Connor Bedard has made it clear this season that his game isn’t where it needs to be. His confidence level hasn’t been very high with all of the losing and his struggles to produce, especially goals.
Since Anders Sorensen took over as the head coach, the team record hasn’t improved, but a couple things that have been noticeable is the focus on a little more offense and the confidence level of Bedard has risen because of it. To show what I mean, there are three great examples from the Chicago Blackhawks game against the New York Islanders in which Bedard contributed to three of the goals.
Bedard scored for the first time in five games and it was a beauty that is going to be talked about for a while. It happened to be his first goal since Sorensen got behind the bench and the young star has one goal and five points in the last three games.
This goal by Bedard in which he shot back against his momentum is very difficult to pull off with the power he produced and to also beat an NHL goaltender. It wasn’t just the shot on this one. He made a move after picking up the puck in the high slot that showed more confidence with the puck again in the offensive zone around defenders.
This is the first indication that Bedard is playing more free and less worried about messing up when trying things that not many players can pull off.
The next indication Bedard’s confidence is shooting up is this ridiculous pass. You can see that he is flying down the wing and still has time to take a very quick look and do a spin pass through three Islanders defenders right to the stick of Philipp Kurashev.
Bedard is known for his shot, but to this point in his career, his passing ability is underrated. He has 28 career goals and 57 career assists. His goals may not catch up, but as his confidence keeps growing, he’s going to shoot more and score more.
The third play that really shows where the confidence level is for Bedard is where he’s doing fancier moves with the puck in tight to defenders and working his way through three players.
Bedard is not only carrying the puck more himself and getting a very clean zone entry, he isn’t looking to get it off his stick as soon as there is pressure. A subtle detail at the end of the clip where he’s easily entering the zone is his use of the stick while having control of the puck. He pushes the puck a little bit ahead and whacks Ryan Pulock’s stick backwards so he doesn’t touch the puck.
This showing of Bedard’s shooting, passing, and puck-handling in just the third game under Sorensen is a great sign of what level he can reach and that he may be breaking the sophomore slump early.
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