ST. LOUIS — TNT’s NHL intermission panel repeatedly ripped the Blackhawks last season. On Wednesday, they lauded them.
“You can tell their confidence is different,” panelist Henrik Lundqvist said. “It’s a different team to watch now compared to last year.”
The Hawks earned that praise and took a substantial first step toward changing their reputation around the league by crushing the Blues 8-3.
It was a statement win for the team, marking their largest road margin of victory since November 2019. It was also a statement game for Connor Bedard, who recorded three assists and showcased the never-back-down attitude he has brought into his third NHL season.
“I was very critical in a few clips last year of [Bedard] swinging away, maybe looking a little bit disinterested,” TNT panelist Paul Bissonnette said. “From watching this game…his compete level is through the roof. He’s winning stick battles, puck battles. He’s taking physical abuse, laughing and saying, ‘Hey, you aren’t going to change anything about the way I’m approaching this.'”
.@BizNasty2point0 is loving the feisty Bedsy that showed up this season 🌶️ pic.twitter.com/CvdWs8ljJ6
— NHLonTNT (@NHL_On_TNT) October 16, 2025
Inside the Hawks’ locker room, two factors created extra motivation. The first was seeking revenge for last year’s embarrassing loss in the Winter Classic, which Frank Nazar said the Hawks will “think about it every time” they face the Blues moving forward.
The second was wanting to get a win for captain Nick Foligno, who has temporarily stepped away because his daughter is undergoing heart surgery.
“We talked a lot about it before the game,” Nazar said. “We’re obviously praying for him and his family and everything that’s going on. That one was for him.”
But there was no championship-like celebration after the game, only the typical post-win satisfaction. The Hawks’ perspective is that this marked just the beginning of their ascent this season, which is probably wise for a team that’s only 2-2-1 after five games — even if the moment felt seminal from the outside.
“Sometimes the other team doesn’t play to the level that they’re capable of,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “I don’t want to make more of it than it is. I think we took a step forward, and that’s what we’re trying to do, process-wise. We do have talented players, and I think that showed.”
Lukas Reichel scored twice in his return to the lineup, including a tip-in of an Alex Vlasic shot that gave the Hawks a 3-2 advantage early in the second period that they kept building upon.
Nazar buried a beautiful end-to-end goal less than two minutes later, then escaped an after-the-goal scrum to make sure he could celebrate in front of the hostile crowd. Jason Dickinson, Ryan Donato and Ryan Greene each later added their first goals of the season — in Greene’s case, the first of his career.
The Hawks have blown some big leads and lost some crazy games at Enterprise Center in recent seasons, but they didn’t let that pattern repeat. Nazar called it “a lot of fun.”