Every young player in the NHL has their guys that they grew up watching. Sidney Crosby is near the top of most lists as he’s been one of the best players in NHL history. For Connor Bedard of the Chicago Blackhawks, it is well documented how much he looks up to the Pittsburgh Penguins captain.
Of course, everyone wants to play hockey like Crosby. He has over 600 goals, over 1000 assists, and is closing in on his 1700th career point. Crosby has a chance of becoming the NHL’s all-time second-leading scorer behind Wayne Gretzky. He will break Gretzky’s record for the most career point-per-game seasons this year.
Even being 37 on a lousy team, he’s putting up big numbers. In addition to these outstanding offensive numbers, Crosby puts much thought into his defensive game. He’s so good at keeping the opposition from scoring, and he has almost always been.
Crosby’s impressive playing has led to three Stanley Cups, two Conn Smythe Trophies, Two Hard Trophies, and many other prestigious awards.
Connor Bedard, and every young player, can learn a lot from watching a player like Sid over the years. The way he plays hockey is as close to perfect as you can get.
This week, we’ve seen something else that the young Bedard can learn from Crosby. It isn’t all about shooting, passing, and skating either.
In his two most recent games, Bedard was given a ten-minute game misconduct in each of them. One was from mouthing off to an official and one was him being a part of a scrum late in the game. Multiple people were thrown out with Bedard the second time.
After practice on Monday, interim head coach Anders Sorensen spoke of the young star dealing with these things.
“Overall, I think he’s very mature for being 19, especially with the amount of spotlight that’s on him constantly. I’m impressed with how he handles it.” Sorensen said about Bdard.
“I remember Sidney Crosby went through a lot of that. I remember Peter Forsberg came into the league mild-mannered off the ice, but on the ice, it happens, right? They want to win. They want to be successful.”
Sorensen reminded everyone that Crosby dealt with something similar early on in his career. Dealing with confrontations is part of being a player in the NHL and few all-time greats struggled with it early as much as Crosby.
Over time, Crosby learned how to pick his battles with both the opposition and the officials in the game. It certainly gets easier as the team around gets better.
Going forward, Bedard can think of this as he continues to learn how to manage his emotions. When he does, it will be another step toward reaching his potential. We’ll see if Sorensen’s message about Crosby teaches Bedard a lesson that he needs.
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