Bedard ready for ‘awesome’ 1st NHL game in Canada

Connor Bedard’s Chicago Blackhawks family tree in Montreal branches 72 years and almost one mile.

It extends from the legendary Forum, where his great-great uncle Jim Bedard played one game on defense for Chicago in 1951, stretching about a dozen city blocks southeast to Bell Centre, where the 18-year-old phenom from North Vancouver will play for the first time on NHL ice in Canada on Saturday against the Canadiens (7 p.m. ET, TVAS, CITY, SNE, NBCSCH, NHLN).

Bedard will hope for a better fate in Montreal than that of his late distant relative, whose Black Hawks (then two words) were clobbered 10-2 on March 10, 1951, on the strength of hat tricks by Maurice “Rocket” Richard and Bert Olmstead.

“I’m sure it will be awesome,” Bedard said on Friday after an afternoon practice at the Canadiens’ suburban training facility. “Everybody says it’s a great place to play. The rink’s pretty electric, obviously really passionate fans. …

“You grow up watching ‘Hockey Night in Canada.’ As a kid I remember always getting really excited for Saturday, me and my dad. We’d always tune in. It’s kind of like a tradition in Canada. Every Saturday you’ve got that. It’s really exciting to be in a Canadian city for (the Canadiens’) home opener. It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re all really looking forward to that.”

As are Montreal hockey fans. Not since future Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby played his first game in Montreal on Jan. 3, 2006, has there been this kind of eager anticipation for a visiting player.

Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and Chicago Blackhawks forward Connor Bedard after the opening face-off at PPG Paints Arena on Oct. 10. It was Crosby’s 1,191st regular-season NHL game, Bedard’s first.

“After two games, Connor is doing very well, there’s a lot of pressure on him,” said 10-time Canadiens Stanley Cup champion Yvan Cournoyer, captain of the team’s run of four straight from 1976-79. “He could be one of the NHL’s best players. When he’s on the ice, I can see his talent and his potential. You can see that he makes a difference. It’s a good start.”

Cournoyer will get his first in-person look on Saturday, sitting among the crowd at Bell Centre.

In 2006, Crosby arrived in Montreal with blaring fanfare and enormous expectations, amplified in the city by his having worshipped the Canadiens in his youth and two seasons played with Rimouski in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

In his 18 NHL seasons, the native of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia has lived up to his billing and more, becoming one of the finest players in the history of the game.

Crosby’s first game in Montreal was fun before it ever began, the city abuzz for the most heralded Penguins player since native son Mario Lemieux. 

Crosby’s 39th NHL game was only his second in his native country, having picked up an assist the night before in Toronto against the Maple Leafs to give him a team-leading 43 points (19 goals, 24 assists).

Referee Don Koharski, a native of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, held up the opening face-off in Montreal, directing Crosby’s eyes to the open penalty-box door where Canadiens photographer Bob Fisher was standing, his lens aimed at center ice.

Pittsburgh Penguins rookie Sidney Crosby jokes with referee Don Koharski before the Jan. 3, 2006, game at Bell Centre, Crosby’s first NHL game in Montreal.

“See that photographer over there?” Koharski said to Crosby. “He wants a photo of the two legends from Nova Scotia.”

With Canadiens captain Saku Koivu, forward Alex Kovalev and Penguins forward Ziggy Palffy idling in wait, Crosby grinned and said to Koharski, “Yeah? Well, where’s the other one?”

The Penguins’ young star scored twice that night, 4:33 into the game, then the eventual game-winner 1:58 into the third period, selected first star.

The third period just underway, Canadiens legend Jean Beliveau was being interviewed by Penguins television, speaking from his aisle seat three rows behind Montreal’s bench.

“Usually a youngster, if they’re 18 or 19 years old, it takes a year or two before you get adjusted to the speed of the game,” Beliveau said as the Penguins began a rush up the ice. “But Sidney, he has everything. Natural talent, great ability, he looks physically strong” -- Crosby scored in Beliveau's mid-sentence -- “and I’m always happy when there’s a youngster coming up like that. It’s good for the game.”

Chicago Black Hawks defenseman Jim Bedard in an action pose taken in the late 1940s or early 1950s.

On Saturday, 18 years after Crosby’s first game in Montreal, Bedard will for the first and only time this season step onto the ice of the NHL’s oldest and most storied franchise. Eager to see him will be Elise Beliveau, who will be sitting two seats from where she and her late husband were first dazzled by Crosby.

Beliveau was playing senior hockey with the Quebec Aces when Jim Bedard played his one game in Montreal, a very tiny piece of Blackhawks history as one of 1,015 men to have skated or played goal for the team.

A native of Admiral, Saskatchewan, Bedard worked his way up from junior in Moose Jaw in the province and the minor pros in Kansas City to play his 22 NHL games, all for Chicago, five in the autumn of 1949, then 17 more in 1950-51. 

His great-great nephew will reach 22 games, good health permitting, against the Jets in Winnipeg on Dec. 2. In his two NHL games to date, Connor Bedard has matched his relative’s career offensive output with two points (one goal, one assist).

The sad-sack 1950-51 Black Hawks would finish the season last in the six-team NHL, their record of 13-47-10 leaving them 26 points out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs; they scored the League’s fewest goals (171) while allowing the most (280), surrendering 10, 11 and 12 goals in three of their losses.

The 10-2 Forum drubbing wasn’t pretty.

From left, Chicago Black Hawks defenseman Jim Bedard, goalie Frank Brimsek and forward Bert Olmstead at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens during the 1949-50 season.

“It was a rough night for Harry Lumley in the Chicago citadel,” a Montreal newspaper report read. “The Habitants fired so much rubber at the big goaler that he looked dazed, even groggy. … Under the circumstances, he probably felt he was lucky to escape with his life.”

But Jim Bedard did have one good memory against the Canadiens. A couple of weeks earlier, on Feb. 22, the injury-riddled Black Hawks had defeated Montreal 3-2 at Chicago Stadium for just their second win in 31 games (2-26-5), an upset witnessed by only 4,912 fans.

There will be more than four times that on Saturday, Bell Centre to be jammed for the Canadiens’ home opener, Bedard the hottest ticket in town. The rookie will be 18 years, 89 days old when the puck drops, 60 days younger than Crosby when the latter made his Montreal debut.

Any curtain-raiser is an electric event in this hockey-mad market. But as a midseason game was crackling for Crosby in 2006, so too will the voltage be high for Bedard, this game wired with another generational talent.

NHL.com Independent Correspondent Sean Farrell contributed to this report.

Top photo: Chicago Blackhawks rookie Connor Bedard during the second period of his team’s game in Boston against the Bruins on Oct. 11, 2023. © Maddie Meyer/Getty Images