Blackhawks Postgame Musings: Connor Bedard's star power is rising

The Chicago Blackhawks earn their first point of the 2025-25 season with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins. The Blackhawks got goals from Connor Bedard, Louis Crevier, and Andre Burakovsky in regulation. They had two golden chances in overtime, but were unable to capitalize.

They had a much better game at 5-on-5, as the Bruins are not at the same level as the Florida Panthers. After giving up 32 scoring chances and 14 high-danger scoring chances on Tuesday, they only allowed 19 and eight to the Bruins.

“I thought we definitely took steps forward,” head coach Jeff Blashill said after the game. “We had a lot of winning plays, winning habits like stopping on pucks. Those are big things for us to continue to get better at. The disappointing part is that we want to find ways to win these close games. To do that, you have to have great winning habits, and we took a step forward in that.”

Connor Bedard’s Star Power is Growing

Blackhawks fans spent the whole summer hoping this was going to be the season where Bedard takes the step into superstardom. We're starting to see that happening through the first two games of the season. He’s physically faster, and he’s more confident in his abilities than he’s ever been. He’s falling in love with the one-timer, which should scare goaltenders across the National Hockey League.

Not only is Bedard shooting more, but his vision is as elite as ever, as he showed by setting up the Crevier goal. He’s also doing the things that don’t show up on a scoresheet, like getting right in the middle of the post-whistle scrums. He also drew a “star” call on Charlie McAvoy midway through the third period. He wasn’t getting those calls in his first two seasons.

“I thought our battles were better,” Bedard said. “I love how we bounced back after their goals. That’s important. I thought we were better, but, at the end of the day, you’ve got to get two points.”

Bedard finished his night with a goal, an assist, two shots on goal, seven shot attempts, a hit, and a blocked shot. At 5-on-5, he had a 58.3 Corsi for percentage (CF%), as the Blackhawks held a 21-15 shot attempt advantage with him on the ice. On the downside, he lost all five of his faceoffs.

Back-Up Goalies Steal the Show

A matchup between Arvid Soderblom and Joonas Korposalo is unlikely to draw the national broadcast. Even though both head coaches started their backup goaltenders, they each had their huge moments to give their teams a chance to win.

Soderblom’s big save came late in regulation when he slid to his right to deny Tanner Jeannot his second goal of the game.

Korpisalo literally saved the game in overtime when he robbed Frank Nazar, then stopped Bedard on a 2-on-0 rush seconds later. It wasn’t long after that sequence when the Fraser Mitten won it for the Bruins.

Soderblom’s rebound control could have been better, but overall, his performance was good. He stopped 29 shots and got his team a point.

Nuggets & Tidbits

• Andre Burakovsky settled in nicely in his second game on the top line. His goal and assist gave him his first two points with the Blackhawks. He had a team-high 72.4 CF%, as the Blackhawks had a 21-8 shot attempt advantage when he was on the ice.

• Colton Dach’s play on the Bedard goal was exactly why Blashill is a big fan of his, and why he was moved to the top line. He absorbed a hit from Nikita Zadorov to get the puck over to Burakovsky, who found Bedard for the one-timer. Dach finished with six hits. Zadorov was the only player to have more, with seven.

• You never want to see a defenseman standing directly in front of his goaltender watching the puck go into the net. Unfortunately, that happened to Matt Grzelcyk twice tonight. To his credit, shortly after the Bruins' second goal, he tied up Jeannot’s stick to prevent him from shooting into a wide-open cage.

• Blashill went with seven defensemen and 11 forwards tonight. Crevier was the late addition, and it looked like a smart move after he scored his goal. However, they played down two forwards after Jason Dickinson left the game with an apparent shoulder injury in the second period. If Sam Lafferty isn’t on the penalty kill and being scratched for a seventh defenseman, why is he here?

• Here is the play in which Dickinson got hurt. Blashill did not have an update on his status after the game.