think there's a single person on earth who's happy to see him playing at well below a point a game and with fewer than 40 career goals at this point in his career.
But even with players who are supposed to be phenoms, it's about putting guys in a position to succeed, and Bedard is damned if he does or does not meet expectations. If he does, he "only" becomes one of the best players alive. If he doesn't, well… we gotta figure out whose fault it is.
And I have some guesses right off the bat.
What We Learned
Anaheim Ducks: Wow, I simply had never heard about this sort of thing.
Boston Bruins: I wonder what they do now. It's gonna be a long couple weeks off.
Buffalo Sabres: Feels like the answer is "very" but you never know with these guys.
Calgary Flames: These guys enter the international break having won two of their last eight games and now uncomfortably far back of Vancouver for the last Wild Card spot. Not sure what the strategy is since they already said they're not trading some of their more desirable vets.
Carolina Hurricanes: Eyes emoji.
Chicago: I love when the local media covering absolutely horrible teams are like, "Okay but you absolutely can't trade this one 28-year-old who's dramatically overperforming."
Colorado Avalanche: Definitely.
Columbus Blue Jackets: Honestly, why not? have some fun out there.
Dallas Stars: The Stars are up to 46 goals in their last 13 games. That's a lot.
Detroit Red Wings: Tough way to go into the break but you truly cannot win them all.
Edmonton Oilers: Oh hell yeah. Not many kinds of headline get me more fired up than this.
Florida Panthers: Now this is an Angle.
Los Angeles Kings: I know he probably won't play much but this still seems crazy based on how the season has gone.
Minnesota Wild: I think this is exactly correct.
Montreal Canadiens: Playoff what?
Nashville Predators: Classic offseason oopsie-daisy I guess.
New Jersey Devils: This stat is a little surprising, honestly.
New York Islanders: Somehow every piece of news about this team is completely contradictory. They're gonna trade the young defenseman who was getting Norris consideration a couple years ago, but they want to buy, but their No. 1 center is out indefinitely, but they want to retain the 30-something scorer half the teams in the league would give them a first for. What a club.
New York Rangers: You never want to see your world-class goalie get hurt, but if he's going to, the timing couldn't be better.
Ottawa Senators: The Ottawa Senators need more talent? No way!!!
Philadelphia Flyers: This seems to happen every once in a while but it also seems to be a bit more frequent the last few years. Hmm.
Pittsburgh Penguins: At this point honestly what difference does it make?
San Jose Sharks: Sounds about right.
Seattle Kraken: Okay maybe now I get it with the Utah team name thing just kidding I still really don't.
St. Louis Blues: I mean they should, right? Who cares?
Tampa Bay Lightning: Always love seeing this kind of thing.
Toronto Maple Leafs: One of these days, right? Everyone keeps saying it's gonna happen and it never does. And still they believe.
Utah [fill in the blank later]: A 7-3 loss is tough to spin.
Vancouver Canucks: Ah jeez. Brutal.
Vegas Golden Knights: Finally feels like he's hitting his stride in Vegas.
Washington Capitals: You do gotta wonder how the break affects their momentum. Should be an interesting final stretch before the deadline.
Winnipeg Jets: The phrasing on this makes it sound way more urgent than it could ever be.
Gold Star Award
Seth Jarvis has 6-5—11 in the eight games leading into break. Four points in his last game. Should be dangerous for Canada.
Minus of the Weekend
Feels like the definition of "best-on-best" — which was already being tested — is now being stretched to its breaking point. But hell, I'll still have fun.
Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Week
User "backhandsauce" has quite the idea for you:
To Edmonton:
John Gibson 50% retained
To Anaheim:
1st round pick