Connor Bedard is the greatest talent in Canadian and world hockey since Connor McDavid. The forward, who went first overall in the last NHL draft, scored 61 (22+39) points in 68 games in his first season as part of Chicago’s rebuild, which still has no stars on its roster. Having also managed to recover from a serious injury, which could well have ended his season.
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Bedard spent his last international tournament as a member of the Canadian youth team, where he surprised everyone: victory in the World Championship and 23 (9+14) points in seven games. This year Connor attended his first international adult tournament. Let’s see how he did it.
Utility indicator – “+2” Number of points – 8 (5+3 Number of matches – 10).
Let’s start with the statistics, which Bedard has quite good for his age. Connor became a kind of locomotive for the team at a time when the rest were either getting into the tournament or didn’t quite understand where they were. The Canadian team had a disgusting opening match against the British team, even losing, but only won 4-2. The Canadian scored a double in the second half at a time when it was necessary to turn the game in his favor. The pucks did not come out complicated: Bedard chose his position well and was the first to be on the spot during the rebounds. But you also need to be able to do this. After that game, the Canadian coach transferred Connor to the top lines (he started the first match as the 13th forward), which paid off: in the matches with Denmark and Austria he scored four points and scored three goals.
The young forward was then silent for four games, but broke his playoff drought. The pass to Nick Paul in the quarterfinal match with the Slovaks turned out to be excellent, performed according to all the laws of hockey aesthetics. In the match against the Swiss, the Canadian nekstvan assisted John Tavares, whose puck sent the match into overtime. It would seem like a pretty good tournament. What if we look at it from a slightly different point of view?
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Statistics are different statistics. Yes, Bedard started the tournament strong, but can we say that the British, Danes and Austrians are serious rivals for Canada? Of course not. That is, in the matches with them, Connor scored all the goals of the tournament and scored almost all the points. It is unlikely that if the Canadian striker had not scored in those matches, the “Maples” would have lost or lost a catastrophic number of points.
With each game, the Canadians’ opponents became more serious and Bedard was less and less noticeable on the playing field. What was he? Connor’s statistics fell inexorably not only in terms of points scored: the playing time before the match with the Slovaks decreased by one to three minutes with each match, the utility indicator at best remained at zero, the shooting activity decreased (in three games there were 0 shots, only in one did he manage to shoot more than once). By the way, the forward played the playoff games as the number 13 forward.
Connor Bedard
Photo: Petr David Josek/AP/TASS
Everything is relative. That’s what we’ll do. Two previous Canadian Nexvans also made it to the first senior world championship a year after the draft. We’re talking about Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid.
Crosby arrived at the first World Cup in 2006 and immediately caused a sensation, reaching the symbolic team of that tournament and becoming the best forward. Sidney scored 16 (8+8) points in nine games, leaving the court without points only after the third-place game against the Finns. At the same time, Crosby did not “jackalize” points against the outsiders, scoring several points each against the Finns (in the group), the Americans, the Czechs and the Swedes. It is true that the result for the Canadian team was the same as this year: fourth place.
McDavid reached the first senior world championship 10 years later, in 2016. At the tournament in Russia, Connor scored only one point more than Bedard, but assisted on the winning goal in the difficult semi-final match against the Americans, as well as in the “golden” goal in the final match against Finland. Therefore, the impressions from the performance are completely different.
As often happens in life and in hockey, expectations diverged from reality. Everyone expected a good performance from Bedard beyond his age, so the aftertaste was confusing and raised doubts. Chicago’s prospects of making the playoffs in the next few years are bleak. Therefore, the chances of seeing Connor at the World Championships in a year’s time are very high. Let’s see if he can try the role of leader. This time it didn’t work.
