ST. LOUIS — Connor Bedard had done many impressive things in his first 32 games for the Blackhawks.
But aside from perhaps his first NHL goal — the wraparound in Boston — he hadn’t yet produced his first signature highlight, the kind that will be included in highlight reels for years to come.
On Saturday against the Blues — before the Hawks melted down late in a crushing 7-5 loss — the rookie forward finally checked that box in the most dramatic fashion imaginable.
On just his second shift of the night, finding himself alone behind the Blues’ net with no pressure, Bedard cradled the puck on his stick, reached around and pulled off a lacrosse goal — the so-called “Michigan” — by tucking it over Blues goalie Jordan Binnington’s shoulder. In doing so, he set the internet aflame.
It marked his 13th goal of the season, and while the first 12 included some pretty shots and skilled techniques, none compared to this one. The Michigan has been successfully done only a handful of times since Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov first pulled it off in 2019 (although Ducks forward Trevor Zegras promptly did it himself later Saturday).
A third-period collapse by the Hawks’ defense took much of the joy out of Bedard’s moment, though.
After Nick Foligno scored the Hawks’ first shorthanded goal of the season to give them a brief 5-2 lead, the Blues poured in three goals in four-minute span to tie the game. Justin Faulk then tallied the game-winner with 2:07 left after an inexcusable whiff by struggling Hawks goalie Arvid Soderblom.
Johnson injured
Hawks forward Tyler Johnson looked gimpy in the third period Friday against the Canadiens. Despite finishing that game, he did not travel with the team to St. Louis. He’s the latest Hawk to get injured in a December full of them.
Cole Guttman took his spot in the lineup against the Blues, although the forward lines were all jumbled around.
Hungry Entwistle
In addition to the injuries, Hawks endured a small wave of illnesses lately, with Ryan Donato, MacKenzie Entwistle and Philipp Kurashev each coming down sick at different points in the past couple weeks.
Entwistle might have been hit the hardest, missing two games and losing 10 pounds as a result of his illness. But he has been eating ravenously to replenish the weight on his 6-3 frame.
“You could have worse things in life than [getting to] eat and drink all the time,” he joked.
Few trades, few re-signings
The fact the Hawks don’t anticipate trading many of their pending free agents doesn’t mean they plan to re-sign most or all of them instead.
They will have to be selective about which guys they bring back. After all, the majority of the entire roster is on expiring contracts, even though more than half of the pending free agents will be restricted rather than unrestricted.
“You don’t want to — if you’re looking to bring people back — necessarily go out and re-sign everyone,” general manager Kyle Davidson said. “That makes things a little tougher later on. Not that you’re regretting anything, but you want to allow some of the younger players to develop, as well, and you don’t want to close off anything to them.”
Because they have so few preexisting contracts, they’ll need to spend tens of millions of dollars next summer just to reach the 2024-25 salary-cap floor. As a result, Davidson will have a nearly blank canvas upon which to reshape the roster.
“The one thing we’ve found in this league is it’s a lot easier to spend money than it is to get rid of money,” he said. “It’s [about] finding the right people to spend money on, whether internally or externally.”