How does Connor Bedard respond from the Olympic snub?

One Sunday, Team Canada narrowly came up short for Gold at the Winter Olympics, dropping a 2-1 loss versus Team USA courtesy of a Jack Hughes overtime winner. One man who will likely have mixed feelings following this result is Chicago Blackhawks forward Connor Bedard.

On one hand, Bedard will obviously be upset watching his home country take home only a silver medal. On the other hand, you can't help but wonder if a part of him won't feel too sorry for the squad that decided he was not worthy of a spot on the roster despite having the breakout season he has enjoyed this year, which has seen him operate at well over a point per game production with 53 points in 44 games.

A big storyline to watch for the remainder of this Blackhawks season will be the play of Bedard up front. How does the 20-year-old Canadian respond following the Olympic snub with 25 games left in the campaign?

Bedard should be motivated to make Hockey Canada regret their decision

If Canada won Gold in this 2026 Milan tourney, the performance of Bedard for the rest of this season would not matter much. They would have been able to easily justify their decision based on this hypothetical timeline, where the group they brought got the job done in the final.

However, given that Canada narrowly lost to the US when it mattered, one wonders what impact Bedard would have had in the game. Especially one in which your highly touted offensive group, consisting of the likes of Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Macklin Celebrini, could only find a single goal.

In a game in which the Canadians failed to convert on a 5-on-3 power play and in 3-on-3 OT, the absence of Bedard was surely felt. What difference could his generational release and ability to drive an offense have made in that game? We will never know. As Max Verstappen would say, "It's always if, if, if..."

If he did not already have plenty of motivation before to prove the Hockey Canada staff wrong, Connor now has even more impetus to close out this 25-26 season on a tear and show them they were wrong to leave him off the team and not make the same mistake again in the future.

The good news for Bedard is that he has a long, promising career ahead of him. He will have his fair share of opportunities to shine for Canada on the big stage, just as he had in his junior career. His idol, Sidney Crosby, also missed out on his first chance in 2006; he has since become one of Canada's all-time greats in best-on-best international competition. And what did Crosby do in his first chance in the tournament in 2010? He scored the golden goal against the US in overtime, giving his country gold. Could history repeat itself with Bedard in 2030? Time will tell.

In the meantime, Bedard has four years ahead of him to stamp his place on that team. But what's most important is the present season. Bedard's Blackhawks find themselves 10 points out of a playoff spot; it is highly unlikely we will see Chicago feature in this year's NHL postseason. With that said, stranger things have happened. If Bedard can find the form he had early in the season prior to going down with a shoulder injury and once again put this Blackhawks team on his back to end the year, perhaps he can at least put them in the wildcard conversation.

That would be quite the statement to send to the management of the Canadian national team. A lesson they would hopefully learn from when the time comes again.