against the Flames<\/a>, when Bedard joked about the referees being \u201cway nicer\u201d to him because an \u201cA\u201d adorned his jersey.<\/p>\n\u201cObviously, in the moment, you think it\u2019s a penalty,\u201d Bedard said Thursday. \u201cBut I have to control my emotions in a better way. I put our team in a vulnerable spot there, so [I\u2019ve] just got to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hawks coach Jeff Blashill gave a less measured opinion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you don\u2019t have position on a guy, you put your stick in there and you hit his glove…it\u2019s a penalty,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cYes, [Lindgren] got the stick, but the first contact was on his glove.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen, I don\u2019t know what was said, but it better have been really, really personal to be that sensitive about it. Because you\u2019re deciding games. … It better have been really, really personal if you\u2019re not going to have enough thick skin to just keep playing through it.<\/p>\n
The Hawks enjoyed their best second period of the season, generating a 14-1 advantage in scoring chances and scoring twice. The Kraken battled back early in the third, however, with two point shots through traffic that trickled past goalie Spencer Knight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had a push, and we didn\u2019t skate like we did in the second,\u201d said Bedard, who recorded five shots on goal.<\/p>\n
Another head hit<\/p>\n
Hawks defenseman Connor Murphy was unscathed by a controversial hit to his head Tuesday, but forward Andre Burakovsky wasn\u2019t so fortunate Thursday.<\/p>\n
Burakovsky, trying to corral a bouncing puck entering the offensive zone, got blasted by Lindgren late in the first period. He went to the locker room and did not return.<\/p>\n
Blashill said Burakovsky won\u2019t play Friday at the Sabres and his status is undetermined beyond that. He argued it was a \u201cbad hit\u201d by Lindgren that also should\u2019ve been penalized.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s back-to-back games [of] guys going right to the head, and nothing really happens,\u201d Bedard said before cursing.<\/p>\n
The Hawks did get Tyler Bertuzzi back from his two-game injury absence and saw him immediately make an impact. Bertuzzi scored the opening goal before sending a spectacular assist to Teuvo Teravainen.<\/p>\n
Peca\u2019s impact<\/p>\n
Lessons from new assistant coach Michael Peca, a two-time Selke Trophy winner as a player, have been helpful for many Hawks forwards this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, we\u2019re working a lot on the penalty kill,\u201d Colton Dach said. \u201cThat translates to the defensive side of it, as well. [We\u2019re] working on getting on sticks, being on the defensive side, making sure we\u2019re pushing guys out and limiting the plays into the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peca has also worked wonders on the Hawks\u2019 penalty kill. They have killed 34 of 40 opportunities (85%) since Oct. 23 and have allowed the sixth-fewest scoring chances per minute in the league during that span.<\/p>\n
That stellar run made their inability to kill off Bedard\u2019s penalty particularly frustrating given the situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connor Bedard received kindness from referees Tuesday and hostility from them Thursday. In his second game as an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-305001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305001","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=305001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}