What Connor Bedard did over the summer to become more dangerous
Chicago Blackhawks star Connor Bedard is already one of the NHL’s most dangerous players – but he wants to be even more lethal, with an without the puck.
On an episode of Frankly Speaking with Daily Faceoff insider Frank Seravalli, Bedard discussed what he worked on over the summer, and what he still wants to improve at:
Frank Seravalli: “One thing you mentioned in terms of a goal this summer was speed. Do you work on that on the ice or off the ice or both?”
Connor Bedard: “A little bit of both. More so off the ice, just in the gym. It’s a big thing. And then I do a little power skating here and there that I feel like helps. But I think the main thing is in the gym, and you have your program that you’re focusing on.”
Frank Seravalli: “Was there one facet of your game last year that you were disappointed in?”
Connor Bedard: “Yeah, I think probably defensively I was struggling, and with faceoffs. My faceoffs were pretty bad, so those are a few things that, if I want to be the top guy on a winning team, you got to do those things. I feel like to start the year I feel a lot better in that. My faceoffs are still not great, but I played six games. Probably three of those games felt really good. A couple of them haven’t felt great, but just finding that consistency.”
Frank Seravalli: “Is there someone that you look to for face-offs that you think is the gold standard?”
Connor Bedard: “I feel like it’s kind of cool how different everyone is in draws, but there’s little things you do and you watch what guys do and try to steal some stuff.”
Frank Seravalli: “When you head into this year and you think about… we were just talking about face-offs and some other things that people try and improve on and find things in their game. Did you come into camp, were you in different shape this year? Just one little thing that I noticed so far, it seems like your shift lengths are actually a little bit longer. Do you feel like you have more in the tank? Does that make any sense when I say that?”
Connor Bedard: “Yeah, I did a lot of conditioning actually. Stuff did a little more biking and stuff like that. A lot for the third periods and stuff just so you’re still feeling fresh. Probably more than I’ve ever done actually in that way. I feel like that helped me a bit. But it’s not crazy if I don’t want my shift lengths to be that much longer. I don’t think that’s a good thing, but if I still feel good at a minute, I think that says something to the training, but you want to get off for sure.”
You can watch the full episode below: