So say this weekend’s three-game road trip through Detroit, Winnipeg and Minnesota was a disappointment might be selling the overall experience short. The Blackhawks scored three goals in the three games — one in each. Connor Bedard scored the one goal in Winnipeg and assisted on the other two. And, impressively, he is now second all-time with a nine-game road point streak as an 18-year-old. Bedard is certainly driving offense for this team. And that becomes even more impressive — and equally frustrating — when you consider there really isn’t anything happening outside of Bedard.
A sign of true greatness, to me, is being able to do what you want to do when the entire world knows what you’re going to do. Jerry Rice getting the ball. Michael Jordan getting a shot off. When the defense is focused on an individual and he still gets his, it’s impressive. I’m not ready to put Bedard in that class yet — nobody should be. He’s 18 and has barely played a quarter of one season in the NHL. But, at his age, to continue putting points on the board when the rest of the roster appears to be lacking any offensive punch right now has been very much wow.
With that being said, even if this season is about development and there are going to be plenty of losses, the Blackhawks need to figure something out with the depth scoring on this team. Please, please, please note that this is not the roster we all envisioned when the team broke camp in early October. We thought this team would have a productive Taylor Hall on the top line and Andreas Athanasiou giving the team literally anything. We thought Lukas Reichel wouldn’t wait until November to put a single point on the board and have only two goals after the first weekend in December. There’s a lot of players not pulling their weight on this roster.
But, now, we know that one forward is permanently gone and Hall’s knee is going to sideline him for the rest of this season. We’re hoping Double-A can get on the ice this week and start the journey back to the NHL roster — and that he can do something (anything) once he gets back. And, hopefully, Anthony Beauvillier can fit in with Bedard and Philipp Kurashev asಌ nicely for 30-50 games as he did in our first glimpse of him in a Blackhawks sweater this weekend. But this offense has to get going somehow. Losing games 4-3 is easier to watch tꦬhan just hoping for a second goal every night.
