The Connor Bedard scored a beauty against Nashville last night marking his 21st point in 21 games. However, the criticism around the NHL media has been on full blast as of late. We saw Mark Messier calling him out for a weak play alluding to him needing to be benched to send a message. More recently, we saw TNT’s Paul Bissonnette highlight some bad play against the Oilers calling it “pond hockey” amid what has been a pretty loud season for Bedard. He went through a 12 game goal drought early in the season, the Black Hawks haven’t gotten much better than last season and the “bust” accusations are being thrown around more than ever. However, he is scoring at the same rate he was last year. Again, after firing home a beauty against the Predators last night, he now also has 21 points in 21 games and is suddenly doing much better in the face-off circle the last 5 games. So for a kid who was labeled generational and has the weight of the world on him right now with every mistake he makes under the microscope, I feel it is getting old. He is 19 years old. Let him develop before we get too ahead of ourselves with the titles. I cover that in todays NHL hockey video!
@Chicago Blackhawks
46 Comments
He's basically a point per game player at 19 on an absolute dogshit team. How is that not a generational talent? Sure, he didn't score 4 goals in his first game, but he's playing at the same pace as Matthews did in his first two seasons, and he's doing it on a WAY worse team.
JR? No respect for u! Many of us out here agree that u r a no class jerk!
No one realizes how bad the hawks are he’s doing just fine for a 19 year old
Bedard is/was expected to make the Blackhawks win. But no matter how hard ya try, you cannot infuse your teammates with talent/desire/drive/energy/ etc. Put this kid on any team above 50%, and he's putting them in contention, or even the finals.
If Bedard was on an average team like Detroit he would be doing insane with healthy support for him. Chicago is absolute dog shit and he's literally carrying the team all alone.
Yes, ppl should lower their expectations and try to remember that he's not even 20 yet. He should be judged based on reasonable expectations, not based on what you thought he was going to be. But it's not wrong to critique his play. Ppl are not talking about points, but about his overall play. Don't try to shift the blame on his team. That's just dishonest. Celebrini is on a worse team and everybody is praising his play.
Chicago never deserved Bedard on what they did.
Send him to Boston if you dont want him Chicago. We'll take him
Maybe Chicago needs Perry back? He can act like a mentor for Bedard.
TNT Broadcast was being harsh
GIVE THE KID A FRICKEN BREAK ITS TOO MUCH!
Lafrenière, Wright, Bedard… lol out of the 3, I hope Bedard proves us wrong
Biz talking about someone not playing their best hockey is wild!
Agreed
Hawks aren't even close to competing for anything meaningful right now besides the 1st pick at the draft. Welcome to the next Rebuild era, Hawks fans!
Bedard will be fine, every player struggles. He's young but he's not stupid. He KNOWS he's not scoring enough and he KNOWS he has to improve his game in places. Every analyst out there latching onto this bust nonsense needs to stop trying to milk his struggles for content and clickbait. These losses amount to jack shit considering they are at the bottom of the league. Obviously, he's not immune to criticism, but enough is enough — stop dogpiling on him.
They should worry about the Rangers and Bruins being disappointments, the Habs backsliding, Rantaanen not scoring on the Canes, or if San Jose even still has a hockey team in the NHL.
it blows my mind that such a shit player like biz is even considered to be an analyst on tv…
They would have been better off not replacing Kurashev. Kurashev was an important factor in his first season. They had good chemistry.
Thanks for making this video. This sort of content is important so media can take a look in the mirror. They need to grow up, not bedard lol
The media shouldn't have labeled him generational, because he is not.
he is an amazing player with incredible vision for the game. Hawks aren't competing for anything yet it's ok although I too want to see him play some situations differently. I believe the support he's getting from Donato, Nazar and Slaggert among other young players who are starting to have an impact is encouraging. They had their first real dominant win over the Preds a couple nights ago things are moving the right way and Bedard is overcoming challenges. What a shot on the PP the other night.
Reminds me of a tiny Matt Boldy, if the puck isn’t on his stick he just floats around in no man’s land.
He’s not an NHL player
Crosby, Lemieux, McDavid, Ovechkin, etc were young on terrible teams.
