Held at bay, Bedard still shows glimpses of brilliance in win over Maple Leafs

TORONTO — There was a moment, a dozen minutes into this night — Connor Bedard’s first under the Scotiabank Arena lights, his first amid the fishbowl that is Toronto hockey — when it seemed the young phenom would never get his chance to leave his mark on this game.

Halfway through the first period of the fourth game of his big-league career, the night was passing the sprinting, desperately eager No. 98 by.

Twice, he and Chicago Blackhawks linemate Taylor Hall had broken in on Toronto Maple Leafs netminder Joseph Woll on a partial two-on-one, Bedard seeming on the cusp of highlight-reel territory. And twice Hall had elected to dish to the trailing third man in the slot as blue sweaters swarmed around Bedard and attempted to smother him if he came anywhere near the home side’s net.

The vets were ready for him.

“It’s just his skill set,” Toronto’s resident Selke Trophy finalist, Mitch Marner, had said hours earlier when asked what exactly he would be watching for when the two teams took the ice Monday night. “Obviously what he does with the puck when he has time and space with it — you’ve just got to make sure you’re closing quickly on him, trying not to give him too much free space out there.”

“His release is elite, obviously,” veteran defender Mark Giordano had added. “So, you’re going to have to take away time and space. Just like any other top guy in the league.”

Through that early dozen, there was neither time nor space to be had for the star rookie and Bedard barely got a single touch through the early going of what wound up a fairly messy effort from both clubs.

And then came his moment, 12 minutes in, when Chicago’s talisman got the puck on his stick for real, got some room to weave, and showed the Maple Leafs faithful what he can do.

It started in his own zone, Bedard picking up the puck, pivoting and taking off, scurrying away from a chasing Auston Matthews. He cut right, drawing defender John Klingberg one way before darting the other, easily slipping by the veteran blue-liner and cutting down the wing. Bedard made a last-second move to the inside, shifted the puck to his forehand and put one on net that caused a few seconds of chaos as a rebound floated through the crease.

A minute later, there was Bedard again, this time carrying the puck down the right wall, stopping up on Klingberg, making the defender scramble to shadow him before delivering the puck to a streaking Seth Jones, who moved it on for a dangerous Ryan Donato chance in front.

Later, as the scoreless period wound down to its final minutes, the rookie showed his ingenuity again.

Planted deep in the Leafs' zone as a Chicago power play expired, the puck fell to Bedard as he was mid-stride, near the goal line, and headed straight for T.J. Brodie. Rather than tossing it away to avoid the contact, No. 98 opted for the flashier escape route, stickhandling in a phone booth, cutting right to get Brodie spinning the wrong way, before spinning himself and throwing a backhand pass to a waiting teammate in the crease.

It’s those types of displays that had the opposing coaching staff readjusting their game plan for Bedard in the days leading up to this tilt.

“I didn’t know his game that well before he came into the league. A lot of [the hype] is focused on his shot, his ability to score — but I’d say his game is far more dynamic and complete offensively than I had thought,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe had said a day earlier, referencing the multitude of plays like these ones that have already begun to show up through Bedard’s first week in the league.

“You think of him as a shooter, but he makes a lot of plays. He drives offence.”

Bedard’s longtime coach, Jon Calvano — who’s worked with the young star in his hometown since Bedard was five years old — put it best.

“What makes Connor dangerous as a hockey player is that he’s got the triple-threat effect that most players don’t have,” the coach had said when we spoke earlier this year. “He can beat you with a perimeter shot, he can beat you with a dangle, and he can beat you with a pass. So, for a defender or a goalie, it’s very hard to understand or read what his actual decision-making process is.”

Causing that confusion against a Maple Leafs team that made a point of keying in on him defensively proved difficult early on in the game. But in glimpses, in flashes, the phenom’s skill began to break through.

“He played a responsible game tonight,” Bedard's new coach, Luke Richardson, said after an eventual 4-1 Chicago victory was in the books. “He was detailed in his game, and he got his chances. I think he was feeling it out early, and then when he broke loose in that first period, had that real nice line rush, I think that got him more confidence in the game, and he really started making plays in the second period.”

The touches came earlier for Bedard that second time out against Toronto. A minute into the second frame, a misfired chance from Matthews sent the puck in the other direction, towards Woll, on Bedard’s stick. With some more space to operate, the rookie unleashed that elite shot on the Maple Leafs netminder, Woll coming up with the save and bouncing it out into the slot for a rebound chance. No. 98 was in the thick of it again a moment later, lifting William Nylander’s stick at the blue line and darting back into the zone to set up another chance from Donato.

Throughout the middle period, more hints of that still-raw talent flashed across the sheet. Bedard got another chance to rip his Matthews-esque shot from the right side, and later he danced around Tyler Bertuzzi in the neutral zone to spring a teammate on another rush.

But the odd balance between the teenager’s fresh-faced inexperience and his already-lethal skill set might not have shone through more clearly than in one particular moment late in the second period.

With the visitors planted in Toronto’s zone, working through a chance on the man-advantage, Bedard took a hit from Giordano in the corner, the near-20-pound weight difference sending the young centreman’s stick flying. He scrambled to retrieve it as the twig bounced off skates and tumbled across the ice, Bedard a momentary Mr. Bean trying to get it back in his gloves.

And yet, 30 seconds later, there he was gloving the puck out of the air and tossing it to his stick, feathering a pass to a teammate in the slot, wiring a blistering shot off the post when it eventually came back to him all before toe-dragging David Kampf to set up a Jones one-timer soon after.

In the end, it was Bedard’s veteran teammates who delivered the win Monday night. Corey Perry, 38, wired in the game-winner off a deceptive stretch-pass breakaway, while Tyler Johnson, 33, iced it with a power play marker a few minutes later. MacKenzie Entwistle and Taylor Raddysh added Chicago’s first and last goals on the night. Still, look back through the film, through the frenetic, untamed energy that is Chicago’s high-flying rookie, and there’s no missing the real story of their season already — that when the puck lands on No. 98’s stick, his potential is undeniable.

The ‘W’ Monday night gives Bedard his first NHL win on home soil, the North Vancouver, B.C. native four games into a whirlwind rookie tour that saw him open his career against Sidney Crosby’s Penguins and the reigning Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins, then come north for a pair games in the combined maelstrom that is Montreal and Toronto. He’ll get a break now over his next two games, only having to line up against the past two Stanley Cup champs, Vegas and Colorado.

If one thing has become clear four nights into what has the makings of an impressive rookie campaign, though, it’s that Bedard is ready for this moment.

“He’s handling it really well,” Hall said of his linemate a day before the win in Toronto, lamenting the number of interviews already filling up the rookie’s schedule. “They need to find a way to just let him play. But I think he understands his role as a major ambassador for the game of hockey, and he’s handling it so well. He doesn’t seem to be fazed by it.”

“He’s obviously a very talented player,” Woll added late Monday night, giving the 18-year-old props after his club got the best of the netminder’s. “You can see there’s really no transition for him, coming into the NHL.

“He’s a great player, from the start.”