CHICAGO — For the Blackhawks, there is no escaping the past.
Just outside the dressing area of the locker room, there are pictures of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews holding up the Stanley Cup with miniature versions of the real thing.
You can’t travel 20 feet at United Center without seeing fans wearing Kane and Toews jerseys, not to mention Duncan Keith, Corey Crawford and the rest of that title-winning core that resuscitated a near-dead Original Six franchise. The Blackhawks were the closest thing we’ve seen to a dynasty, winning the Cup three times in a six-year span.
Advertisement
That era ended unceremoniously, with some disgrace mixed in, and while everyone in the organization was eager to start fresh, the Hawks will be chasing the highs from those championship years for the foreseeable future. And let’s face it, it’s unrealistic to expect them to get back to that level again. But they at least hope to do a better job of making it interesting than the post-Michael Jordan Bulls did.
For the Blackhawks, there is no escaping the future.
Connor Bedard is the Next Big Thing in the NHL and Chicago. Expectations for the teenage phenom are commensurate with the reputation he brought into the league. He isn’t just a No. 1 draft pick. He’s being called a generational player, even though out of his pads and skates he looks exactly like an 18-year-old kid.
For the Blackhawks, the past, present and future met Saturday night at United Center.
And just minutes after the team paid tribute to late owner Rocky Wirtz with a touching video, the future came into focus.
Just 1 minute, 30 seconds into his first official home game, a wide-open Bedard set up in the slot after a power-play faceoff and sniped home the second goal of his NHL career.
CONNOR BEDARD WITH HIS FIRST GOAL AT THE UNITED CENTER 📢 pic.twitter.com/D5bW76aixQ
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) October 22, 2023
It’s usually not that easy. But he was due.
“You don’t really get that many opportunities like that, so I was just trying to make the most of it,” he said.
As it turned out, Bedard doesn’t need to shoot from a closer range. At least when no one is within shouting distance of him. Bedard’s goal came just outside of his average shooting distance with he connected on a shot from 29 feet away.
Throughout the five-game road trip to begin his NHL career, Bedard was blessedly not shy about shooting the puck. He’s not just a gift to the Blackhawks but also to every yahoo in the 300 level yelling, “Shoot the puck!”
Advertisement
With all of the anticipation surrounding his rookie season, Bedard had met the challenge through his first five games. He came into Saturday’s home debut tied for the NHL lead with 20 individual scoring chances, even if he had only one goal to show for it.
The goals, they said, would come.
It turns out they were right.
Bedard celebrated. The fans cheered. The Fratellis played. All was right in the Blackhawks’ renovated, but not yet rebuilt, world.
After the game, the dressing room was muted because the Blackhawks lost 5-3 to the Vegas Golden Knights. After the Golden Knights scored their fourth goal with 6:13 left in the game, fans started leaving the lower bowl to beat traffic. The exodus continued with their fifth goal with 3:51 to go. The Hawks gave the remaining fans one last thrill with a late goal by Corey Perry. Bedard blamed himself for a defensive mistake that led to Vegas’ third goal, so that tempered his mood after the game.
“Obviously, now it doesn’t feel as good,” he said of his goal. “But in the moment, it was great, for sure.”
Since the season began Oct. 10, the Blackhawks have been a traveling road show, starting with four of the best markets in the game in Pittsburgh, Boston, Montreal and Toronto before finishing up in Colorado on Thursday. It was too long of a wait in Chicago to see Bedard, the reward for an abridged and ultimately successful tank job. But it was worth it for the fans who packed the home arena.
GO DEEPER
Connor Bedard scores first home goal, kicks himself for defensive lapse
Standing on Madison Street outside of the arena late Saturday afternoon as fans waited for the team’s red carpet introductions to begin, I estimated that four out of every 10 Hawks fans had on a Bedard jersey. After seeing how many Bedard jerseys were on sale at United Center and mixing with the crowds in the team stores, I’m guessing that it’ll be six out of 10 in no time. I’m not sure they’ll be selling any other jerseys. I wouldn’t be surprised if they put his name and number on some extra Bulls jerseys while they’re at it.
Advertisement
I’m not saying everyone at the UC was buying a Bedard jersey, but even Cubs executive Colin Faulkner told me he purchased two of them Saturday. Considering his wife, Jaime, is the Blackhawks president, I assumed they just had Bedard jerseys sitting in a box in their bedroom like my son’s extra bar mitzvah sweatshirts, but no. At least the first gentleman of Chicago hockey got a discount, right?
But fans were all too happy to pay full price for a No. 98. Thanks solely to the presence of Bedard, the Blackhawks, after dominating the city from 2009 through 2015, are back in vogue in Chicago. The United Center was rocking as fans were rewarded for their patience during the long, one season of the rebuild.
“Just to finally get that real game in and see how energized they are, how much they love us, it’s awesome,” Bedard said.
The Hawks aren’t exactly good, but Bedard alone should help keep the building buzzing this season.
The Stanley Cup run built an enviable foundation of die-hard fans in the city, but the Hawks need the casuals, too, the non-hockey sports fans intrigued by famous names and easy-to-understand talent. Everyone got why Kane was great, and even if you didn’t get exactly why Toews was so valuable, you could figure it out. Thanks to playing juniors in the social media age, Bedard came into his rookie year with a digital library to illustrate why he’s so special.
The purpose of committing to losing last season was the chance to get a lottery ticket like Bedard. That this was actually accomplished changes the calculus of the organization’s rebuilding plan. Soon, the Blackhawks will be expected to put together a team to surround him, to not “waste” the early years of his career.
But for now, he just has to play. After so much buildup to this season and so much attention on him, he’s happy to have something real to talk about. The demands and pressure of a No. 1 pick aren’t for the meek, but to Bedard’s credit, he seems unfazed.
Advertisement
“I’m really grateful to be in the position I am,” he said. “There’s very few people who get that opportunity, that get to be that lucky. I’m living out a dream and feel very fortunate for that. But it is crazy and busy, and I’m human, too. I can get a little tired. But it’s been good. I’m just enjoying it.”
For now, that’s all he needs to do. Scoring wide-open goals on the power play helps, too.
(Top photo of Connor Bedard scoring a goal in the first period Saturday night at United Center: Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune / Tribune News Service via Getty Images)