The Chicago Blackhawks shouldn’t bench Connor Bedard, but…

A couple days back, we heard Mark Messier’s comments regarding Connor Bedard after the 19-year-old botched a puck battle with the great Sam Reinhart. Messier went on a little rant and P.K. Subban didn’t necessarily disagree with Messier.

And yeah, I get it. Bedard needs to start doing a better job in playing a complete game and the Blackhawks brass need to let him know about it. Get tough on him and if he’s making the same mistake multiple times, cut his ice time to a degree. 

One way or another, he needs to learn how to play a 200-foot game better so he can become that next great player to wear a Blackhawks uniform. That said, outright benching him is a bad idea unless Bedard is predominantly a visual learner who’d fare better by watching a game or two in the press box. I’ll go out on a limb and guess that probably isn’t the case. 

Instead, the correct way to go about this is to let Bedard play, but sit him down for a sequence or two so he can watch if he needs to, then get him back out there and see if he can correct his mistakes. That’s what I mean by cutting his ice time to a degree. 

Benching Connor Bedard would be a bad move for the Blackhawks

While I’m far from endorsing Connor Bedard as the second coming of Patrick Kane or the generational talent of the 2020s because he just isn’t that good just yet, he’s also the player tasked with being the centerpiece of this Blackhawks rebuild. He’s got 45 points and 15 goals in 52 games, which isn’t what you want from a generational talent in their second year, bad team or not.

Bedard also has a minus-24, which is the third-worst mark on the team besides the ailing Philipp Kurashev and the Hawks leading goal-scorer, Tyler Bertuzzi. Bedard still can’t win faceoffs even if the Blackhawks playoff aspirations depended on it - they don’t - and he’s yet to become an adequate scorer at even strength. 

Overall, his body of work must improve and that’s not happening if he’s riding the bench. But at the same time, if he’s going to learn from his mistakes, and if that’s not the case while he’s on the ice, cutting his ice time back by a few minutes a game could help Bedard in the long run in more ways than one. 

And what would it hurt, really? It’s not like the Blackhawks are going anywhere this season unless divine intervention turns them all into the NHL’s version of the Avengers or something. So, you may as well correct Bedard’s mistakes now so he can play an elite game, or at least close to, when games start to matter for the Blackhawks.