Connor Bedard is probably sick and tired of answering questions about being a fan of the Vancouver Canucks growing up and this was the first time in his career he’s faced the Canucks.
After the game, in the midst of answering questions about the team’s fourth-straight loss and changes to the power play, Bedard was again asked about facing the Canucks and how special it must be.
“Yeah, it was great,” said Bedard in a tone of voice that suggested it wasn’t actually all that great. “I was talking to my parents this morning. It’s pretty wild just thinking about it. Not too long ago, I was cheering for them pretty hard. It’s really cool and I’m pretty grateful to be playing in this league.”
That should have been the end of it but, of course, it wasn’t. Instead, he was asked about who his favourite players on the Canucks were (“The whole team,” he said bluntly, hoping the media scrum would get the point), and then about the long rivalry between the Blackhawks and Canucks.
“I was three years old for that,” said Bedard dismissively. “I only remember kind of the last one a little bit and that’s just from highlights.”
It’s getting kind of painful at this point. As much as Bedard grew up as a Canucks fan and it would have been special to see him drafted by the Canucks, he wasn’t. Right now, he’s just an 18-year-old hockey player trying to establish himself as a star in Chicago and win games for his current team.
Who Bedard used to cheer for as a fan is likely far from his mind at this point; he’s not a fan anymore. Honestly, I feel for Bedard: the Canucks are finally good again and he doesn’t get to enjoy it.
It will keep going, of course. The first time Bedard plays the Canucks in Vancouver, it will surely be an even bigger story: his first game in his hometown. The Vancouver media will huddle around Bedard and ask him, “How special is it,” “How special is it,” “How special is it,” and Bedard will have to respond, “Yes, it’s very special,” “It’s so special,” “You have no idea how special it is.”
And then he’ll have to go out and lose to his once-favourite team, just as he did when I watched this game.
- The Canucks’ slow starts are starting to get concerning. The Chicago Blackhawks piled up ten shots on goal before the Canucks managed one and the Canucks didn’t get a single shot on goal at 5-on-5 in the first period. It wasn’t pretty but Thatcher Demko stopped 12-of-13 shots to ensure it didn’t, like Buzz McCallister’s girlfriend, get too ugly.
- The Blackhawks opened the scoring on what was, like an 18th-century undergarment made out of burlap, a rough shift for Filip Hronek. First, Hronek gave the puck away with a weak play up the boards off a faceoff win by J.T. Miller. Then Hronek got the puck back behind the net but took far too long to move it and failed to protect it from Joey Anderson, who easily stole the puck and set up Nick Foligno in front, who got body position on Quinn Hughes for the tip-in.
- The Canucks’ power play did not look good in this game, but it tied the game before the end of the first thanks to a 5-on-3 opportunity. Just after the first penalty ended but before the man in the box, Taylor Raddysh, could get back in the play, J.T. Miller took advantage of a hobbled Connor Murphy to set up a one-timer that Elias Pettersson sent soaring into the top of the net.
- “I just think it came down to will and effort,” said Brock Boeser. “We didn’t like our effort in the first period and we had a good response.”
- The second period was far better for the Canucks but it started poorly, as the Blackhawks’ five-forward power play gave them the 2-1 lead in the first minute. The penalty kill got caught too high, forcing Ian Cole to leave Foligno open in front. Demko stopped Bedard’s initial shot but the unhindered Foligno popped in the rebound.
- The Canucks bench was up in arms as the puck seemed to go over the glass and hit the netting prior to the goal but Rick Tocchet chose not to challenge the goal.
- “Our guys, we have 45 seconds, and we didn’t have anything clear,” said Rick Tocchet. “I know Demmer, a couple players, said it was [out of play] but if you don’t have clearcut evidence, you can’t [challenge] it. I always think over the glass should be an NHL thing. I don’t think that’s a coach thing.”
- The Reliable Line, aka. The Good Job, Boys Line came through to tie the game. Teddy Blueger flipped the puck high out of the Canucks’ zone and it bounced off Dakota Joshua’s shoulder to Conor Garland for the zone entry. Garland stopped up, found space, and sent a beautiful slap-pass for Joshua to deftly deflect past Petr Mrazek.
