Bedard led Chicago in scoring in each of his first two seasons. The 20-year-old had 61 points (22 goals, 39 assists) in 68 games in 2023-24 when he was voted the Calder Trophy winner as the NHL rookie of the year. He then had 67 points (23 goals, 44 assists) in 82 games last season.<\/p>\n
For Blashill, who saw Florida plenty as an assistant for the Tampa Bay Lightning from 2022-25, telling Bedard to watch the Panthers was a way to connect with his star player soon after being hired as coach in May instead of waiting until September.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are those things? Florida does a really good job of tracking back and reloading hard, and they don\u2019t wait for offense and hope the [defense] turns the puck over,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cThey\u2019re a five-man connected unit and those are things we want to be. Those are things that I value.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was a good start for us to just kind of talk about some of those things hockey-wise and make sure he knew coming in. I didn\u2019t want to come in on Day 1 and start yelling at him, \u2018Hey you have to do this better.\u2019 I wanted to explain to him what we\u2019re talking about. He has good insight, he watched and totally agreed, and he understands what I was talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard zeroed in on a few aspects of Florida\u2019s play. He focused on now-injured center Aleksander Barkov\u2019s game for positioning because \u201cI feel he\u2019s never out of position.\u201d Bedard was also impressed with how connected the Panthers were.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you hear it so much — like you only have the puck on your stick for, in a good game it\u2019s a minute,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cSo, you have however many minutes you\u2019re not playing [with the puck] and to be in the right spots, to go get it or make a play defensively, offensively. That\u2019s something that I can improve on, and you see the best teams do.\u201d<\/p>\n