St. Louis Blues captain reached out to Blackhawks rising star, who reached back to veteran regarding Bedard's upper-body injury in final second of Friday's 3-2 Blues win
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Brayden Schenn didn’t know immediately what happened. All the St. Louis Blues captain was trying to do was win a face-off and his team win a game.
Once Schenn knew Chicago Blackhawks star Connor Bedard clutching his right shoulder on a face-off with 0.8 seconds left in the Blues’ 3-2 win on Friday that he knew something had gone wrong.
So in a sign of good faith and gesture, he wanted to reach out to make sure the Blackhawks center was alright.
“I did,” Schenn said after practice Sunday. “It’s a face-off with 0.8 seconds there. I’m not trying to hurt a player, I’m trying to win a face-off and I tied up his stick and the puck was sitting there and I gave him an extra shove. It’s literally a freak play where I’m not trying to hurt Connor Bedard with 0.8 seconds left. I’m trying to win the game or the face-off, not hurt the player. Unfortunate injury because he’s playing so well this year. A breakout star in the league. That’s just one of those freak accidents and you definitely feel bad about it.”
Bedard missed Chicago’s 4-0 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday and coach Jeff Blashill, who also called it a “freak accident,” told reporters after Saturday’s game that the forward, who has 44 points (19 goals, 25 assists) in 31 games this season, his third in the NHL, will miss an upcoming three-game road trip. Blashill also said the injury happened before Schenn shoved Bedard.
It’s not known how long Bedard will be out, but Schenn acknowledged Bedard reached back.
“Yeah, I got his number from whoever,” Schenn said. “It’s one of those things where he’s a star in this league. You’re not trying to hurt the stars. They grow the game. I don’t really know him that well. You’re not trying to hurt players. You’re trying to win the game.”
In that situation, it’s not a conventional type of face-off where one is trying to win the draw back to a teammate, in Bedard’s case. The Blackhawks needed to get a shot off quickly to try and pick up lightning in a bottle and miraculously tie it in that situation. And with Schenn being in that situation before, instead of taking a 50/50 chance of winning the puck, you’re doing what you can to try and prevent any kind of shot.
In other words, go more so for a stick lift and deter any opportunity at an instant shot.
“You can see with the stack that they have, they’ve got three or four guys in front, with 0.8 seconds left, you can’t win it back and take a shot with 0.8 seconds, it’s probably not possible,” Schenn said. “You just know he’s pushing it forward, so for me, you don’t even go for the puck in that situation, you go for his stick and tie up his stick and let the puck hit the ice and the game’s over. That was my mentality going into that face-off.”
Those are just draws that players don’t always work on.
“Those are hugely with one or two seconds left in periods,” Schenn said. ‘You know when you get thrown off of the face-off, you have a job to do and that’s try not to let them have a clean look at the net. It’s an unfortunate play. You’re not trying to hurt a guy with one second left.”
As Blues coach Jim Montgomery said, “It’s not good for the game of hockey. You don’t want to see anyone get injured. Hopefully, he’s back real quick.”
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