Asked about his way of dealing with losing streaks, Connor Bedard recalled a season spent with the Regina Pats — his club in the Western Junior Hockey League.
He didn’t have to look long. After all, the rookie center celebrated his 18the birthday last July.
“I remember my 16 years at “Reg”: we did not participate in the playoffs and had experienced sluggish periods, a bit like what we are experiencing here currently, he mentioned. It was difficult; we had losing streaks and all that. It’s ugly, because you don’t want to lose matches. »
“We know we have a better team than our record indicates. We just have to show up at the rink every day, be optimistic and try to improve, and hopefully it will show in the win column,” he continued.
Certainly, Bedard has so far met the inordinate expectations placed on him. But there you go, it’s a team sport. The Blackhawks still look like a team in the early stages of a rebuild, although they have a gifted forward and a group of promising young defensemen.
The Hawks have lost four straight games and 10 of their last 12, following their 4-3 shootout loss to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night. They are 7-16-1 so far this season, after going 7-13-4 through the first 24 games last season.
“Everyone wants to do well in this locker room,” assured striker Nick Foligno. This is what is most difficult to accept; not obtain favorable results. »
The main issue for the Hawks is their lack of finishing on offense — despite the presence of Bedard. Before Wednesday evening’s meetings, the Illinois team was at 30e ranks in the NHL with 59 goals scored, and its power play was 29e with a starvation efficiency rate of 10.7%. They have scored only six goals during their recent streak of failure.
Behind Bedard, the Hawks’ hope rests with a group of young defensemen led by Kevin Korchinski. The 19-year-old hockey player, another first-round pick, scored two goals and had five assists in 24 games. He looks like the player who could become the Hawks’ general on the blue line in a few years.
Meanwhile, the Hawks are bothered by a lack of consistency on many levels — they talk about it all the time, but just can’t fix it on the ice.
“In order to progress in the right direction, we will have to be able to reproduce our good performances more regularly. We have to be able to play for 60 minutes, said Foligno. In fact, right now it would be nice if we could just do it for a full period. »
” Everything is here. It’s like when a child has a seizure, he continued. You know he can behave properly, but he doesn’t. »