Bedard studies Panthers before Blackhawks face champions in season opener

CHICAGO -- Jeff Blashill was still settling into his job as Chicago Blackhawks coach when he called Connor Bedard and gave him some offseason homework.

Check out the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final. Watch. Learn.

“I think the biggest thing he mentioned was just how they swarm pucks,” said Bedard, the No. 1 pick by the Blackhawks in the 2023 NHL Draft. “You’ve seen in our camp, a lot of skating, a lot of getting on the guys, playing with speed, playing hard and Florida’s kind of the epitome of that, I’d say.

“You don’t need to have the No. 1 lineup in the League to work hard, and I think that’s just the biggest thing, is hounding pucks and getting on guys.”

Bedard, who’s entering his third NHL season, would like to mimic the Panthers in another way: winning the Stanley Cup. He’ll get an up-close reminder of what it takes to get there when Chicago visits the back-to-back champs to open the season at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Tuesday (5 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN1, TVAS).

The Panthers have been to the Stanley Cup Final three straight seasons and won the first Cup championship in their history in 2024, but it wasn’t that long ago when they struggled. They were last in the NHL in 2012-13 and next to last the following season. Now they’ve made the Stanley Cup Playoffs six straight seasons.

Chicago is going through similar struggles now. The Blackhawks won the Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015 but have finished 31st of 32 the past two seasons and failed to qualify for the playoffs the past five.

They’re determined to get back to the glory days.

“Those guys were our age at one point and the worst team in the League for a while,” Bedard said. “So, they were looking at whatever, Pittsburgh (Penguins), Chicago, the teams that were good at the time and trying to reach that, and eventually they did. Everyone starts in that spot, and I’m pretty confident that we’re going to get there.”

Bedard led Chicago in scoring in each of his first two seasons. The 20-year-old had 61 points (22 goals, 39 assists) in 68 games in 2023-24 when he was voted the Calder Trophy winner as the NHL rookie of the year. He then had 67 points (23 goals, 44 assists) in 82 games last season.

For Blashill, who saw Florida plenty as an assistant for the Tampa Bay Lightning from 2022-25, telling Bedard to watch the Panthers was a way to connect with his star player soon after being hired as coach in May instead of waiting until September.

“What are those things? Florida does a really good job of tracking back and reloading hard, and they don’t wait for offense and hope the [defense] turns the puck over,” Blashill said. “They’re a five-man connected unit and those are things we want to be. Those are things that I value.

“I thought it was a good start for us to just kind of talk about some of those things hockey-wise and make sure he knew coming in. I didn’t want to come in on Day 1 and start yelling at him, ‘Hey you have to do this better.’ I wanted to explain to him what we’re talking about. He has good insight, he watched and totally agreed, and he understands what I was talking about.”

Bedard zeroed in on a few aspects of Florida’s play. He focused on now-injured center Aleksander Barkov’s game for positioning because “I feel he’s never out of position.” Bedard was also impressed with how connected the Panthers were.

“I think you hear it so much -- like you only have the puck on your stick for, in a good game it’s a minute,” Bedard said. “So, you have however many minutes you’re not playing [with the puck] and to be in the right spots, to go get it or make a play defensively, offensively. That’s something that I can improve on, and you see the best teams do.”

Blashill has plenty of experience helping young players develop their game. Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin, whom Blashill coached while with the Red Wings from 2015-22, is one of them. After Larkin signed his entry-level contract with Detroit on May 21, 2015, he got a call from Blashill, then coach of Grand Rapids, the Red Wings’ American Hockey League affiliate, to join its playoff run.

“Talking to him at the end of that playoff series, he told me to go work out with a couple of [the Red Wings’] leaders on our team and go to a gym in Detroit, and I did it and that benefitted me,” Larkin said of Blashill. “There were times I didn’t like what he was saying, but looking back now they were important lessons and valuable experience for me.”

Larkin scored 23 goals in 2015-16, becoming the sixth rookie to lead the Red Wings in goals in a season. In 2017-18 at age 22, he became the fifth-youngest player in their history to lead them in scoring when he had 63 points (16 goals, 47 assists) in 82 games. He said Bedard will benefit from Blashill’s lessons.

“He’s a special player and he’s got high-end skill,” Larkin said. “I know ‘Blashy.’ He’s going to coach him and demand things out of him, and it’s up to him to take it however he wants. Hopefully it’s positive for the team because every guy in that locker room looks to him, whether he likes it or not.

“As a young player, it’s a lot to handle, but he’s been like that his whole life. I didn’t know Blash did that (had Bedard study the Panthers), but the way Florida plays is the gold standard right now, and that’s pretty cool that he did that.”

Blashill is going to demand a lot from Bedard and the Blackhawks’ young lineup. It’s going to be tough, but Bedard knows that’s what it will take to get to the top of the League again.

“He’s very direct with everyone,” Bedard said. “You know what he wants, you know what he’s looking for. Communication’s the easiest thing a coach can do with a player. You ask anyone, it’s all positive and we’ve all loved how hard we’ve gone in this camp, and we feel it’s going to benefit us.”