Tank for Bedard

[Buff]

Mario Lemieux had the same knock against him. He's big, slow, lazy and doesn't play defense. He was smart enough to know when he could be lazy because he played a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if Bedard has a bit of that same instinct in him too.

<cue people claiming I'm saying Bedard is as good as Lemieux>

[Jason14h]

Flames fans - worrying about 2 way games for 25 years with no real success !

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

Flames fans - worrying about 2 way games for 25 years with no real success !

Every cup champ has players that commit to the two way game...the Oilers are the only team that just allows players to float and be +4 for every 100 points...how has that worked out?

Bruins are doing pretty well right now, as are the Canes

[Buff]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Every cup champ has players that commit to the two way game...the Oilers are the only team that just allows players to float and be +4 for every 100 points...how has that worked out?

Bruins are doing pretty well right now, as are the Canes

Do you think whichever team drafts Bedard isn't going to push him to be good on both sides of the puck? Do you think they'll decide that he's so good that he can dictate to the team how he and the team will play? Don't tell me the Oilers are doing that. They're special and the league can see how well its turning out for the Oilers franchise success.

[Scooter]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

Wow. I get a kick out of that.

Well, having taken that picture, I can tell you that it was not the first, or even one of the first 10 times that he was the last guy coming back.

Flaming Homer described his game well…





Others corroborated.

I shared a picture of him behind the play which I took because it happened so often, it was comical. It’s not like it was happenstance to catch him at the far blue line when the play was in his end. It was all night. Per the quote above

Be ‘fair to him’ all you want, I suppose. I honestly am curious why.

It’s kind of funny that you’re trying to find something in the photo where he is clearly last guy back and clearly not striding (like FlamingHomer described). Even if the opposing D did decide to change, he’s still the C… and believe me, they got to the zone before he did.

What we saw firsthand is what happened. Guy played a dog #### defensive game

I says he’s talented enough that he can get away with it.

Great hands, great talent. But a hilarious lack of interest in the backcheck

Kinda reminds me of Jerome in his own end of the rink but lookout when the puck was going the other way!

[Derek Sutton]

All these posters knocking him for not back checking hard af when he is playing 28 minutes a game. If Regina had the luxury, depth, to play him 18 minutes we would be much more impressed with his "two way game", like when we all watched in at the WJC. Sadly they (Pats) suck, have some injuries and are relying on him to score them into the playoffs.

On a side note, he is selling out every WHL arena in Alberta on this road trip. Here in Lethbridge, people are paying over $90 on stub hub for seats to tonights game. Red Deer, and Med Hat are all sell outs for his games.

[jatylo]

Originally Posted by Groot

Was also at the game last night. Bedard is obviously a special talent. But his lack.of defense at times was highly noticeable.

There were 3 kids probably around 10 behind me from the same hockey team, obviously massive Bedard fans as they gushed over everything he did. I asked them who their favorite teams were, one Oil one Flames one Nucks. I asked if the Nucks got Bedard would the other two cheer for them and they said no but they will cheer for Bedard. By the 3rd period, one of them said to the other two "Bedard really doesn't like to play defense sometimes, does he?"

It was definitely noticeable at the game. He is still gonna be something special and I imagine it will be easily worked on as he progresses.

Originally Posted by Derek Sutton

All these posters knocking him for not back checking hard af when he is playing 28 minutes a game. If Regina had the luxury, depth, to play him 18 minutes we would be much more impressed with his "two way game", like when we all watched in at the WJC. Sadly they (Pats) suck, have some injuries and are relying on him to score them into the playoffs.

On a side note, he is selling out every WHL arena in Alberta on this road trip. Here in Lethbridge, people are paying over $90 on stub hub for seats to tonights game. Red Deer, and Med Hat are all sell outs for his games.

That was one thing that I didn't account for during my original post. I could easily see him playing 30+ minutes, plus the ~4 minutes of keep away hockey in OT. I don't know the rules too well, but it would have been great for his development to be traded to a contender. I was just expecting to see his World Junior performance when he dominated against each countries best.

I mean he scored one of the toughest angle goals, assist and shootout winner while playing to half of his potential. The guy will still be something special and it will get ironed out in the NHL

[habernac]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

I think Regina missed an opportunity by not trading the kid to a contender. They could have collected a windfall.

He didn't want to be traded. You can't trade junior players unless they agree to it. He told them early he wasn't going anywhere.

[Scooter]

Originally Posted by habernac

He didn't want to be traded. You can't trade junior players unless they agree to it. He told them early he wasn't going anywhere.

Rumour is the team owner did not want to trade Bedard as he increased all the prices for home game tickets for the season. This has pissed off the Regina fans and will probably come back to haunt this owner next year. Also the ticket here in Calgary was $30 on Wed. and an adult ticket for previous gms. was $25. Premium pricing like the NHL, NFL, MLB I guess when a top team or player is visiting.

[CroFlames]

Guys even defensive players in junior hockey need to work on their defensive game when they turn pro.

Offensive junior players basically need to learn how to play defense from scratch.

[Scooter]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Guys even defensive players in junior hockey need to work on their defensive game when they turn pro.

Offensive junior players basically need to learn how to play defense from scratch.

