Chicago Blackhawks star Connor Bedard shouldered too much blame after their loss to the Nashville Predators.
If one thing is for sure about the 22-27-9 Chicago Blackhawks, who currently sit in 29th place, it’s that Connor Bedard is far from the problem. He’s the exact opposite. The 2023 first overall pick is the solution that the team is building around.
In Thursday night’s road loss to the Nashville Predators, Bedard was the most spectacular player on either team. Despite losing 4-2, Bedard showed just how dominant he can be when he’s on the ice.
It isn’t Bedard’s fault that other players on the team commit egregious turnovers regularly, but it’s hard to win as a star player in this league under those conditions.
Bedard was one of Chicago’s two goal scorers in the loss. Although it’s not ideal for the organization to see him frustrated with what’s going on with the team, he has clearly turned a corner as a player, which was their number one need coming into this year.
After the conclusion of the game, Bedard was one of the players who stood in front of the media. As a humble hockey player often does, he shouldered a lot of the blame for the loss.
"I thought [Burkakovsky] and [Greene] were unreal tonight, like they have been all year, and making it real easy for me," Bedard said. "I think they set me up for five or six Grade-As. It's on me to put one more of those in, and maybe it's a different game."
Although Ryan Greene has surprised some people by being a solid third piece on a top-six line this season, he isn't likely to be one of their top scoring threats in the coming years.
Greene is a great energy player who will carve out a long NHL career if he continues building on what he's done this year, but nobody is expecting him to be an elite scorer.
Andre Burakovsky had a nice start to the 2025-26 season, but slowed down in January. One of the biggest criticisms Jeff Blashill faces as head coach is his loyalty to keeping Burakovsky on the top line.
Connor Bedard gave them both the credit for the way that their line played in the game, but the truth is that he was the one driving play and making them look good. He got himself in a position to score on those grade-A chances he referenced.
The funny thing is that Bedard actually scored a goal in the game, and Greene assisted on it, but that isn't enough for him. Bedard is the type of star player who is hungry to score and make plays on every single shift.
It's not going to happen that way, but that desire is what will make him a point-per-game player or better throughout his career.
Bedard is correct that if they found one more goal, the outcome might have been different. Nashville's goal at 16:44 of the third period stood as the game winner, but he can't shoulder all the blame, especially when he scored and was their most dominant player on every other shift.
That's Bedard's 24th of the season, which set a new career high. Based on his goal-per-game numbers, he is on pace for 36 goals if he plays in every game for the rest of the season.
He has an outside chance at 40, which he almost certainly would have reached if he never hurt his shoulder in December. Still, he'll finish with an incredibly respectable total, which should be a confidence booster heading into the summer.
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