Blackhawks observations: Connor Bedard, Lukas Reichel steal the show in first scrimmage

The Athletic has live coverage of Connor Bedard’s debut and the Blackhawks vs. Penguins matchup

CHICAGO — Connor Bedard scored two goals in just a handful of shifts — one on a nifty give-and-go with Taylor Hall after he turned Anders Bjork inside-out in the neutral zone and one on a top-shelf one-timer teed up by Ryan Donato. He could have had a couple of assists, too, including a beautiful saucer pass that Nick Foligno just couldn’t quite get past Arvid Söderblom. That’s about as good as you can do in a 25-minute scrimmage, the first of Blackhawks training camp.

But he’ll be stewing on that brutal pass he threw right to Michal Teply — who was on the other team — in the high slot in his own end for a while. The fact that he scored his second goal later on that same shift was small solace.

“That was a terrible play at the start there,” Bedard said. “I don’t know what I was doing, but that’s hockey, I guess. You make mistakes and sometimes things go your way.”

There’s probably a lesson in there, something about Bedard being unable to get away with the kinds of things he got away with in the Western Hockey League now that he’s in the NHL.

Or not.

“I don’t think I could get away with that in pee-wee hockey,” he said. “I tried to sauce it, missed it, it happens. Not a smart play. You’re going to do that sometimes and you learn from it.”

Following Bedard for a shift and he finishes it with his second goal
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) September 25, 2023

What else did we learn from Monday’s scrimmage? Let’s dive in:

The kids are all right

Bedard was outstanding, but Lukas Reichel — who’ll be the No. 2 center behind Bedard as he enters his first full NHL season — was the best player on the ice. He looked big, strong and bold, dangling his way through defenders and unleashing wicked shots. Reichel had two goals of his own, including a spectacular one in which he danced through three defenders before an absolute snipe from the slot.

Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane (and Kane and Alex DeBrincat after that) used to have good-natured competitions to see who could score the most goals in a given season. Might Reichel and Bedard do the same?

“You saw it today, I scored and he scored, then we switched it up,” Reichel said. “It’s fun. We compete out there and it makes it fun. But it’s a scrimmage.”

The one word we keep hearing about Reichel is “confident.” There’s no trepidation on the ice, no fear. He knows what he can do, he knows what he wants to do, and he doesn’t hesitate to do it. In his first few NHL stints, he too often deferred to his more veteran linemates, like so many other young players do. No more.

“Last year, I had my chances,” he said. “Like, when we had a two-on-one, I tried to pass it. I feel like this year, I’ll try to shoot it more, be more selfish. Sometimes, I’m too nice. I try to make my teammates better (but) sometimes you’ve just got to shoot it and shoot with confidence.”

Luke Richardson likes what he sees from Reichel, and likes that attacking mindset. The next step in Reichel’s evolution is reining himself in — picking his spots. Because now that he’s moving back to center, he has far greater defensive responsibilities.

“When there are expectations offensively, they always want to lean (into) the offense and maybe skate by and hope someone gets the puck out,” Richardson said of young players. “He has the explosive speed, he can go from 0 to 60 as fast as anybody. He needs to put the brakes on sometimes in the D-zone and make the right play and be a little bit patient there. And then when we do get the puck, then they’ll make something happen. That line right now (with Andreas Athanasiou and Philipp Kurashev), with the speed they have, they don’t need to cheat on the offense. They just need to play responsibly defensively and get the puck and it’s going to be hard for teams to get it back from them.”

Lukas Reichel with the goal
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) September 25, 2023

Grinding it out

Jason Dickinson was a jack-of-all-trades for the Blackhawks last season after his early season arrival from Vancouver. He played center, he played wing, he played top-six minutes, he played bottom-six minutes. He even was Patrick Kane’s center for a few weeks, and was quite productive in the role.

With Bedard and Reichel arriving, and Hall and Donato locked into top-six roles, Dickinson’s role is a lot more defined now. He’s the fourth-line center, and he’ll be grinding things out defensively with fellow veterans Nick Foligno and Corey Perry.

It might not be as glamorous as playing with Kane, but it suits Dickinson just fine.

“I take such pride in the D-zone that it comes a lot more naturally and a lot easier,” he said. “When you’re put in a position to play with top guys, they want to produce. I had to consciously tell myself, OK, I’d make reads here that I would want to play more defensively. But with those guys (Kane and Athanasiou), I know I’ve got to take a little bit more of a jump here. I might have to cheat. I might have to look for the offensive side of it. Whereas when I’m playing in that grittier role, my reads are instinctual, and I know exactly what I want to do in a split second.”

Dickinson, who gladly yielded his No. 17 to Foligno (Dickinson is now No. 16, his first number in Dallas), likely will kill penalties and could be called upon to take key defensive-zone faceoffs in tight games as Bedard and Reichel work with Yanic Perreault to improve their draw-taking skills.

“Faceoffs are going to be huge for me this year,” he said. “I expect to and hope to take a lot of faceoffs — and a lot of big faceoffs.”

