Connor Bedard ignites Blackhawks’ offense in win over Penguins

The Blackhawks looked like an entirely different team Tuesday with Connor Bedard back in the lineup.

Bedard transformed the top power-play unit and top forward line, and the second line also delivered its best performance of the young season at the right time, helping the Hawks beat the Penguins 5-3.

The 21-year-old captain officially returned almost a full month earlier than the date range initially suggested after his left shoulder surgery.

He proved right away that he felt confident in his shoulder strength, bumping Penguins forward Connor Dewar with it on his first shift.

“I remember last year when I came back, I got blown up my first shift,” Bedard said, laughing. “I’m happy it wasn’t that. I’m happy I got to rub a guy out. He probably didn’t feel it, but it felt good.”

After that brief foray into physicality, Bedard turned his attention toward his real expertise: creating offense.

He earned his first point of the season by setting up Roman Kantserov late in the first period, delicately touching a pass into the bumper that Kantserov hammered home to ignite the power play.

Bedard finished the night with that assist, three shots on goal and a 6-of-14 faceoff line in over 21 minutes of ice time. He was also on the ice for another Kantserov goal in the second period, which Patrick Kane and Artyom Levshunov orchestrated.

Any concerns about that line’s lack of size — Bedard, Kantserov and Kane collectively top out at 5-foot-10 — were alleviated by their effectiveness.

“Connor creates separation a lot, so he creates space,” Blashill said. “Then when the other two earn space, they’re really good players. So it’s just a good combo.

“The other thing I’d say is, Roman is very happy going to the net. So you still have a guy who will go to the net on the line, because sometimes those kind of lines get too spread out.”

Anton Frondell’s trio with Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen scored the other three goals, including the game-winner with 4:18 left when Teravainen threw an innocent-looking puck toward the net.

Pucks on net

Blashill would like to see the shoot-first mentality that led to Teravainen’s winning goal rub off on others. Over-passing led to the Hawks recording only 20 shots on goal despite their seriously increased offensive firepower.

“We had opportunities when we could really strike and attack, and we didn’t shoot,” Blashill said.

That’s something gritty forward Jordan Greenway, who surprisingly led the team with 13 shots on goal entering Tuesday, also talked about recently.

“A lot of times…teams possess the puck a lot on the outside,” Greenway said. “It looks cool: ‘Oh, you’ve got the puck!’ But everyone should try to have more of a focus to get to the inside and get pucks to the net. It’s not always going to be pretty.”

Byram’s perspective

Defenseman Bowen Byram finally earned his first Hawks assist Tuesday and later got bailed out for an untimely slashing penalty.

Untimely things have been happening often to Byram — including several broken sticks in the last couple games — but his two baby girls at home are preventing him from getting too frustrated.

“It’ll help me on bad days, [when] you’re leaving the rink and you’re maybe a little down on yourself, [if] things aren’t going well — like they have been,” Byram said recently.

“Some things are better than hockey and work, and it’s nice to have those things to pull you away a little bit from stress and the every-day demand to perform.”

Line blender

Blashill on Monday gave an interesting explanation of his approach to creating forward lines. For the plethora of Hawks fans upset about how often he has changed the lines so far this season, it’s worth reading.

“Listen, would I like to be in the position…Vegas and Carolina are where you have 100% established lines, they don’t move them around a whole bunch and they know that those lines click? Yes, I would love to get there,” Blashill said.

“We just haven’t gotten there. Three things make that hard: injuries/suspensions, new players…and young players that you don’t know what they are yet.

“I have to ride that balance of trying to get lines that make sense to us, trying to stay with them for chemistry purposes, but also be willing to change if you have to — to find that right balance for your team — without it being a blender. We’ll see where that goes.”