
One of the game’s rising stars has to be feeling a little humbled after getting caught using his words a little too much.
During Thursday night’s game between the Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks, Blackhawks forward Connor Bedard was handed a 10-minute misconduct for abuse of officials.
It was a strange penalty, as no one noticed at first that Bedard was getting a penalty. However, footage later showed that the sophomore center was giving his opinion on the game to the officials, leading to referee Chris Rooney giving Bedard the misconduct, which took the reigning Calder Trophy winner off the ice for the rest of the third period.
At that point, Chicago was trailing by one, with the Sharks pulling out the victory by a final score of 4-2.
On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discussed what happened and their reaction to Bedard’s antics.
Frank Seravalli: It sounds like it was said on the ice before he got back to the bench. So, whatever we saw on camera looked kind of benign. Nonetheless, Chris Rooney then was in conversation with Nick Foligno…he appeared to be saying, “That’s the second time tonight that he had had something said to him.” That obviously crossed the line.
So, I think the big thing, the big takeaway is that Connor Bedard needs to be more careful. He needs to be smarter and he needs to keep his emotions in check better. This is not the first time he’s been captured yapping, and if you’re trying to get more calls, constantly chirping isn’t necessarily going to be the way to do it.
So you know, in that moment, 10:50 left in a one-goal game against the team that’s right next to you in the standings in the lottery chase. Why? Like, be smarter…I’m sure there’s a lot of extra motion in there, but you’ve got to find a way to harness that better and show some growth and maturity because that part really stands out.
Tyler Yaremchuk: This is not a new thing, a young star player having to learn this lesson. Remember Sidney Crosby’s reputation as a whiner. It took him seven, eight years to get rid of that. I remember Connor McDavid getting a 10-minute misconduct during a shootout in his second or third season in the league…These young stars sometimes have to learn that lesson. For Bedard, I think I’m not going to sit here and call him a whiner or anything, but I think you’re right, Frank, you gotta kind of keep it in check a little bit better. And it’s a lesson these guys got to learn.
Frank: It takes a long time to get rid of that reputation once you have it. You mentioned that with Crosby, and that was certainly something that was talked about a lot. But now look at him. It doesn’t seem like he ever says a word. There is something to the idea of kind of having to earn your stripes in the NHL. No referee likes getting shown up by any player, let alone a 19-year-old kid, and Chris Rooney’s been at this a long time as the Stanley Cup final-level official. I’m sure that what was said really did cross the threshold to then warrant 10 minutes.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…