It’s not like the spotlight that will shine on Connor Bedard in Pittsburgh on Tuesday will be that much brighter than other spotlights he has experienced.
From Canada’s gold-medal game at the world juniors championships in Nova Scotia in January, to headlining the NHL draft in Nashville in June, to even appearing on The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN on Monday, spotlights have followed Bedard’s every move for a full year now. He’s accustomed to them.
So it’s not the external spotlight that will make Tuesday different than every other day in the 18-year-old Blackhawks rookie’s life to date. Instead, it’s the internal significance. Tuesday will mark the realization of his dream to play hockey, a sport he seems to genuinely love more than just about anyone else, at the highest possible level.
Bedard’s NHL debut will matter to a lot of people, but it will matter most of all to him.
“[Sunday] was a long day waiting for everything here,” Bedard said Monday. “I’m so excited. It’s hard to think about and realize it’s true, but it’s really exciting.”
As has been destined since this franchise won the lottery for the No. 1 pick back in May, Bedard will center the Hawks’ first line, flanked by former MVP and designed mentor Taylor Hall on his left and unheralded sniper Ryan Donato on his right.
On the other side — most likely taking the opening faceoff against him — will be his boyhood hero, Penguins star Sidney Crosby. Bedard innocently insisted all summer he wasn’t looking ahead at this quirk of the schedule, but as he finally admitted last week with a sheepish grin, he knew all along.
He also admitted that he never takes pregame naps, another thing that separates him from most of his peers — albeit perhaps not as consequential a difference as his world-class shot or his instinctual ability to find or create open space around the rink.
So he might have to endure another long afternoon of waiting around Tuesday before puck drop, which won’t happen right at its scheduled 7 p.m. CT time due to the Penguins’ home-opener player and coach introductions. As of now, he plans to use those final 15 minutes of pageantry — which, for once, won’t involve him — to try to squash all of his butterflies.
“It’s [about] taking the anthem, their player announcement and their warmups and having that be the ‘Oh my god’ moment,” he said. “Once the game starts, you focus on the game and not be starstruck as much. [But] that first bit is going to be pretty crazy.”
He’s certainly not thinking past Tuesday, but the fact is he’ll have to go through the same routine Wednesday in Boston, where the Bruins will hold their own home-opener festivities before hosting the Hawks in the first leg of TNT’s opening doubleheader.
Then he’ll go through the same routines in Montreal and Toronto, arguably hockey’s two biggest markets, on Canadian national TV. And then he’ll go through it one more time in Colorado to finally conclude the Hawks’ five-game season-opening road trip — the longest opening trip in team history.
Will five straight road games help Bedard settle quickly into a rhythm? Will adjusting to the constant travel of the NHL test his stamina? Or, considering how little every previous spotlight and challenge has affected him, will he be unfazed by it all?
The Hawks are eager to find out. Coach Luke Richardson is eager to find out. Even Bedard himself is probably eager to find out.
“He’s definitely a guy who just goes about his business and wants his play to tell the story,” Richardson said. “I’m sure we’ll see that. I’m looking forward to that.”