“A young scene”

Alex Vlasic felt like a kid when he was playing in his first NHL games two season ago. Now as he looks around the Blackhawks dressing room and sees all the newer – and even younger – faces, he feels strangely like he’s older than he actually is.

“I think that’s kind of turned for me a little bit this year just with a lot of the guys shifting out and the newer guys coming in,” Vlasic said. ” It’s definitely a young scene here. It is weird, I am only 22 years old, but I definitely feel older because there are so many younger guys now, like Bedard’s draft and all these guys coming in are four years younger than me. It’s weird in that sense. But I got to be a good role model, a good leader for them. I think that’s when I’m playing best too, kind of leading by example and I’m not really afraid to speak up, especially around the older guys on the team.”

Vlaisic has been playing more like a veteran, too. Like Reichel and Wyatt Kaiser, Vlasic seems to be on the cusp of taking that next step, and it has a lot to do with putting in the time in the offseason and feeling much more confident.

Even from a year ago, Vlasic could feel how much more comfortable he is in training camp.

“I think coming in last year year, first training camp, not knowing what to expect, I remember being nervous,” he said. “I feel like every day just trying not to mess up. Throughout the course of the year, I kind of forced myself not to make mistakes because that’s the only way I’m going to get better. Just kind of coming in, I’m not too worried about what’s going to happen out of training camp. I just want to try to push myself and leave here feeling like I gave it all and didn’t really hold anything back.”

Where Vlasic is especially trying to translate that onto the ice is with the puck on his stick. He and skills coach Brian Keane worked in the offseason on him being more patient and giving himself a moment to see if there’s a better option with the puck.

“I think this summer just puck touch, like at the offensive blue line, not just trying to shovel it back down the wall or shovel it to my D partner, maybe hang onto it and try to get a fake,” Vlasic said. “If not, then I can put it down. At least force myself to try something before I kind of throw it down the wall.”

Roster battles

With so many new faces, a few Blackhawks mainstays are suddenly on the outside looking in. In the scrimmage, there were four clear NHL lines — Bedard with Hall and Donato, Reichel with Athanasiou and Kurashev, Cole Guttman with Tyler Johnson and Taylor Raddysh, and Dickinson with Foligno and Perry.

So players such as MacKenzie Entwistle, Joey Anderson and Reese Johnson have to re-prove themselves this camp to make the team.

“You don’t have to be a genius to know there are a lot of forwards here,” Entwistle said. “You count the numbers and there are a couple of us fighting for some spots. You’ve got to have a good camp, got to have good preseason games, and we’ll go from there.”

Entwistle got off to a good start by scoring the first goal of the scrimmage off an Anderson feed.

“That line was excellent today,” Richardson said. “They showed they’re here to play and work for a spot. … It’s going to be competitive for everybody, but the good thing is they’ve been around the team. People come and go and win jobs and lose jobs, so they have a little bit of that in their back pocket. It’s not their first time through.”

Entwistle played in 121 NHL games over the past two years. A demotion to Rockford would be a tough pill to swallow.

“Listen, it’s hockey,” he said. “I’m playing hockey. Obviously I want to play in the NHL and play for the Blackhawks. That’s my goal. I’m going to go out there and try to have the best camp I can have, and the best preseason games. The decision is in my control, but at the same time, out of my control. We’ll see what happens. If I go down to Rockford, then I go down to Rockford — and I’ll compete and do whatever I can to get back up here.”

This and that

The Blackhawks are planning to scrimmage again Wednesday, but Richardson was leaning towards splitting the camp roster into three teams instead of two. Richardson and a couple of players mentioned just how there were too many players on two teams.”I don’t know how many forwards were out there today, but it was almost six lines aside,” Jones said. “Some guys had three shifts today. Sometimes it’s hard to get stuff done.”

Richardson and the Blackhawks assistants have been noticeably seeking out young players for one-on-one discussions throughout camp. Richardson was spotted with Marcel Marcel on Tuesday. Assistant coach Kevin Dean spent time with Kevin Korchinski after the scrimmage.”Just about completing his whole game and working on it,” Richardson said of Dean’s talk. “We know (Korchinski’s) a good skater and I think playing defense sometimes he has to put the brakes on a little bit, just like we were talking about a center man in Reichel in the D zone. When he comes around the net, his glide is so good and he makes the pass, sometimes the forward’s got to make a pass back, can’t go out that strong side, and he has to be ready for that. Sometimes his speed takes him right into that and there’s a bit of a cluster there and a scramble. Just being aware when he doesn’t have the puck, so when he gets the puck he’s in a better position to make something happen.”

Colin Blackwell and Jalen Luypen are the two injured players still not participating in practices. Luypen has been skating before practices. As for Blackwell, Richardson provided an update on Monday.”He’s just shut down right now, same as at the end of last year,” Richardson said. “He’s inching back, hopefully, and we’ll hopefully get more information as we go along.”

Vlasic left practice shortly after taking a stick to the face. He reported he was fine and largely only had himself to blame for it.”I kind of did it to myself,” Vlasic said. “Jonesey was coming at me and I kind of lifted his stick and it went right into my face.”

(Photo of Lukas Reichel: Michael Reaves/Getty Images)