Bedard injured in Blackhawks loss to Blues

The St. Louis Blues were embarrassed 7-2 last night by the Nashville Predators. They had six forwards out with injury, including Jordan Kyrou, Jimmy Snuggerud, and Nick Bjugstad. None of that mattered as they beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 on Friday night. They showed no ill effects of being shorthanded and playing last night.

The Blues entered the night 30th in scoring (2.53 GF/G) and 31st in goals allowed (3.56 GA/G). You wouldn’t have known that by watching tonight’s game. The Blackhawks had many one-and-done shifts in the offensive zone. The second and third chances that St. Louis has surrendered all season long were never produced by the Blackhawks. They did push late in the game to make it interesting, but the damage was done early.

Connor Bedard Injured on Final Play

Connor Bedard had an up-and-down night. After the ESPN broadcast nitpicked two plays as reasons why he shouldn’t play for Canada at the Olympics and called him “Berard,” he went on to pick up assists on both of the Blackhawks' goals.

Late in the third period, he made a nice defensive play to strip Philip Broberg, then used his skate to get the puck over to Andre Burakovsky.

I wasn’t a fan that he got mixed up with Jake Neighbours behind the play and took himself off the ice for two minutes moments after making it a one-goal game.

We all held our collective breath when he left the ice in a lot of pain after the final faceoff of the game. He was holding his right arm after getting caught up with Brayden Schenn, who lunged at him when the puck was dropped. I think the play was dirty, as we see that move a lot in similar situations; it was just unfortunate.

Head coach Jeff Blashill ruled Bedard out for tomorrow’s game against the Detroit Red Wings, and he said we’ll get a further update on Monday. Not ideal. He called the play a “freak accident.” It might be a good time for Nick Lardis to make his NHL debut.

First-Period Defensive Lapses Set Tone

The second period is usually the Blackhawks' Achilles heel; however, tonight, the opening frame was as rough defensively as it could get. The Blues’ first goal was a product of some bad decision-making by Frank Nazar. He was called for a tripping penalty in the neutral zone. He puts his palms up to protest the call, then aimlessly skates towards the defensive zone and does not pick up Logan Mailloux off the Blues bench.

Moments later, Alex Vlasic allowed Dalibor Dvorsky to go right up the middle of the ice for a high-danger scoring chance. Thankfully, Spencer Knight was able to get just enough of the puck to send it wide of the net.

The second Blues goal came on another play that had some questionable defense by the guys in white. Bedard was behind the play after getting in on the forecheck. He could have gotten back faster, but for some reason, Tyler Bertuzzi left the defensive zone to pressure the defenseman carrying the puck. He was already about the play, including the eventual goal scorer Matt Luff, so there was no need to leave the zone. This gave Luff plenty of room, and he took advantage of it.

Nuggets & Tidbits

• The Blackhawks are now 1-8-3 when surrendering the first goal of the game and 1-9-1 when trailing after two periods. The Blues have given up the most second-period goals in the NHL, but the Blackhawks couldn’t muster one up.

• I wrote before the game that the Blackhawks needed to use their speed to generate some power-play time. The Blues are one of the least-penalized teams in the league, and they didn’t give the Blackhawks any power plays on the night. They played sound defensively and did not get caught flat-footed very often.

• Here’s Kaiser’s goal from the first period. He did a tremendous job realizing how much time and space he had before getting off an impressive snipe. He’s scored two goals in the last five games after going 40 games without one.

• Burakovsky appears to be fully recovered from getting hit in the head on Nov. 20. He had a great assist in Wednesday’s win over the New York Rangers before scoring his eighth goal of the season tonight. His line with Bedard and Ryan Green finished with a 71.43 Corsi for percentage (CF%) and produced both goals and seven scoring chances, while allowing only two.