MILWAUKEE — It required a strange combination of Connor Bedard playing with an otherwise largely minor-league roster, but the Blackhawks avoided finishing winless in the preseason.
Bedard terrorized Blues goalie prospect Vadim Zherenko shift after shift Saturday at Fiserv Forum, home of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, as the Hawks cruised to a 6-2 victory.
“We were pretty frustrated with how preseason has gone so far,” Bedard said. “No matter what it is, losing isn’t fun. We wanted to end it off on a good note and try to do the right things as much as we could. We could see the success when we did that.”
The Hawks finished the preseason at 1-4-1, and although that looks better than their 0-4-1 mark after Friday, it was still a concerning tune-up period, considering how poorly many of their NHL veterans played.
Aside from Bedard, after all, most of the standouts against St. Louis were young guys who will start the reason in Rockford — including forward Frank Nazar, who finally produced the dominant performance he needed to push for an NHL roster spot, albeit too late.
The Hawks have framed their preseason struggles as preferable to regular-season problems because they can at least learn from these mistakes before accumulating any real losses in the standings. On Tuesday in Utah, however, they’ll have to prove they won’t struggle just as much in the regular season.
Wooing Wisconsin
The Hawks’ preseason game in Milwaukee two years ago — the first NHL game in Wisconsin since 1993 — was a momentous occasion for the local hockey community.
This year’s visit didn’t have the same novelty factor, but the Hawks’ investment in the state has nonetheless made an impact. The team said there has been a 66% increase in the number of Hawks fans in Milwaukee since 2022, according to YouGov data.
For this year’s game, 60% of the tickets were purchased by Wisconsin residents — a sizable amount, although less than in 2022, when the number was 81%.
Load management
All summer, forward Taylor Hall felt confident that his repaired ACL wouldn’t cause him problems. So far, he has been correct.
He still will be on a slight load-management plan, however, to make sure it doesn’t start causing problems. Hall won’t be on the ice for more than four consecutive days, which could lead to some missed practices for maintenance purposes. Coach Luke Richardson is on board with that.
“I look around at other sports, and anyone coming back from an ACL injury has a little bit of load management, whether it’s a pitch count or whatever,” Hall said.
“Luke, I’m really thankful he puts a lot of trust in me. He basically said, ‘If there’s any time you feel like you need a rest day, [take it].’ I have a rule that if I’m on the ice any more than four days in a row, it’s time to cool it off. . . . Knowing that at my age, injury rates go up when guys are tired and overworked, it’s important to keep that in mind.”
No popcorn
Forward Joey Anderson’s roster spot likely was secured by Nazar’s assignment to Rockford to start the season. Considering he allowed the fewest scoring chances per minute of any Hawk last season (despite regularly facing top lines), it would’ve been unjust and unwise to cut him this fall.
Anderson, 26, cleaned up his diet this summer at home in Minnesota.
“I just don’t eat as much as I used to,” he said. “I eat a lot of eggs, which has been my staple lately. If I need a snack, I’ll make an egg sandwich or cook up something like that, instead of having chocolate chips or popcorn or whatever. [I wanted to] transition my snacks.”