This CHANGES everything for the Blackhawks...

This changes everything for the Chicago Blackhawks as Connor Bedard is set to make his first start of the season tonight. In this video, we're going to break down how big of an addition Connor Bedard is back to this Blackhawks lineup and so much more. You're not going to miss this episode of NHL Digest before diving into everything here. Just want to say we're on the road for 20,000 subscribers here on the channel, so if you're new here, you want to stay up to date on the latest news around the NHL, we're your home for it here on YouTube. So go below, hit that subscribe button, it is completely free to do so. But yes, today we're back talking about the Chicago Blackhawks and it's great news today as Connor Bedard is set to make his season debut after coming off shoulder surgery tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins. So let's dive into it. Let's talk about how good Connor Bedard's season was last year, what we can kind of expect from him now that he's fully healthy again this year. So let's dive right into it here as we see here, you know, Jeff Lashill puts Connor Bedard in the lineup. And yes, he said yesterday or this morning, he said, as we sit here right now, I have Bedard in our lineup tonight. So just saying, hey, yeah, he's available. We think he's going to be in tonight. We don't think that the medical staff is going to keep him back tonight. We have him in the lineup tonight. We've kind of practiced around that. So that's great to hear. Seeing a great guy like Connor Bedard in this league coming back. A great young talent that's looking to improve off a great season last year. and you see here he'll wait for final word from doctors after the morning skate but I feel like it's just you know a precaution at this point I feel like he is going to be in the lineup when the head coach says he's preparing to have him in the lineup it seems like it's going to go that way and it's great to see Connor Bedard back in action tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins as well a great kind of rivalry between them so nice to see him back in his first touches with Patrick Kane tonight, I know we're all excited to see that, but Bedard has said, you know, I feel good I feel confident in everything, and that's great, right? He's feeling good he doesn't feel like he's lost an edge at all and it's great to see that he's kind of taking this and just, you know, obviously it's a big surgery, big injury we're all kind of wondering how he's going to play after this, but saying that he feels good means good things are to come for the Chicago Blackhawks team, obviously he's the future of this organization and getting him back tonight is definitely going to start to turn some heads and put some focus on this team for sure. And just looking at his kind of road to return, like I mentioned, he had that shoulder surgery back in July. Then he had his full contact practice there about two days ago. And now he's going to be back in the lineup tonight, which is great. And just looking at his last season stats, he was phenomenal at 30 goals, 45 assists for 75 points. A great year for Connor Bedard in his third season and the NHL has improved every single season. i can't believe it's his third season already he had only 69 games he had 75 points so he was on pace to put up some good numbers in the full healthy season so hopefully we can see Bedard getting to uh the rest of these games you know it would be great to see him finish the year you know around the you know high 70s numbers of games played and you know see how much points he can put up that way uh but yeah right now it's looking good for Connor Bedard to come back tonight and i know we're all very excited to see this player back uh and because he's going to be playing with uh Patrick Kane you know he restores elite creation to a you know Chicago Blackhawks legend in Patrick Kane these guys are gonna be playing together now and this is what uh Patrick Kane had to say about him he said it's definitely a boost to the whole team seeing the team just seeing what he's capable of doing out there in practice it's high level skills so it's just he said it's basically just great to see him back have a guy like an elite player like this back in our lineup to offensively help us going forward so Patrick Kane's loving it he can't wait for him to come back and just kind of looking at you know the Bedard's kind of scouting report here obviously he brings back a point per game player you know shots on goal as well 3.3 his playmaking gives line mates another route to scoring chances so he gives he's helping out Connor Bedard and also Patrick Kane with just his vision his playmaking his goal scoring just helps drive the line as well and obviously his puck management remains a challenge with the giveaways but that's that's nothing to harp on too much and just looking at potential lineup with Bedard's return obviously we still have Frank Nazar out with injury but we see here we got Connor Bedard, Bedard and Kane on this top line I really do like this unit Connor Bedard kind of being that bigger player on this line to kind of get in front of the net get the tips get the deflections get the rebounds and Patrick Kane and Bedard just using their pure skill, their hands, and just, you know, being menaces out there offensively. And then we kind of got a second line of Frondell, Teravainen, and Bertuzzi. I really do like the second line. I think it's going to be a great line going forward for this team as well. And then obviously we have Byram, who's been great for them all season on the blue line. A big signing for them this offseason. So, yeah, I'm liking what I'm seeing on the Chicago Blackhawks tonight, to be honest with you guys. I think that, you know, it's going to be a tough test for