third season<\/a>, he\u2019s starting to look like one of the best players in the world. He had a primary assist on each of the Blackhawks\u2019 first three goals. A sensational steal-and-score for the final goal, picking Morgan Frost\u2019s pocket at the blue line and undressing Dustin Wolf in the crease. Six goals and nine assists during his seven-game point streak. Briefly tying for the league lead in scoring with \u2014 who else? \u2014 Celebrini.<\/p>\nBertuzzi credited Bedard\u2019s speed and commitment to defense. Knight credited Bedard\u2019s hockey IQ and vision. Blashill credited his attitude. \u201cWinning hockey\u201d is Blashill\u2019s umbrella term for playing the right way, for not cheating defensively, for checking for your offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he\u2019s led the way with that,\u201d Blashill said.<\/p>\n
All the hand-wringing over Bedard\u2019s scoring droughts last year, and his (relatively) slow start this season \u2014 two goals in his first eight games? It\u2019s all gone now. Heck, anyone who saw those first eight games knew better, anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven early in the year, when he wasn\u2019t maybe getting the points that I thought maybe he could have had, there were a lot of plays he made that just for whatever reason didn\u2019t result in as many points,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cWhat he\u2019s done all season long is he has played a complete game. That\u2019s where I think his growth has been awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard\u2019s goal to close out the win over Calgary was Bedard\u2019s entire season in microcosm. The way he came back to pressure Frost rather than let him waltz through the neutral zone, even though the game was already in hand with a three-goal lead and just two minutes left. The way he read Frost\u2019s body language and used a quick stick to take the puck right off him. The way he quickly accelerated toward Wolf with his newfound, hard-earned speed. The way he got Wolf to bite on the backhand before coming all the way back with the forehand tuck. The way he stared down the beleaguered Calgary crowd with a blas\u00e9, Jordanesque shrug of a celebration.<\/p>\n
The defense. The offense. The skill. The sass. This is what Bedard can be. This is what he has become.<\/p>\n
\u201cFortunately, it worked out for me,\u201d Bedard said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been working out a lot lately. He\u2019s been excellent all season, but he\u2019s been utterly dominant these last seven games \u2014 a menace on nearly every shift. And now 15 games into what\u2019s turning into his breakout season, there\u2019s no reason to think he can\u2019t keep it up.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes the points come and sometimes they don\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s about the process. Getting chances, making plays \u2014 that\u2019s when they come. There are going to be games where I don\u2019t get any. There are going to be stretches where I don\u2019t get any. But (I\u2019ll) just keep trying to make plays and be productive, and hopefully they come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard, naturally, would prefer to focus on the team. He wants to talk about Bertuzzi\u2019s uncanny ability to redirect pucks into the net from close range, or Knight\u2019s relentless excellence in net, or the way the Blackhawks continued their season-long mission to, in Bedard\u2019s words, \u201cnot take any s\u2014,\u201d engaging in a trio of fights \u2014 starting with Colton Dach going after Farabee for the knee on Nazar \u2014 in a chippy contest.<\/p>\n
And they deserve the recognition. The Blackhawks are a solid 7-5-3 through 15 games and are now 2-2-1 on their longest road trip in nearly nine years, currently ensconced in the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. It\u2019s modest success, sure, but it\u2019s far better than anyone in Chicago could have reasonably expected. In particular, Knight has been brilliant. His shutout was the Blackhawks\u2019 first since Petr Mr\u00e1zek blanked the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 7, 2023.<\/p>\n
Knight, naturally, deferred to the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter juniors, you kind of stop worrying about (shutouts),\u201d he said. \u201cYou just want to win. I think that\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve noticed being in the NHL \u2014\u00a0if you can come back in the locker room with a win, regardless of what it is, it\u2019s a good feeling. I thought it was a really good team effort. Guys played really hard in all areas of the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Bertuzzi came agonizingly close to his second straight hat trick. He, too, deferred to the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, it\u2019s good,\u201d he said of scoring five in two before immediately pivoting to the group. \u201cTwo back-to-back wins on the road. Long road trip, these are hard games to win, especially on the back of a road trip where you\u2019re on the road for 10 days. It\u2019s a really good team win. Three fights, standing up for each other, some big blocks and some great goaltending. It\u2019s a great 60 (minutes) for our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it was a team win. All wins are. Go through the Blackhawks\u2019 bus and you\u2019ll find contributors in just about every seat, from Andr\u00e9 Burakovsky on the top line to Louis Crevier as the seventh defenseman.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s no mistaking who\u2019s driving.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been fun. He\u2019s obviously an elite talent,\u201d Blashill said of Bedard, \u201cand he\u2019s playing at a high, high level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALGARY \u2014 It\u2019d be easy enough to build this story around Tyler Bertuzzi, who\u2019s doing what Tyler Bertuzzi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4824,385,99],"class_list":["post-279733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}