Biggest Takeaways After Connor Bedard's Electrifying Pair of Games, 1st NHL Goal

Connor "point per game" Bedard has finally entered the NHL, and after a slew of preseason highlights and two back-to-back games to open the regular season, you know the hockey world has you covered with every single highlight.

But what can we actually take away from these two games, one assist, one goal (and basically an assist on his own goal), one rookie lap sans a helmet and a stick, and all the fanfare?

Maybe that none of this is all that serious, but at the same time, it is. Maybe we should enjoy the beginnings of a potentially great player who seems awfully humble and bashful while we're in the beginnings. Maybe we should lean into it all.

Here are the biggest takeaways from Bedard's first two games, a back-to-back against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins, as he gets familiar with the NHL.

The media attention is good, actually, and the kid is taking it in stride.

There are several layers to unpeel, here. First, we must acknowledge the media coverage Bedard is getting and why he is getting it. He is the first No. 1 overall first-line center jumping into the NHL with ESPN and TNT as comfortable rights-holders, the first No. 1 overall pick without any COVID media restrictions, and the first No. 1 overall pick with a career projection on par with that of Connor McDavid.

At first, Bedard came off as a bit generic and cookie-cutter with the media in his interviews after going No. 1 overall in 2023. But he seems to have already grown into the spotlight since joining the NHL club for training camp, and perhaps he's done so by leaning into that cookie-cutter vibe, but including himself in the joke and breaking the fourth wall.

The Blackhawks have been providing him with help and saw the vision beforehand, adding veterans like Corey Perry and Nick Foligno to help him get acclimated to the league.

NBC Chicago did a great article detailing what it's been like for Blackhawks management and PR to have such fanfare around a potentially generational player, how they've prepared him and how they've prepared themselves.

"When you add into the mix something like Connor's experience so far, you stay in touch with them to make sure they're in the right spot," Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson told NBC. "If you need to dial it back a little bit, you have to, but we haven't had that experience so far. You see how well he's handled things. He's in a good spot and he feels ready, so we're happy and excited for him."

This support for him but confidence that he will handle it on his own has resulted in Bedard poking fun at himself with things like the "I like hockey" quote, him poking fun at our own Paul Bissonnette and the veterans having a little fun back…

You may have noticed that as Bedard took the ice for his first-ever NHL warm-up, he was missing something—a helmet. Entering the NHL and immediately copping a fine is one way to endear yourself to the fans.

The NHL enacted a rule last season that requires all players who joined the league in the past four years to wear helmets in warm-ups.

From Rule 9.6: "It is mandatory for all players who entered the NHL beginning with the 2019-2020 season or later to wear their helmet during pre-game warm-up."

To be clear, all players who entered the league prior to 2019-2020 and who are currently playing are exempt from this mandate.

This resulted in a $2,500 fine that he will surely pay off, if he even has to. According to Bedard, the whole team just wanted him to have some fun, and so did he.

This is a way for someone under intense scrutiny to show a little devil-may-care personality without having to actually say anything, and I'm all for toeing this line.

Don't you dare come into these comments complaining that Bedard's first goal—a play he created and basically forced to work—resulting in a wraparound, wasn't that special.

Is a wraparound goal the sexiest, most highlight-reel-worthy first NHL goal of all time? No, especially in this day and age, when lacrosse goals are popping up more and more every year, and shifty shooters like Trevor Zegras, Andrei Svechnikov and Tage Thompson have taken over the game.

But the play leading up to Bedard's first NHL goal in his second game against the Bruins provided true excitement for people who appreciate playmaking centers. Frankly, the whole play was reminiscent of Bedard's idol, who destroyed him on the faceoff dot the previous night: Sidney Crosby.

This is less of a flash-in-the-pan-type goal that we're used to seeing on highlight reels these days, and more of an "I'm here, and I'm here to stay," statement.

A true fan of the sport will always find beauty in these fundamentals.

With a first overall, potentially generational talent comes added fanfare and scrutiny on other parts of the rest of the team that may have previously flown under the radar.

A positive example of this in the Bedard situation is Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson. This man seems to truly get the balance between new-age communication and old-school motivation, and he's very open about the fact that he's letting Bedard rip out there, letting him make mistakes in real time on the path to becoming the best NHL player he can be.

There have also been ample tender moments, like Richardson urging Bedard to move into his apartment complex.

One Richardson quote from Oct. 3 stands out. He told The Athletic's Mark Lazerus, regarding Bedard:

"He's kind of a humble guy. He doesn't want to celebrate that; he didn't even really celebrate that coming in. He's kind of bashful. He wants to score a nice goal, and I don't know if he even counts those (greasy goals). But I count them. There are no pictures in the goal column, just the number...he's hard on himself, so we're going to have to lighten him up and make sure he enjoys these times, because wins in the NHL are hard to come by. We have to make sure we enjoy the night and have a little fun when you win a game. A couple of those hiccups when we missed an open net or fell down on a 2-on-0, we have to make some humor out of that and make it fun to come to the rink the next day, not tense and grinding the stick. There's enough of that. We don't need to put more of that on ourselves."

What an utterly refreshing mindset to hear out loud from a coach at the helm of a difficult rebuild, tasked with the responsibility of mediating a winner's expectations. We can trust Richardson with Bedard's development.

It's a fool's errand to genuinely psychoanalyze a small sample size of a pair of back-to-back games, but why not take a gander at the numbers with a grain of salt?

Through two NHL games, Bedard has one goal, one assist and 21-plus minutes on ice per game. According to Natural Stat Trick, Bedard mightily led the Blackhawks against the Bruins with 0.84 expected goals at even strength, doubling anyone else on the team with four high-danger chances, tripling the rest of the team with three rebound attempts (including the one that went in!).

The previous night, he led the team at even strength in shots (five), expected goals (0.67), high-danger chances (3) and rebound attempts with three once again. His puck possession and rebounds are traits you seek in a first-line center.

But then there's another trait you seek in a first-line center—faceoff prowess. Bedard has struggled—and has called himself out for his struggles—on the faceoff dot so far. Again, the sample size is tiny, and half of it is against Sidney Crosby, but so far he's 32 percent on the faceoff dot and went 2-of-13 against the Penguins.

This is where Richardson comes in. His philosophy is to throw Bedard out there, let him do all of his gutsy stuff, and let him naturally adjust to NHL level accordingly. The faceoff dot is one of the biggest "Welcome to the show, kid" wake-up calls, and the only way out is through.