The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Calgary Flames 5-2 on Tuesday thanks to Connor Bedard's second hat trick. As the former first-overall pick continues to thrive offensively, he has been given a new role. Bedard was an alternate captain for the first time on Tuesday, and made a definitive statement about a dirty hit. Here was his reaction to the Adam Klapka hit on defenseman Connor Murphy.

“I was just arguing our side of what we saw,” Bedard told Scott Powers of The Athletic about his conversation with the referees. “Obviously it was a dirty hit. I think he had time to kind of come back off it, and it’s right at the head. You don’t want to see that from anyone in the game. That’s kind of what we saw. Obviously they saw something different. Murph goes down, it’s a quick hockey game and stuff happens, but we thought he could have kind of held up and not gone directly to the head. That’s all what we were saying and they’re going to argue their side.”

Article Continues Below

Klapka was not assessed a penalty for the hit, but was given a roughing penalty for his tussle with Ilya Mikheyev after the hit. When complicated penalty situations happen like this, teams often send a captain to discuss the situation with the referees. Bedard said the “A” on his chest gave him some respect from the officials.

“It’s great, for sure,” Bedard said, per Powers. “I’ve been so fortunate to learn from guys like [Nick Foligno, Jason Dickinson, and Connor Murphy], all those guys that have been leaders in our room. Obviously the Blackhawks jersey in general is such a special thing. There have been a lot of great players who have a letter on their chest and it’s a great honor and something I don’t take lightly and no one would take lightly. It’s cool, for sure.”