After an encouraging start to the 2025-26 NHL season, the Chicago Blackhawks have now lost three games in a row. Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar can sense the pressure on their shoulders, as they are the focal points on Jeff Blashill’s system. On that note, the head coach sent them a firm reminder.
The Blackhawks six-game road trip in the NHL is off to a terrible start. With three straight losses, Bedard and company must turn the tide before spiraling out of control. Blashill is well aware of the spotlight fixed upon the young stars in Chicago, and he made a clear statement addressing it.
“There’s a lot of burden on [Nazar’s] shoulders for a guy that hasn’t played a lot. For us to expect him to be on top of his game every single night is probably not realistic. It’s the same with a lot of our guys: there’s going to be ups and downs. We’ve just got to collectively make sure we have more ups than downs,” Blashill admitted postgame, via Ben Pope on X.
“I thought tonight, it was too spread throughout the team. I just think we have better in us as a group as a whole. We didn’t have enough guys who had their A-game.” Still, Blashill admitted he couldn’t think of one night Bedard didn’t have his A-game.
Leading by example
Though in the midst of a tough stretch in the NHL season, Bedard is doing everything in his power to keep the Hawks afloat. The former first overall pick is currently riding a five-game point streak, tallying 9 points (4 goals and 5 assists) over that span. During the 3-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken, Bedard extended his streak by assisting Andre Burakovsky’s lone goal. As head coach Jeff Blashill admitted, the 20-year-old phenom is responding exactly as he hoped.
“The thing I’d say about Connor is his compete every single day is outstanding,” Blashill said per NHL.com. “I asked him at the beginning of the year, as one of the better players on the team, to be a great leader in terms of playing winning hockey, and he’s done that consistently.”
Not always pretty
Bedard and Nazar lead the way for Chicago with their electric playstyle. When the two youngsters in The Second City are firing on all cylinders, they deliver highlight-reel moments all night long. However, the NHL is too demanding an environment for these young bucks to dominate night in and night out.
“[When] both teams are clogging that up, it makes it hard,” Blashill concluded, via Chicago Sun-Times. “Games are hard, man. It’s not going to be a lot of free-flowing [hockey]. You’ve got to really earn your offense. Sometimes you need some ugly ones, and we just didn’t get quite enough pucks through.”
More often than not, it takes an all-out effort and some grinding rather than dangling and playing hero hockey. Blashill noted that the team must be able to adapt to what the game calls for—it may not be as flashy, but it’s effective. Right now, Chicago needs efficiency more than beauty on the ice.