CHICAGO \u2014 Chicago Blackhawks center Connor Bedard pointed the finger at someone for not being included on Team Canada\u2019s Olympic team.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t at Team Canada general manager Doug Armstrong, anyone else who helped select the team or any of the players chosen over him. In his first comments since being excluded from the roster, Bedard saw the decision as a reflection of his game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the positive I\u2019ve taken out of this is I get to look at my game and, \u2018Where can I improve?\u2019\u201d said Bedard, speaking Tuesday after partially participating in his first practice since suffering a shoulder injury Dec. 12. \u201cWhen you don\u2019t meet an expectation or meet one of your goals, I think the only thing to do is look in the mirror and see where you can get better. That\u2019s an exciting opportunity for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, the players pick the team. How you play \u2026 obviously, I was playing well, but, of course, I want to make it where there\u2019s no choice. That\u2019s not on who\u2019s picking the team; that\u2019s on the players. So, I think that\u2019s a positive I\u2019m taking out of that. It\u2019s exciting for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to argue with how the 20-year-old Bedard was playing before his injury. He had elevated his game to a new level in his third NHL season, producing 19 goals and 25 assists in 31 games. He still ranks third in the league with 1.42 points per game. His offense was better, but so was his defense. He was a plus-4 at five-on-five compared with being a minus-16 last season.<\/p>\n
Armstrong said last week Bedard\u2019s injury didn\u2019t play much of a role in the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis name was right there till the last second because we could have named him and then moved forward. The reality is there are so many good players, and we just had difficult decisions to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard gets that part. But it was still difficult to hear the final decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s disappointment, for sure,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cEveryone in Canada would want to be on that team or any country that is going. You know, there\u2019s so many great players, and they got tough decisions to make. Obviously, you respect that. But I think every player would say they would love to be on the team, disappointed not to. Like I said, it\u2019s a great team; you can\u2019t really be mad at the roster they picked. There\u2019s no hard feelings for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard said he believes he is on a backup list of players.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were nice enough to give me a call before it came out,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cLet me know I obviously wouldn\u2019t be there, but I\u2019m pretty sure they did mention that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill has been careful not to insert his opinion about Team Canada\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike anyone else, you want to look in the mirror first, say, \u2018Did I do everything possible to put myself in the very best position I could?\u2019\u201d Blashill said Tuesday. \u201cI think, in the end, his kind of approach this year, although I know it was \u2014 I don\u2019t want to say a goal, but maybe a goal \u2014 something he would have loved, but his bigger approach was becoming the best player he could for us and trying to help us win. I think he was continuously improving in those areas as well. \u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard and Frank Nazar, who was hit in the face by a puck Dec. 20, ran drills together before the Blackhawks\u2019 practice Tuesday. Bedard joined the team for practice as a non-contact participant. Neither he nor Blashill had an exact timeline for his return. Blashill did say Bedard was closer than Nazar.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel good,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cFeel really good. Obviously, got out with the guys a little bit today and kind of just keep ramping up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard has tried to take a positive mentality into his rehab.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just kind of wanted to get my gear off and had a little pain,\u201d Bedard said of when the injury occurred. \u201cJust trying to get rid of that, but I think after, once you settle into it, other than on the plane ride home, you expect the worst, hope for the best, and that\u2019s how I thought about it. Obviously, you want to be back as quick as you can, and you always want to be playing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever something happens, that\u2019s kind of in your mind, but overall, I feel like I\u2019ve stayed pretty positive throughout. Just trying to keep that mindset and try to not only get back to where I was playing but be better than I was before I got hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 Chicago Blackhawks center Connor Bedard pointed the finger at someone for not being included on Team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4824,385,1082,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-393125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-olympics","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393125","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=393125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}