Author’s note: Sliding this one back a few days between games with the expectation of resuming early-week postings following the holiday weekend. Have a great Thanksgiving!
They will greet you with holy words and your gifts will be a blessing.
He shall know your ways as though born to them.
CONNOR BEDARD GETS HIS SECOND CAREER HAT TRICK 🎩 🎩 🎩 pic.twitter.com/l6lTSzGUhq
— NHL (@NHL) November 19, 2025
FIRST CAREER HAT TRICK FOR CONNOR BEDARD 🤩
— NHL (@NHL) October 29, 2025
All three goals were very, very pretty. 👀
📺: Frozen Frenzy Whiparound coverage on @ESPNPlus pic.twitter.com/c9jd6xv2pC
The Lisan al-Gaib will see through allsubterfuge.
Bedard made the no look pass look easy 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/6jetaAzoHb
— Six Point Sports (@SixPointSports) October 18, 2024
Beautiful no look pass for Connor Bedard.
— Vinnie Parise (@VinnieParise) November 20, 2024
Once again, it’s Jason Dickinson.
Now #Blackhawks HC Luke Richardson must keep them together.
pic.twitter.com/KKk1JFXDTp
And they shall share your most precious dream.
The phrase “Kwisatz Haderach” from that excellent book/movie is rooted in Hebrew with a literal translation of “shortening the way,” which is essentially what Bedard is doing here: he’s shortening the way between the Hawks current situation and their ultimate dreams of winning another Stanley Cup. That road remains so, so long and there are bound to be more hurdles on the way, with recent hiccups including Thursday’s unfortunate third-period interaction with an official and whatever the hell that was in Buffalo on Friday.
While Sunday’s result was not ideal, Bedard did go toe-to-toe with two of the best players in the entire league during that game, skating 10:43 of 5-on-5 ice time against Nathan MacKinnon and 10:28 against Cale Makar. Bedard owned expected goal shares of 79.60 percent and 75.37 percent, respectively, while on the ice against those two despite offensive zone starts of just 16.67 percent and 9.09 percent, respectively against them.
Even the non-believers will be running out of ways to ignore the fulfilling of the prophecy.
The Week That Was
Sunday, Nov. 15: Blackhawks 3, Maple Leafs 2
That Toronto appears to be teetering the verge of disaster.
Tuesday, Nov. 18: Blackhawks 5, Flames 2
This felt like a rather comfortable win, which is something that hopefully becomes less of a rarity in the not-too-distant future.
Thursday, Nov. 20: Kraken 3, Blackhawks 2
This game was the opposite of that.
Friday, Nov. 21: Sabres 9, Blackhawks 3
(Section intentionally left blank for sanity of the author)
Sunday, Nov. 23: Avalanche 1, Blackhawks 0
If the Blackhawks turn this thing around fast enough, Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon will be the tallest obstacles in their way of Central Division supremacy and sometimes that looks like an impossibly high summit.
For Miles
There’s been a lot of early discusison related to process and results in this corner of the internet and there’s one more thought related to it that I wanted to get out of the way before we put that topic to bed for a bit, and said thought may feel a touch contradictory at first, but stick with me for a bit.
Whether or not the Hawks have a good process or result isn’t the most important part of this season.
The most important part of this season is what lessons the organ-i-zation takes away from it all as it approaches the seasons ahead. If this team builds a playoff run on shaky ground, such as unsustainably good goaltending or an over-reliance on special teams or some combination of the above, that’s not necessarily a harbinger of long-term success and the team would be unwise to use those results as an indication that it’s arrived. The 2023-24 Vancouver Canucks are the poster child for this, as the team that finished the regular season with the highest PDO in the league driven by a remarkable season from goaltender Thatcher Demko, who was the Vezina runner-up that season but hasn’t been quite as good since. Rick Tocchet even won the Jack Adams Award as the coach of the year! By the end of the next season (aka earlier this year) he was job hunting. That’s not what we want here.
But if this team’s collective performance steadily improves as the kids who occupy so many spots on the roster begin continue finding their footing at the NHL level, then it would be reasonable for this organization to conclude that this thing is starting to take flight and can respond accordingly by being more aggressive at utilizing their wealth of picks and prospects to start filling lineup holes at the NHL level with players who are ready to contribute immediately instead of several years down the road.
Correclty identifying what’s happening on the ice will be essential in ensuring that the next steps this organization takes are done properly as we — finally! — put all of this tanking/rebuilding talk in the rearview mirror for good.
The Week That Will Be
Wednesday, Nov. 26: Blackhawks vs. Wild
Still can’t decide if the Wild are actually good or just incredibly fortunate. Their 5-on-5 goal differential being plus-1 suggest it may be more of the latter.
Friday, Nov. 28: Blackhawks vs. Predators
Didn’t realize the Predators were the worst team in the league. What a shame!
Sunday, Nov. 30: Blackhawks vs. Ducks
Based on the current complexions of the rosters, any games between these two teams should be an entertaining watch, if nothing else.