DENVER — The Chicago Blackhawks may never have to worry about Connor Bedard being the player they hoped he’d be.
Bedard has proved he’s evolved into that dynamic offensive player repeatedly this season. He did that pre-injury. He’s done that post-injury. He closed out the Blackhawks’ schedule before the Olympic break, feeling it again. He’s come out of the break looking even better.
Bedard scored a goal and could have had a few more against the Nashville Predators on Thursday. He scored again and had a few more he left on the table on Saturday against the Colorado Avalanche. In the first two games out of the break, he has two goals, eight shots on goal and nine scoring chances. Adding what Bedard did just before the break, and he has scored in five of his last six games. So, yeah, the Blackhawks don’t have to worry.
Where the Blackhawks do have to be concerned is the offense beyond Bedard. Aside from Tyler Bertuzzi, the Blackhawks haven’t had a consistent goal scorer this season. Lately, the offense has dried up even more than earlier in the season. They scored two goals in a 3-2 loss on Thursday, and it was Bedard and Bertuzzi who delivered. Bedard was the lone goal scorer in a 3-1 loss to the Avalanche on Saturday. Going even further back, since Bedard returned to play on Jan. 19, the Blackhawks have scored a league-worst 1.91 goals per 60 minutes. Over those 16 games, they’ve been outscored 53-31 while putting together a 4-10-2 record.
“We got to help him,” Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno said of Bedard. “Can’t just be on Connor. He’s doing his job. He’s getting scoring chances. He’s making plays. I mean, he could have had five tonight. So it’s on the rest of us to pick it up and find a way to help him out, give him some run support and that’s just only going to make our team better.”
The reality is, it’s difficult to win games when you score two goals or fewer. The Blackhawks have scored three or more goals four times in their last 16 games and went 2-0-2 during that span. In the other 12 where they were held to two or fewer goals, they went 2-10-0.
None of this is news to Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill. He knows the Blackhawks need to produce more. The Blackhawks have been in many close games, especially when they’re either tied or leading in the third period, and just haven’t scored enough to keep the game from slipping away. They had a 2-1 lead dissolve in the third period Thursday in Nashville and couldn’t pull ahead when the game was tied 1-1 in the third period in Denver.
There have been stretches where the Blackhawks have scored more. That’s what gives Blashill hope. However, the individual droughts have dragged on long enough that they’ve become more the norm. After Frank Nazar’s five goals and six assists in his first 10 games, he’s had two goals and 11 assists in his last 33 games. André Burakovsky has zero goals and one assist in his last 15 games. It hasn’t helped that Ryan Donato (13 goals) and Ilya Mikheyev (11 goals) are off their scoring paces of last season. The Blackhawks just haven’t had much secondary scoring after Bertuzzi, who has 26 goals, and Bedard, who has 25.
Blashill pointed to better breakouts against the Avalanche, compared to the Predators’ game, and some quality chances breaking down. The Avalanche are a different animal, too. The Blackhawks had just 15 shots on net Saturday and went more than 20 minutes without a shot on goal. Still, the Blackhawks aren’t getting enough chances in most games.
“It’s just we do gotta find a way to produce more offense, more chances,” Blashill said. “Some of it comes down to execution; some of it comes down to, we’ve got offensive guys that can produce, but they’re probably not feeling it right now. So we’ve got to get their confidence going. You’ve got to ultimately earn your confidence, so they’re going to have to grind through it here and find a way to feel good about themselves with the puck.”
Blashill thought Burakovsky showed signs against the Predators that he was coming out of his slump.
“I would say he led us in scoring-chance plus/minus differential last game — led the team in it,” Blashill said. “I don’t know where he’s going to fall tonight. At the end of the day, your game is a result of how much you created vs. how much you gave up. He’ll stay with Bedsy (for Sunday’s game), and we’ll keep evaluating everything.”
The Blackhawks aren’t likely going to worry too much about Burakovsky. He’s probably a stopgap until more young talent arrives. Though getting Nazar on track feels especially important over their remaining 23 games this season. From late last season to playing at the Worlds to the start of this season, Nazar showed what he can do when he’s feeling it. The Blackhawks have to get him at that level more consistently.
Bigger picture, Bedard and Nazar may be the only current Blackhawks seen as top-six players in the future. A season from now, Anton Frondell, who leads the SHL in goals among under-23 players, and Roman Kantserov, who leads the KHL in goals, could join them. Maybe Nick Lardis is in that conversation, too.
Still, that’s a season away. For now, the Blackhawks have to work with who they have, and lately, those players, outside of Bedard and Bertuzzi, haven’t produced nearly enough.