Steve Yzerman is the best example of that. The one player who came as a complete package out of junior was Sid Crosby. Athletic did a good article today on Crosby both as a person on and off the ice.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Derek Sutton

All these posters knocking him for not back checking hard af when he is playing 28 minutes a game. If Regina had the luxury, depth, to play him 18 minutes we would be much more impressed with his "two way game", like when we all watched in at the WJC. Sadly they (Pats) suck, have some injuries and are relying on him to score them into the playoffs.

On a side note, he is selling out every WHL arena in Alberta on this road trip. Here in Lethbridge, people are paying over $90 on stub hub for seats to tonights game. Red Deer, and Med Hat are all sell outs for his games.

I got curious and looked. Overflow is selling for $108 each and section M, row one is selling for $260 each.

Tempted to put mine up for $1000 each and see what happens! Not really. I'm going. By the way, I'm bad luck. I'm going just to see Connor Bedard and he'll get hurt less than 30 seconds in and the scoring streak comes to an end.

[manwiches]

Originally Posted by Scooter

Rumour is the team owner did not want to trade Bedard as he increased all the prices for home game tickets for the season. This has pissed off the Regina fans and will probably come back to haunt this owner next year. Also the ticket here in Calgary was $30 on Wed. and an adult ticket for previous gms. was $25. Premium pricing like the NHL, NFL, MLB I guess when a top team or player is visiting.

This. I know this first hand. Tickets prior to Bedard? $10. Now? $30-40. AND... they jacked up the price at the concessions. The Pats also do not get any money from concession sales. Also, jerseys are just as expensive as NHL ones. lol. So Brandt and the Pats have taken advantage of the cash cow Bedard is bringing with bums in seats and jersey sales. But I'm willing to bet it will affect them long term. I used to go to 10-15 games a year here, and watch the rest of TV. This year I've only gone to 2, and leading into the WJC, the Brandt Centre was lucky to even have 2000-25000 people in it.

I for one will not be going to as many games, as it's too expensive for a family of 4. Still moreso than i ever did in Calgary, but it's sad. They could just lower the cost of the tickets to even $20, and you could have filled the arena for the first 50% of the season. They're lucky now, but when Bedard is gone, it won't sell out.

When tickets were $10-15 years ago when Sam Steel was here, the Brandt Center almost always had 3500+ there.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Scooter

Steve Yzerman is the best example of that. The one player who came as a complete package out of junior was Sid Crosby. Athletic did a good article today on Crosby both as a person on and off the ice.

Sid was close, but recall that he was also a big whiny bitch early on. He was defensively responsible when he came into the league, but he sure wasn't the 2-way beast he turned into after a few years of pro and pro coaching.

[OutOfTheCube]

Originally Posted by Derek Sutton

All these posters knocking him for not back checking hard af when he is playing 28 minutes a game. If Regina had the luxury, depth, to play him 18 minutes we would be much more impressed with his "two way game", like when we all watched in at the WJC. Sadly they (Pats) suck, have some injuries and are relying on him to score them into the playoffs.

On a side note, he is selling out every WHL arena in Alberta on this road trip. Here in Lethbridge, people are paying over $90 on stub hub for seats to tonights game. Red Deer, and Med Hat are all sell outs for his games.

There would be a different story being told if the Flames were in the bottom five of the standings right now looking at a chance to draft him. They aren't and won't be, and looking like some Western conference tema will be, so the downplaying has already begun.

[jatylo]

Nobody is saying he needs to win the Selke every year, just fundamental hockey that you learn in Peewee. If you're center you have to atleast skate back to clog up passing lanes and cover the open forward.

I'm assuming the floating/coasting was due to him playing 30+ minutes every night with limited offensive support. With everything else about him being elite, it just a small thing that needs improvement. Almost every fan base and scout has said something similar "Bedard is not very active when it comes to the defensive side of the game. In many of my viewings I see a lot of coasting, and really no hurry to track back into the play in his own end" -eliteprospects

[cral12]

Originally Posted by Ullr

I was at the game last night as well - people on this forum who say he was coasting need to get their eyes checked.

I suspect Bedard plays close to 30 minutes every game (WHL doesn't seem to track TOI stats) and his "coasting" is impressive to say the least. I've never seen a player (outside of Makar and McDavid) who is able to glide effortlessly end-to-end and still manage to make an impact every shift.

Bedard was essentially double-teamed all night and he still managed to drag the Regina Pats to a win.

This, all of this!

His exceptional shot release alone I think will make him super successful in the NHL. The IQ, stick handling, deft passing, skating edgework are standout as well.

[PepsiFree]

Should be a fun 20 years of people offering light criticism of a single viewing of Bedard and multiple people jumping in to say how dare they question the phenom.

“Looked a little lazy on that play.”

“BUT HE WILL SCORE 1000 GOALS! WHO ARE YOU TO CALL HIM A BUST??”

Fun.

[DeluxeMoustache]

Yeah. It was a light observation of his total lack of interest in the defensive game on a first hand viewing, and how it would match up with that of the teams that are deliberately tanking for him

I found that thought mildly amusing

[bdubbs]

He may have had an off night defensively for sure, but it's hard to argue that the tools are all there if he wants to use them.