If Chicago doesn’t need him trade him and let him improve on a better team
I love his attitude! he's gonna be a stud and a big personality in the future. I love Wayner, Sid and Mcd, but they haven't been the most interesting people around,
He's a smaller player. I think he would be a good 2. Still nasty.
Isn't it his second season?!?! Dude… who cares?
He is doing well for 19. You nailed it.
This whole thing is just blown out of proportion by the media (as per usual). He's still a kid and his media interview show he's being accountable. Just give it a year or 2 when he shows how silly all of this scrutiny is.
I just think about former 1st rounders like MacKinnon and Tavares. They weren't throwing up insane numbers at the beginning so why this hampering on Bedard in only his second season of play?
So this just adds to me disdain for the media these days.
As a sharks fan you would think I would backup celebrini and dog on bedard but, this kid is in a truly horrible situation. The Blackhawks have nothing around bedard. While macklin celebrini could look like he’s better at the moment, he also has a ton more help. I know the standings don’t show it but if you watch a sharks game then watch a hawks game you can see how much better our connection is strictly because we have better players. Bedard has this team on his back right now. Give the man a break.
yes, he's terrible…. trade him to Vancouver please.
I believe he IS a generational talent! All he needs is 10 years and 100 million dollars! Give him a break!
Only a Canadian apologist would bring up stat lines to defend Bedardo. It's his play WITHOUT the puck. He's not winning pucks and he's floating worse than ever before. I get it, they're awful. Losing sucks…but he's not going to help his team win if he's sulking in self pity. He has strengths, but if you aren't improving on what you need to focus on, you're dead in the water in this game. Bedard is not as effective as he could be, and the veterans who played for eons in the league can see things most of us can't. He needs to be a leader. Crosby and Ovechking took the helm and through their struggles, they worked to remain effective..however what were seeing is a guy going through the motions. I don't think it's appropriate to send him to the dog house, but keeping in accountable isn't "unfair." Simply put, he needs to step it up.
I’ve followed the hawks for years. This is a miserable team and I think if we can’t get some damn talent to compliment him. He needs to bail
I saw him play against the Oilers. Every time he had the puck he was dangerous. Makes a huge difference. Mcdavid had to be patient while the Oilers rebuilt. I liked the comparison of Messier’s rookie numbers with 5 all stars on the team.
If we lived in a sane world, this toxic resentful attitude from these commentators would get them fired
Dude, I don't think you'll have a better solution than Mark Messier
This never played a game in the NHL, or a pro game EVER, chirping what MESSIER has to say is all you need to know.
Kid is still only 19. Way too much pressure on him (and he puts it on himself too) and the Blackhawks suck. Way too early to say he is a bust. Is it realistic to expect him to score 40-50 this year?
Beddard sucks, he is terrible and overpaid. I think they should trade him to the Vancouver Canucks for future considerations.
I'd like to see him on the Oilers.
Put the kid on EDM, VGK, DAL, FLA, etc. and imagine how the kid would be doing. Surround him with veteran winners; he'd learn a lot and imagine how that team would improve with a 19y.o .9% points/game player.
Good points. Solid argument.
One topic you avoided: Recent first overall picks have been decided star or bust equally as early. Nail Yakupov anyone? And of course comparisons to Mack Celebrini won't help anything in this conversation either.
Sophmore slump. He’ll be better next year.
He definitely had too much hype and pressure coming into the league, I don’t see him being a 200 foot player like MacKinnon… but everyone, including myself, forget how MacKinnon started off in the league… and look at him now
Maybe the hawks should get four overall number 1’s like the frauds in Edmonton. 😂😂😂😂😂😂
So much criticism of a 19yo kid. Just curious, how does Bedard's sophomore year compare to compare to MacKinnon? MacK had 14 goals, 38 points and was a -7, on a team with prime Duchene, Landeskog, Ryan O'Reilly, aging but still good Iginla and Tanguay, (all of whom outscored Nate) and peak Varlamov in net (.921 Sv%). Bedard has 16 goals, 49 points and -22 in 55 games so far, with…Ryan Donato, Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teräväinen as the forward support, and a goalie tandem barely managing .900 Sv%. Cut the kid some slack.