The Chicago Blackhawks’ Connor Bedard warms up before a game against the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Oct. 14. Bedard had an outstanding pre-season and has a point in each regular-season outing so far.Eric Bolte/USA TODAY Sports
Fans jockeyed for position at the Ford Performance Centre as they tried to peek through a window at the sheet of ice where Connor Bedard skated on Sunday. His Chicago teammates were there, too, but no necks were being craned to see Boris Katchouk or Taylor Raddysh.
The 18-year-old has played all of three NHL games but has already achieved the status reserved for the sport’s biggest stars such as Sidney Crosby and that other Connor fellow out in Edmonton. You really know you’ve made it when the opposing team’s fans boo every time you touch the puck, as happened to Bedard in Montreal on Saturday.
“I thought it was great,” Bedard said after he completed preparations for Monday’s game against the Maple Leafs at their practice facility in west-end Toronto. “You never know what you are going to get. It was a lot of fun for me.”
Bedard has a shiny teenaged face and a Canadian boy’s charm and is embracing the spotlight placed on him as the game’s next can’t-miss prospect. He was the first player chosen in the summer draft, had an outstanding pre-season and has a point in each regular-season outing so far – assist, goal, assist – after a celebrated junior career.
He is certainly the face of a franchise that hopes for better days, which is a lot to throw on a fellow young enough to be your daughter’s date to the senior prom. He has now been interviewed before, after and during games and hasn’t missed a beat.
At practice on Sunday, he was the last player off the ice.
“It is very impressive to see how he handles everything,” said Ryan Donato, Chicago’s 27-year-old centre. “The attention he is getting is unlike anything I have ever seen.”
The Blackhawks are 1-2 as they enter the engagement in Toronto against an Original Six rival that is unbeaten after two games.
“I am looking forward to it,” Bedard said. “There are guys here that I have watched and idolized for a long time. I am very excited. I am living out a dream.”
Bedard is fulfilling a promise that was recognized in his youth in North Vancouver. As a 15-year-old, he was given special permission to play for the Regina Pats in the WHL. In his third season with them, he had 71 goals and 72 assists in 57 games.
The past two years, he helped Canada win consecutive world junior championships.
Sheldon Keefe, the Maple Leafs coach, said he did not know much about Bedard before he came into the league.
“The hype, which is well deserved, was largely focused on his shot and ability to score but I’d say his game is far more dynamic than I thought at first impression,” Keefe said. “He makes a lot of plays and drives offence despite being inexperienced.
“Clearly there is a lot there for us to be focused on and concerned about going into the game.”
Taylor Hall was selected first overall by the Oilers in 2010 and was on the team when Connor McDavid made his much-ballyhooed debut in 2015.
“There are a lot more eyes on him than when I came into the league,” said Hall, a left wing for Chicago. “When I look back, Edmonton is crazy for hockey but not on the same scale as Chicago.
“But Connor understands his role and his place and is handling it so well.”
Bedard is nearly still a kid himself but he recognized how many fans – mostly teens – showed up on Sunday in hope of getting a glimpse of him.
“I remember being a kid and the guys that I idolized,” Bedard said. “I am really lucky to be in the position that I am to have an impact on kids and I don’t take that very lightly.”
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
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