- Joshua and Garland pointed at each other like it was a Spider-Man meme to give each other credit for the goal but Joshua was so terrifyingly emphatic that I’m going to have to agree with him: Garland gets the most credit.
- “It’s just sticking to the system,” said Garland about the success of his line. “The coaches give you a gameplan before and if you trust it, it’s going to work. We just try to play the right way each and every night and if pucks go in, they go in. Just a good defensive line that can chip in from time to time.”
- Less than a minute later, Brock Boeser gave the Canucks the lead with his 23rd goal of the season, tied with Auston Matthews for the league lead. J.T. Miller sprung Boeser on a 2-on-1 with Nils Höglander and Boeser ripped a wrist shot just over Mrazek’s left pad. Boeser’s scored a lot of goals this season by lurking around the net for rebounds but this one was a pure snipe.
- Adding Pius “On Earth” Suter to the Elias Pettersson line seemed to make a big difference. That line heavily tilted shot attempts and scoring chances in the Canucks’ favour, with shot attempts 16-to-3 and scoring chances 8-to-1 when Pettersson was on the ice, according to Natural Stat Trick.
- Suter helped set up the fourth Canucks goal with a great play on the forecheck to steal the puck from Wyatt Kaiser. He set up Pettersson for a point-blank chance that Mrazek turned aside but Suter collected the rebound and fed Tyler Myers for a point shot that Ilya Mikheyev neatly tipped up over Mrazek’s blocker.
- With Suter moved to the wing, the Canucks needed another centre, so Nils Åman drew into the lineup in place of Phil Di Giuseppe to centre the fourth line. It wasn’t Åman’s best night. He barely saw the ice at 5-on-5 but was on the ice in a penalty-killing role for both of the Blackhawks’ power play goals. You could say he wasn’t a good Åman.
- That pun really requires you to know that “Åman” is pronounced very similarly to “omen” and I’m not sure the payoff is really worth it.
- With Hughes and Hronek drawing the tough match-up with Bedard, Zadorov and Myers had a strong game against lesser competition. I’m not as positive about Zadorov’s decision to fight Reese Johnson after a hit on Pettersson that really didn’t seem that bad. Zadorov ended up with a two-minute minor and a ten-minute misconduct for instigating, which ultimately cost the Canucks a goal and took one of their defencemen off the ice for a long stretch of a crucial third period.
- Canucks fans so often complain about Canucks players having to fight after clean hits that it would be hypocritical not to point it out when the shoe is on the other foot. Johnson shouldn’t have had to fight Zadorov and I don’t think it did anything to dissuade Johnson or other players from throwing similar hits in the future. All it really accomplished was giving the Blackhawks a power play and taking Zadorov out of the game.
- That said, I recognize that there are morale benefits to Zadorov stepping up for Pettersson in that moment. Maybe Zadorov fighting Johnson doesn’t actually make things safer for the Canucks’ star players — there’s no evidence that fighting prevents violence and injuries — but it might make the Canucks’ star players feel safer on the ice, which can have a positive effect.
- “When one of your better players gets hit, I think it’s something around here that we don’t mind [a fight] happening,” said Tocchet of the instigator penalty. “I actually like the rule, it’s a good rule. But I also like the passion in Zee.”
- The Blackhawks scored on the subsequent power play. Bedard had the puck knocked off his stick on a zone entry, but Cole “Waiting For” Guttman picked up the loose puck, dragged it inside to catch Thatcher Demko off his angle and snapped it blocker side.
- I would just like to point out that the NHL’s digital board ads still suck and I hate them. As you were.
- Petr Mrazek made a Mrazekulous save on Höglander midway through the third period to keep the Blackhawks’ hopes alive. A deflected Boeser shot forced a rebound and Höglander got all of his shot, aiming for the top shelf. It was a great shot, but Mrazek reached back and got his paddle on the puck, deflecting it up over the net for a bonafide Save-of-the-Year candidate.
- Demko didn’t have to pull off any miracles to close out the game. The Blackhawks may have gotten three pucks by him but they weren’t getting another. As Garland said, “When we’ve got Demmer, it’s tough to beat us when we put up four.”
- As much as the Blackhawks are a cellar-dwelling team this season, this was still a solid win for the Canucks. It was an afternoon game on the second half of back-to-backs. Getting three points out of this oddly-scheduled back-to-back set is a great result.
