It may have taken over a month, but Connor Bedard officially announced himself on Thursday night, becoming the third youngest player to record a four-point game in an impressive 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena.
Bedard was buzzing from start to finish, scoring two goals and adding as many assists to help his team improve to 5-7 on the campaign.
“I felt like there were games when I could have created more than this and I had zero points,” the budding superstar admitted afterwards, according to NHL.com's Corey Long. “You never know. I think it’s just kind of sticking with it. That’s how things go sometimes. It feels good to get on the score sheet.”
The former No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft is up to seven goals and 11 points in 12 games after the heroic effort. He had four points before the game was 23 minutes old.
And Connor Bedard earned high praise from his head coach afterwards.
“He’s new to the league, he's been here for a dozen games. He’s starting to really figure it out, use his skills to the best of his ability. It paid off for him, and for us, tonight,” said Luke Richardson.
“He created the whole first goal. He was hard on the defenseman, and he has a good stick, good stick skills. He’s not in there slashing; he’s lifting sticks and disrupting things. Good things happen when you play hard in the right way.”
It had been eight losses in a row for the Hawks against the Lightning, but that streak is broken after the hard-fought road win.
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