Seattle’s Matty Beniers, last season’s Calder Trophy winner as the NHL’s top rookie, will get a chance to face this season’s overwhelming favorite for the award when the Kraken begin a four-game trip Tuesday in Chicago.
The Blackhawks’ Connor Bedard, the No. 1 overall pick in this summer’s draft, leads all rookies with 17 points (10 goals, seven assists) in 19 games. He’s also No. 1 in average ice time per game among rookie forwards at 19 minutes, 33 seconds.
Bedard was a unanimous Calder pick among 16 voters in an NHL.com poll released Sunday.
“(Bedard) just feels comfortable with that puck, like skating in traffic,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said. “He’s going to have no trouble playing with bigger guys in this league and stronger guys. He’s got that special quality that he seems to find what he needs to do at the right time.”
The 18-year-old’s demeanor has been as impressive as his statistics.
“I see myself as another guy on the team and the biggest thing for me is just trying to improve every day and be the best version of myself,” Bedard said. “The outside noise and stuff, you can’t really control. But you can control how you are to everyone, how much effort you’re putting forth on the ice. It’s kind of my mindset on it.”
Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson said at this point, he hardly considers Bedard a rookie.
“I check in with him every now and then, but it’s not something that even crosses my mind anymore,” Davidson said. “Coming into the league, you never know, 18, but he’s just taken it in stride. I don’t think he’s fazed at all by it. Yeah, no worries at all.”
Despite Bedard’s efforts, the Blackhawks have lost six of their past seven games, the only victory in that span a 4-3 overtime decision at home last Friday against Toronto.
The Blackhawks’ 4-2 loss to visiting St. Louis on Sunday prevented Chicago from winning consecutive games for the first time this season.
“Disappointed,” Chicago forward Nick Foligno said. “I didn’t like our start. We talked about this. It’s building winning habits and understanding what those are. I understand in the sports world a lot of cliches get thrown around, like words, buzzwords, but there is a definition behind a lot of them. Commitment, that’s what we have to learn here. It’s just how to do it over and over again.
“Sometimes, it’s not fun or exciting, but it’s how you win in this league. We’re not over checks, we’re not reloading, and boom, boom, boom, they’re in the back of the net. We push back, get our game going. We get a goal, but then we just don’t sustain it. So, it’s a disappointing one because we really felt we were understanding of how we had success against Toronto, and we’re right back in the loss column.”
The Kraken can somewhat relate. After a five-game point streak (3-0-2) put them at hockey’s version of .500 — 8-8-5 — they lost 5-1 on Friday to visiting Vancouver.
Tye Kartye scored the lone goal for Seattle, which lost fellow forward Brandon Tanev to a lower-body injury late in the first period. Kraken coach Dave Hakstol didn’t have an update on Tanev.
“We had too many guys below the bar tonight, and that’s the bottom line,” Hakstol said. “Both individually and collectively, this is not a part-time league. It’s a full 60-minute league.”
Beniers, who has three goals and seven assists this season, has been held without a point in three straight games.
–Field Level Media
