Connor Bedard is discouraged, and Blackhawks' illogical line combinations are partly to blame
Connor Bedard may not have a particularly effusive personality, but there has always been an unmissable element of defiance beneath his polished, polite public persona.
Right now, deep into the biggest slump of Bedard's NHL career to date, that defiance is undetectable. The Blackhawks star seems extremely discouraged. Really, he — for the first time — seems like a genuine 19-year-old, subject to ebbs and flows of mood.
"I could name 100 things [I could be doing better]," Bedard said Friday. "I don't know, man. It has been frustrating, for sure. I just don't feel like I'm really doing anything. So [I'll] just keep chipping away at it, I guess, and hopefully find my game again.
"It has been a tough stretch. You just feel like you don't have it or whatever, and you lose a bit of confidence. And [it] just kind of goes on."
Bedard has gone 11 straight games without a goal and has scored just three goals in 20 games this season, although he has added 12 assists and still leads the team in points.
Although the Hawks snapped their losing streak Thursday with a 3-1 win over the Panthers, Bedard was held without a shot on goal for the first time all season; the Panthers outshot the Hawks 10-0 during his five-on-five ice time. He actually didn't even attempt any shots.
What’s going wrong?
Many factors are contributing to Bedard's slump, most of all his own performance, of course. He's struggling to get to dangerous-enough areas to unleash his unique shot, for instance.
But the factor that should be easiest to address is Bedard's linemates. Coach Luke Richardson's resistance to committing himself to figuring out what works best for Bedard in that regard has become thoroughly perplexing.
On one hand, it made sense to move Bedard to wing and put him next to Jason Dickinson, the Hawks' truest center. Dickinson, whom Richardson expects to play Saturday against the Flyers despite missing practice Friday, has proven he can play with anyone, even high-skill offensive players.
On the other hand, it doesn't make sense to keep Joey Anderson, who always excels defensively alongside Dickinson but offers very little offensive ability, on the opposite wing. Anderson admitted Friday that "the moment I start trying to force plays to [Connor] is when I'll start really looking bad."
On one hand, since Anderson is still there, it makes sense to continue deploying that line against opposing teams' best lines. As usual, they did a fairly good job with those shutdown duties Thursday against Aleksander Barkov, with even Bedard demonstrating his much-improved defensive instincts.
"I'm not doing much offensively at all, so I’ve got to find a different way to be productive," Bedard said. "That [defensive role] was obviously different for me, but it's good to do that."
On the other hand, those difficult matchups provide Bedard even fewer opportunities to break out of his offensive drought. And at this point, what's best for his morale and long-term development matters far more than what gives the Hawks the best chance to win on any random night.
On one hand, Richardson desperately needs to stop shuffling his lines after every single loss. The entire roster, Bedard included, needs to be given time to build chemistry and establish consistency.
On the other hand, perhaps one more shuffle — to one especially logical combination — would make a difference.
The Hawks signed Teuvo Teravainen and Tyler Bertuzzi to complement Bedard, and their respective skill sets should theoretically do just that, but the three of them have spent just 48 seconds together all season. Granted, they didn't click in a few preseason games together, but that's hardly reason to abandon the idea forever.
Richardson brushed off a question Thursday about uniting them, only conceding it's "a possibility at some point." Why not try it now? It surely wouldn't hurt.