Let’s open up this morning with a really thoughtful column from my guy Charlie Roumeliotis at . This is honestly something I’ve been thinking about a fair amount as the conversation outside of Chicago has seemingly become louder about there being too much attention paid to the No. 1 overall pick.
Selfishly, Connor Bedard is what everyone is talking about — so we’re going to be part of that larger conversation. When teams rearrange their decade plans around potentially drafting a generational talent, he’s going to have a lot of cameras and lightbulbs and microphones and recorders around him. And when his schedule has five of his first six games in the NHL lined up to be home openers — against marquee competition, I might add — there are going to be additional media members there. Always. Even last year, with the Blackhawks in tank/rebuild start mode, there were more cameras there for the home opener than most of the time between that game and the week before the trade deadline.
So it’s a bit of a paradox, isn’t it? It’s the media’s job to cover the team, and the biggest star on the roster happens to be an 18-year-old. Is it our job to cover what everyone’s talking about, even if it sometimes feels like it’s too much? We became used to Jonathan Toews being in front of cameras constantly as the captain of the team; after the loss on Saturday night, Connor Murphy was right there to answer the bell. But the expectation that Bedard is available constantly — especially from a national perspective — has been both daunting and impressive thus far. It will lighten up now that we’re getting more into a “regular” season schedule, but I appreciated Charlie’s comments on the macro perspective. Give this a read.
Speaking of Bedard, and this is really the crossover content we’re here for at Bleacher Nation, it looks like Cubs prospect Jordan Wicks is all aboard the bandwagon.
The Blackhawks practice at 11 AM on Monday. We’ll see if there’s any progress to report on Philipp Kurashev, who was on the ice at the morning skate on Saturday (as was Colin Blackwell). With Cole Guttman assigned to Rockford already, the Blackhawks won’t have to make a roster move to activate one of them. If/when they’re both ready to go… that’s another story. And there will be a really tough decision to make with the guys fighting hard — and well — for their spots on the roster.
Yeah, the start of the Blackhawks’ season has been hard. And it isn’t getting any easier.
If you want to dig deeper than you may have imagined necessary to calculate your comments about certain players’ performances (which I know all fans do before jumping on social media or into the comments section), this is pretty cool stuff from the NHL. A new stat portal will open up a lot of the enormous analytics being tracked every night so all of us can partake.
One of the NHL’s signature events, the Heritage Classic, is this coming weekend between the Oilers and Flames. Unfortunately for the Oilers, the league and fans in general, it appears Connor McDavid won’t be available for the game. We’ll see how long the superstar is missing from action.
Seattle also lost a big contributor this weekend. Andre Burakovsky will miss at least six weeks, which puts his return likely to be around the start of December. The Blackhawks host the Kraken on Nov. 28, so keep an eye on his status as we get closer to Thanksgiving.
Finally, it had been more than a full calendar year since the Bears won a home game. Heck, the Blackhawks had won a game in Chicago more recently. But that changed on the gridiron on Sunday with the backup quarterback leading the charge. Good stuff from Soldier Field yesterday.