this Pittsburgh Penguins team to deal with. but it's going to be fun to see Connor Bedard back and especially see him with such a great like Patrick Kane I know a lot of Blackhawks fans are fired up for this I know a lot of NHL fans are fired up for it because I am as well as you see here a shooting threat defenders most respect is what Bedard brings to the table he's a creator who can find the open teammate and a top center to organize the attack he's a guy who drives his line and now having an elite guy with him like Patrick Kane which is what we've been saying here is that we need to see him have a guy who can finish and Patrick Kane, he can, Patrick Kane is different it's definitely a guy who can do that and then and vice versa right so that's great to see as well and last year on the draws he was about 47 percent on the face off which wasn't too bad but like to see those numbers up in the 50s for Bedard but obviously he's playing against top centers every night and and I'm going to take 47 percent every single night for sure and just kind of moving on to the next thing here Connor Bedard reshaped Chicago's power play for sure which is great for them going forward and we see here he's excited I if I don't get have the puck then Kane's got the puck and we can try to just make something happen out of that which is great to see as well we kind of just see I've been watching Kane since I was five years old so he's excited to kind of see that up close and personal and just you know work with this guy and just you know kind of learn from him right be you know Kane's going to be kind of the mentor to Connor Bedard here and I think that mentorship is going to be like invaluable here for this team and just you know passing on you know what Kane has experienced throughout his career, the winning and all this stuff, passing this knowledge on to Bedard is going to be great for him and great for him going forward. He's going to be able to learn a lot from him. And obviously last year, the power play was about 16.9%. This was last year, and unfortunately, it wasn't the best numbers. But now we have Kane on this power play, and now Bedard coming back tonight. He did have 21 points on the power play last year with seven of them being goals. So hopefully now with a guy like Patrick Kane and Byram, like this power play can be better with Bedard back now so that'd be great to see as well and you know kind of just looking at how they've been looking and practicing we've having you know Connor Bedard on the left flank Kane on the right flank Byram at the point Kane's off in the bumper and then Bertuzzi down low deflecting these pucks in which is I think is a recipe for success for this power play going forward and just seeing Chicago must build around Connor Bedard we've been talking this they need to put a team around him and it's kind of the team's kind of starting to take shape obviously with a lot of their young guys now coming up but also getting veterans like Teravainen and Bertuzzi and Patrick Kane now and obviously Byram is a big piece a piece of the blue line so i think that's great you kind of just see with Bedard there they're you know a better team 24 32 and 13 without him they're five and seven so they were you know playing a bit better with with Bedard so you know obviously when you have a guy who's producing that much offense you're going to be playing better with him so that's great and obviously you know the record isn't the best for Chicago but they're still kind of in a rebuild they might be coming out of it in a in like maybe a couple years time but it's great to see Bedard back tonight and obviously playing with Patrick Kane and probably his final season but Bedard can also get it done defensively as well blocking shots like laying the body as well i had 27 takeaways he's great has a great defensive stick last year so that's another thing that he adds this lineup and uh getting Bedard back at such a crucial time in the season it's big for them obviously it's a big game against the Penguins tonight but then they have the Jets and the Stars which is a big big battle because the Jets have had a hot start the Stars have been hot as of late uh and now you know this is going to be a tough test for the Chicago team now like you know this week these three games is going to be huge for this team and you're getting your star player back for this to kind of try to get some wins going forward and it's definitely you know things to look forward to right having your guy back you know you don't know what's going to happen now when he's back you know you could start to win games and you know in this division maybe they can make some noise right like i definitely think they could with Bedard back in the lineup and with Patrick Kane as well you know you see what what success looks like is Bedard creating chances consistently the power play sustains pressure teammates turn improved uh looks into goals and chicago limits costly turnovers then that's kind of going to be their keys to success going forward for this team but i'm gonna ask you guys how big of a boost this is for this lineup going forward do you think it's going to be a huge major offensive turnaround do you think this is uh you know the kind of addition that changes everything for the Chicago Blackhawks because I definitely do getting due getting your star player back here in Connor Bedard the guy who can create offense with ease has great hands a great shot great passing you know whenever you get a guy back like that the team's only going to play a lot better a better and now seeing him play with a guy like Patrick Kane it's going to be great so let me know what you guys are feeling down below in the comment section while you're down there leave a like subscribe to the channel as always everybody knows kc keep your stick on