The Sheet Blog: Making sense of Connor Bedard’s misconducts

NHL:

Tough weekend for Blackhawks’ Connor Bedard

I could understand the 10-minute misconduct for abuse of officials against Chicago Blackhawks’ Connor Bedard last Thursday against San Jose. It was most likely an accumulation of comments directed at Chris Rooney, who just hit a boiling point and said enough. I would make the argument that Rooney did the Hawks a favor by not putting the San Jose Sharks on the power play in a one-goal game, which may have ended the game right there, rather than choosing to go for the ten-minute penalty, so the game stayed 5-on-5, and the Hawks didn’t have to kill for two minutes.

But Saturday’s 10-minute misconduct baffles me. Bedard got pinned and punched behind the Vancouver net in a scrum and was left to wonder why he got chucked. The only thing I can think of: it’s a 6-2 game with two and a half minutes left to play, and instead of handing out minors where there’s a chance the players could come out of the box and renew hostilities, it’s safer just to throw 10s at them and get all four out of the game to be safe.

Getting back to barking at officials: Bedard is not the first, and he won’t be the last. Young superstars can get emotional and frustrated when losses pile up early in their career. I remember asking Sidney Crosby about it at the 2019 NHL Players Tour in Chicago for the 32 pod…

Jeff Marek: I always wonder, for guys who’ve been around like you have, is there something you look back at yourself as a rookie and laugh at the most about the way you were then and the difference between now?

Sidney Crosby: Probably the refs. I was so bad. I mean, I look back and I feel so bad and I think I had two ten-minute misconducts that year. Not to say that I don’t get fired up now because I’m pretty emotional and I get fired up, but it was just when I look back and I think of, I put myself in that headspace, the amount of pressure and the expectation that I felt that year, not just me personally. I think I was able to to get through that was just the team too. You know, we were supposed to win the Stanley Cup. We were a favorite going to that season, you know, we had all these big signings and, we lost our first nine games. I remember that was really hard for me knowing that like up to that point, I’ve been on winning teams growing up and we did what we were supposed to do, and that was the first time I really kind of felt that was like, oh, you know, what’s happening here? It’s the refs and stuff, I think that frustration kind of showed and, you know, I just looked back and then and think, you know, that’s just that was something that I wasn’t you know, it was immature and it’s just the way it happened, but it’s something I learned from it not to say that I don’t get fired up as I said, but, you know, if I could apologize to every ref back then, I would definitely do that.

Jeff Marek: Have you ever done that? Apologize to the refs?

Sidney Crosby: Oh, many times. many times. I mean, you get so caught up in the moment and heat the battle and they’re human too. I mean, they’re they’re trying to make the right calls and they don’t always see it and don’t get me wrong, or sometimes you’re just gonna’ disagree. It happens, you know, you don’t see it the same way that they did, or um that’s gonna’ happen, that’s part of it, I mean, to this day, there are times when, you know, I get uh a little too emotional or I say the wrong thing and I’ll be the first one to apologize because, you know what, we’re all trying to go out there and, in there way, they’re trying to be successful and in our way, we’re trying to win games.

Stop ignoring Canadiens’ Nick Suzuki

It’s such a delight watching Montreal Canadiens star Nick Suzuki thrive centering one of the best lines in the league with Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky. As one long-time hockey person texted me Saturday night after the Habs downed the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers: “A little 4 Nations snub is good for ya now and then, I think.”

Something notable about Suzuki is how he finishes seasons – strong. Last year, he put up 23 points in Montreal’s final 25 games, and post-Four Nations, he’s on a heater with 17 points in 10 games.

I’m not sure Team Canada will leave him off the Olympic roster next year…

It’s not all bad for the Sabres

We spent a lot of time this week on The Sheet going over the problems with the Buffalo Sabres (quick plug – our interview with Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News is a must-listen-to for Sabres fans), and by the end I was looking around for funeral curtains and organ music.

So let me throw in a positive note about the organization: the Rochester Americans are excellent. Rookie head coach Michael Leone has impressively turned this team into a top contender for the Calder Cup, all the while developing players like first-round picks Noah Ostlund and Isak Rosen. Ostlund is an excellent 200-foot player while Rosen sits top 10 in AHL scoring. It helps that Devon Levi has been outstanding, sporting a .915sv% and a record of 20-9-3.

Sticky Situation

An interesting moment in what was an excellent game between Dallas and Colorado Sunday. Cale Makar gets tripped by what the officials think is Mason Marchment’s stick, but it was actually Devon Toews’ stick that upset his partner.

Mason Marchment serving the tripping penalty for Devon Toews' stick 😬 pic.twitter.com/BWMH2XbhxB

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) March 16, 2025

Sheet listener/viewer/chatter Todd Williams DM’d me with an interesting idea – insist that stick manufacturers make sticks in each team’s colors so it’s easier for officials to identify calls like tripping, high sticking, etc., and not confuse whose stick is whose? I need to think about this more, but my initial thought is it sure would look cool.

CHL:

The NHL will meet with the CHL and other junior leagues at the GM meetings in Florida this week, and one thing we all wonder about is the potential drain of high-end American players into the CHL now that the hurdle from playing major junior and still being allowed to play Division 1 hockey has been cleared.

It will be interesting to see what the NHL suggests here, but one thing that has been whispered and wondered about is whether the NHL would encourage the CHL to consider U.S.-born players as imports. This would, of course, be complicated (to put it mildly) since the CHL does have US-based teams, and I doubt it happens. But the junior hockey barking chain has been in overdrive, speculating on what’s going to happen here. It does sound like the NHL has heard from all parties involved, will have further discussion and will lay out a vision for what they see working for all parties.

Rink Fries: Are the Pittsburgh Penguins really going to make a late-season push for the playoffs? They are six points out of a spot, and riding a four-game winning streak, but there are too many teams to jump over. Right? Give Crosby a challenge, man…happy to see the success New Jersey’s Cody Glass is doing with four points in four games with the Devils. Going back to his draft year, he’s been someone who’s easy to cheer for…speaking of ‘change of scenery surprises, ’ Mark Jankowski has three goals in four games with the Carolina Hurricanes. As we’ve seen so many times, it’s usually the small moves at the deadline…seeing hulking Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb drop like a stone after running into 6-foot-8 Wings forward Elmer Soderblom prompted this text from a coach: ‘Imagine when he gets mean.’

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