NEWARK, N.J. — Connor Bedard makes it sound so easy, so casual, so obvious. The toe drag? Well, yeah, there were two guys in his way. The shot that seemed to so flagrantly defy the laws of physics? Hey, man, goalies are good; gotta get creative.
To hear Bedard break down his spectacular goal in the first period of Thursday’s game against the New York Islanders is to hear an accountant detail how they wrote off that printer the company purchased, or a house cleaner describe how they got that discoloration out of the shower floor.
Bedard had a job to do. He did it.
What’s the big deal?
Now that’s a patented Connor Bedard wrister ™️ pic.twitter.com/R50Kuhrlqv
— NHL (@NHL) December 13, 2024
“I get it in the middle and there’s two guys right there, so I know I’m not going to shoot it right away,” he said of the toe drag. “Just try to get it into a spot, and I’ve practiced shooting the puck a lot from different areas.”
So you actually practice shots like that?, the clueless reporter asks.
“Yeah, it’s pretty easy to do,” Bedard said with a shrug. “For a goalie, it might be tough when you’re going one way and shooting the other. Goalies are so good, you have to try to make it as hard as possible on them. I was able to hit my spot on that one and it went in or whatever.”
Or whatever. Ho-hum, right?
There’s no disrespect in his voice when he says this. No tone of arrogance, either. It’s just the way Bedard processes the game. He’s able to do things on instinct that most players wouldn’t be able to do with forethought and careful planning. At least, he’s able to do those things when he’s on his game, when he’s feeling himself, when he’s got that belief in his brain and that swagger on his stick.
And after the first prolonged slump of his NHL career — probably his life, if we’re being honest — it appears that, yes, Bedard is back.
You can see it in the way he’s dangling his way through the neutral zone, the way he’s breaking ankles as he crosses the blue line, and in that shot — both the selection and execution — on Long Island. He has a goal and four assists in the three games since Anders Sorensen took over for Luke Richardson behind the bench, and has three goals and six assists in his last eight games. He’s still behind expectations overall, with six goals and 18 assists in 29 games, but he’s looking more and more like himself lately.
“I felt great the first 10 games, and then had a little stretch where I didn’t feel great,” Bedard said. “But when I’m getting the puck — and for me, that’s putting myself in good areas to get the puck, not cheating things — then I’m able to make plays and let my creativity take over. (Against the Islanders), I got the puck a lot in really good spots. That’s the main thing for me.”
Bedard had four shots on goal in the first period alone against the Islanders. Over the previous month, he had four games in which he didn’t record a single shot, and five more in which he had just one. Blackhawks assistant coach Derek King, who once scored 108 goals in a three-year span with the Islanders and is the primary offensive voice on the staff, has been hounding Bedard to shoot more all season. When you see him fire off one of those filthy drag-and-drive wristers, you can understand why.
If you can shoot like that, why don’t you just always shoot?, the oversimplifying reporter asks.
“It’s funny, people say that, but you can’t just shoot all the time,” Bedard said.
The Carolina Hurricanes do, the snarky reporter retorts.
“Yeah, I’m not Brent Burns taking 1Ts (one-timers) up top,” Bedard said with a laugh. “If I don’t get myself in a spot where I can shoot, I’m not going to shoot. That’s the thing. It’s not ‘shoot the puck all the time.’ It’s ‘get yourself in a spot where you can shoot.’ And I will shoot. I don’t want to have zero shots at the end of any games. But I’m not going to force anything just to have a SOG (shot on goal) at the end of the game. I’m going to try to make plays.”
Connor Bedard is getting his swagger back. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/h5x8fuOeXO
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) December 13, 2024
That’s what he was doing Thursday night, making plays. That’s when he’s at his most dangerous. And that’s what he wasn’t doing during his goal drought. Bedard credited Sorensen for promoting a more aggressive style of play, with defensemen providing more support by jumping in the rush more often, and Sorensen in turn said Bedard has been “excellent” the last two games, holding on to pucks and getting to the middle of the ice.
But another former interim Blackhawks head coach has helped, too.
King, as he showed during his tenure as bench boss during the 2021-22 season, has a knack for knowing when players need a pep talk and when they need to be left alone. And when Bedard’s confidence was at its nadir last month, King didn’t take him into the video room to break down his game. He simply had a series of “casual conversations” to get Bedard’s head back in the game.
“It’s like riding a bike,” King said he told Bedard. “You’re a skilled player, you don’t lose that. So don’t overthink it. Focus on little things, whether it’s a good backcheck, or you laid a puck deep, or you blocked a shot, whatever it is for you. … Just go play. Don’t think about all the other things. You make a mistake — who cares? You come back to the bench, I’ll yap at you, I’ll tell you and I’ll help you. But he’s done a good job. He’s starting to get his little groove back again and feeling it. Every player goes through it, I don’t care how good you are.”
Does this mean that Bedard is going to score highlight-reel goals every night from now on? Of course not. But a confident Bedard is a dangerous Bedard, a weaponized Bedard. He’ll find the puck. He’ll find the time and space. And he’ll take the shot. And good luck to any goalie trying to anticipate where it’ll go.
Must feel pretty cool to score a goal like that one, the spectacularly uncool reporter notes.
“I don’t know, I expect it from myself,” Bedard said. “Not necessarily the toe drag or whatever, but I expect to make plays and get myself into spots where I have the ability to get a shot off and score. It feels good to score, for sure. But I don’t want to be surprised if I make a nice play. I expect to make nice plays.”
(Photo: Mike Stobe / NHLI via Getty Images)
