On the night of Jan. 5, after Brendan Smith’s hit knocked him out of the Blackhawks-Devils game, Hawks rookie star Connor Bedard was thinking only about Zdeno Chara.
The legendary Bruins defenseman played through a broken jaw against the Blues in the 2019 playoffs. Why couldn’t he do the same?
“My face was numb and my bite was off, which was the only thing,” Bedard said Thursday. “They told me it was broken, I guess. I just thought of Chara going back in the bubble [mask], so I didn’t think too much of it. But, obviously, it’s not Game 7 of the Cup Final. You’ve got to wait and let it heal. It sucked.”
Hawks de facto captain Nick Foligno, who found himself in a similar boat that night after breaking his finger fighting Smith, could only laugh at Bedard’s initial belief that a fractured jaw wouldn’t pose a long-term problem.
“I think he was a little confused,” Foligno said. “Then, once he saw the pictures, he realized the difference.
“But give him tons of credit: He worked his butt off to get back. Every day, he was in here — too long, some days, for the trainers’ liking. But that’s how badly he wants it. He wants to be the best, and no setback is going to curb his ability to get better in certain facets. I was proud of him for that. He was really mature in how he handled a significant injury, especially early in his career.”
Over the last six weeks, Bedard indeed pushed the envelope every day to try to progress and return as soon as possible. He underwent surgery Jan. 8, started skating again Jan. 15, began participating in non-contact practice drills Feb. 6 and essentially leapfrogged the contact-drills step (aside from taking some checks from coach Luke Richardson on Thursday morning) to return to action Thursday night against the Penguins, nearly a week ahead of schedule.
After a somewhat timid, quiet first period, he found his usual mojo in the second and third periods, finishing with one assist and four shots on goal over 21 minutes of ice time in a 4-1 Hawks loss.
“It’s a positive thing because I’ve been skating for four weeks now,” Bedard said. “I felt confident coming in because of that. But also, [when] you kind of feel normal and you’re on the sidelines, that sucks. But I was fortunate to be able to skate and work out the whole time.”
Early on, his face was “a little chubby,” he said, but his jaw never hurt too much. One of his parents has consistently kept him company this season — they’ve taken turns living with him in Chicago — and his mom helped him at first with the necessary diet of smoothies, soups and other foods that didn’t require chewing. After a few weeks, he graduated to a more normal diet as his jaw and mouth functionality returned.
Over and over in his head, he kept running through his innocuous entry into the offensive zone that led up to Smith’s hit, wishing the outcome had been different.
“It was a normal play,” he said. “[I was] making an entry and the puck kind of bounced and went forward. I saw him, but I thought I’d finish the play and kick it out. [It] wasn’t really a hard hit — it was clean. It just got me in a spot where it happened to break my jaw. Maybe [I should have decided to] bail out on the play, but in the moment, you just want to make the play. [It’s] unfortunate that was the result.”
During the recovery process, Bedard spent a lot of time with fellow Hawks forward Anthony Beauvillier, who was simultaneously rehabbing a broken wrist suffered Jan. 2. They skated together, worked out together and commiserated together. The veteran could sense how much it was bothering the rookie not to be playing.
“When you’re hurt, everybody is impatient, but he was eager to come back,” Beauvillier said. “I’m glad it’s past him now.”
Beauvillier participated fully in practice Friday and said he hopes to return next Monday or Wednesday against the Hurricanes or Flyers. For a while, the Flyers game appeared to be Bedard’s most likely return date, too. He beat that estimate by a mile. But he admitted Thursday his personal target return date was even earlier. During All-Star weekend in Toronto earlier this month, he told a Sportsnet panel he wished he was already playing then.
The recovery process and excruciating wait are behind him now, though. Bedard can solely focus on reestablishing his rhythm, developing further as a player and wrapping up the Calder Trophy race over the final two months. He currently leads Wild defenseman Brock Faber by one point on the rookie scoring leaderboard.
Bedard will be required to wear a bubble mask that protects his entire face — the same equipment Chara wore in 2019 — for some time. But he noted he has “played pretty well in a bubble” in the past, referencing his domination of the 2023 World Junior Championship, where the mask was required. It shouldn’t be a problem.
“You could see he got more comfortable as [Thursday’s] game went on,” Foligno said. “He was getting used to the speed we’ve been playing at, too. You can never mimic game speed. But then, once you start to see him get going and feel it, he remembers the plays he can make and what he does out there.
“We go as he goes a lot of nights. If anything, he’s more comfortable and understanding of who he is in the NHL right now. He’s still learning that, but he’s realizing he’s a pretty darn good player, especially when he plays that 200-foot game he’s capable of playing and understands the value of playing [well] in the ‘D’-zone to allow himself to play in the offensive zone all night. When he does that, he’s as good as anyone else in the league.”
