DENVER — Connor Bedard was clearly frustrated about his inability to score Monday in Toronto.
After Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Woll snared Bedard’s wrist shot during a second-period power play, the Blackhawks rookie hunched over, wishing he could have another shot at it — literally. And after he beat Woll but watched the puck ring off the post a few minutes later, he whacked his stick against the boards upon returning to the bench.
But come Wednesday, he was back to his normal self, lingering on the ice with fellow youngsters Lukas Reichel, Cole Guttman, Wyatt Kaiser and Kevin Korchinski for so long after Hawks practice that they nearly missed the team bus.
Bedard is demonstrating that even though he gets animated in certain moments, his inherent calmness ultimately prevails. He knows how to contextualize things and move on.
“I’m playing well. I’ve created chances. It’s pretty wild [that I] just kind of can’t score,” Bedard said. “I’ve had so many good looks. The goalie makes a good save or I just miss [the net] or whatever. [I’m] just sticking with it. I think you should be more worried if you’re not getting those looks.”
The indications of Bedard’s almost unbelievable maturity for an 18-year-old rookie just keep popping up.
“He’s just like most hockey players: [He] shows emotion right away, but he pulls himself right back together. And that’s a good thing,” coach Luke Richardson said. “The next shift is always the most important, so it’s a good perspective for him to keep.”
Bedard is absolutely correct about his scoring-chance production. It has been off-the-charts prolific.
Through four games, he has been credited with 28 individual chances, which ties him with Toronto’s Auston Matthews for the NHL lead. Nobody else around the league entered Wednesday with more than 19, meaning those two guys are miles above the field.
Meanwhile, Bedard’s 36 shot attempts ranked third in the league as of Wednesday, behind only Nashville’s Filip Forsberg and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon — the latter of which he will face Thursday in another marquee matchup on national TV. His 20 shots on goal ranked fourth; he’s only the fourth player in NHL history to record 20-plus shots on goal in his first four games.
So he has been objectively unlucky to score only once so far. Hawks veteran Corey Perry, who has witnessed quite a few hot and cold streaks, has talked to him about not letting luck’s inevitable week-to-week fluctuations affect him.
“You see it on the bench [when] he puts his head down or...gets frustrated, but [he needs to] just stick with it,” Perry said. “Those things will start going in. It’s a matter of time, and he can’t get frustrated. It’s only four games in. It’s a long season. By the end of it, he’ll be right back up there.”
Plus, it’s almost strange that Bedard producing three points in his first four games is being considered mildly disappointing. That’s still a 61-point pace.
He never stood a chance of replicating his absurd 163-points-in-64-games stat line from Canadian juniors last season. NHL-caliber defenders and goalies are simply too talented to allow that. Accepting that reality — or at least understanding it — is part of the professional adjustment.
“You never want to accept not scoring on a prime chance,” Bedard said. “But goalies are so good, and sometimes they’re going to beat you. Sometimes the shooter’s going to win; sometimes the goalie’s going to win. That’s how it is.”
It’s more than sometimes; it’s most of the time. But Bedard, in the long run, seems poised to earn his fair share of victories.
Said Perry: “If you score on one of four or five chances, it’s a pretty good ratio.”
