“There’s four Connors in this game, not just Bedard and McDavid—Connor Brown of Edmonton, Connor Murphy, the defenseman for the Blackhawks,” John Buccigross sheepishly pointed out in the first game between the Oilers and the Blackhawks of the 2023-2024 regular season, which aired on ESPN’s Tuesday night broadcast on December 12, 2023. Connor Brown, the 29-year-old right winger from Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada, was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2012, traded to the Ottawa Senators in 2019, traded to the Washington Capitals in 2022, and signed a 1-year, 4 million dollar contract with the Oilers for the ’23-’24 season. After only playing four games with the Capitals, he tore his ACL and was not able to play for the rest of the ’22-’23 season. It is safe to say that Brown had no illusions about returning to play for the Washington team. According to Russian Machine Never Breaks (RMNB), a hockey website dedicated to talking about the Washington Capitals and Alex Ovechkin, Brown was filling in temporarily for Tom Wilson, who was (ironically) recovering from an ACL injury himself. Still not one hundred percent, Brown unofficially scored his first goal of the season against the New Jersey Devils on December 10^th, but it was taken away due to a goalie interference penalty. Connor Murphy, the 30-year-old defenseman and alternate captain of the Blackhawks, born in Boston, Massachusetts, and son of NHL defenseman Gord Murphy, was drafted by the Phoenix Coyotes in 2011, and traded to the Chicago team in 2017. In March of the ’21-’22 season, he suffered a concussion after being hit by Senators left winger Parker Kelly. His head hit the glass above the boards and he was knocked unconscious; he had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher. Kelly, who received a 5-minute major boarding penalty and a misconduct, stood at the open door of the penalty box and tapped his stick as Murphy was taken off the ice. Murphy missed the last 22 games of the season, and his absence as a defenseman was felt for the Blackhawks. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, “…in games in which Murphy has played this season, the Hawks have allowed 2.62 expected goals per 60 even-strength minutes. In games in which he hasn’t played, they have allowed 3.22 expected goals per 60 minutes, including 3.44 expected goals during this ongoing stretch.” Murphy is one of the top defensemen for the Blackhawks. In the ‘22-‘23 regular season, he was second in scoring for defensemen for the Chicago team (behind Seth Jones) with 7 goals total and he had the most (160) blocked shots of any player on the team.

ESPN gave the Oilers/Blackhawks game a specific theme—“Welcome to the Connor-Verse”—which highlighted the “better-known” Connors, McDavid and Bedard. Interestingly enough, though, the spotlight was mainly placed on Bedard, the eighteen-year-old rookie. On first glance, it might not seem like a surprise considering the fact that typically highly-touted young franchise players are given centerstage by the sports media, but here, the young Bedard was being given more attention than McDavid—now 26 years old and playing in his ninth season in the NHL—who himself was once a highly-touted young franchise player in the spotlight. He was the first overall pick in the NHL draft in 2015, which brought a lot of excitement and enthusiasm to the city of Edmonton, which hadn’t had a winning hockey team since the Gretzky years. On top of all that, at nineteen, McDavid became the youngest team captain in NHL history. The narrative of the Oilers/Blackhawks game very much centered around how historic it was that these two players were facing each other for the first time, and although that is true to some degree, it immediately became problematic, mainly because the McDavid verses Bedard narrative was incredibly thin from the get-go. The two players are not only in two completely different places in their careers, but so are the teams they play for. In addition to that, the forced narrative completely flattened out the entire game-viewing experience.

On the night the game was played (December 12^th) the Oilers were 12-12-1, and the Blackhawks were 9-18-1, and last place in their division. The one common thread that did connect the teams (aside from the two “better-known” Connors) is that they were both struggling, but for very different reasons. Aside from Bedard, one of the main topics that was discussed during the game was the firing of Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft. In fact, at the very beginning of the game, Buccigross made an interesting proclamation about Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner: “His play under Jay Woodcroft helped Woodcroft get fired. His play under Kris Knoblauch might help him win coach of the year.” It seems highly unlikely that Skinner was playing to get his coach fired, and that’s true of the rest of the team. After having an excellent ’22-’23 season and an intense playoff run that ended with a compelling, but ultimately devastating loss to the Las Vegas Golden Knights (4-2), the Oilers had a rough start to the ’23-’24 season. They lost their season-opener to the Vancouver Canucks 8-1 and not long after that, McDavid suffered an upper-body injury in a game where the Edmonton team lost to the Winnipeg Jets in overtime, which resulted in the center missing two games (which the team lost). After McDavid returned early for the Heritage Classic against the Calgary Flames (a game they won), they lost four games in a row. After that, the Oilers won in overtime against the Seattle Kraken and the next day Woodcroft was fired. Immediately after that, the Oilers won three games in a row, lost two games, and then won seven games in a row, which brought them to the game against the Blackhawks. During the first period, ESPN put up two charts. The first chart showed Stuart Skinner’s record under Woodcroft and Knoblauch: 4-7-1 and 6-0-0. The second chart showed the team’s record under Woodcroft and Knoblauch (3-9-1 and 9-3-0) as well as goals per game (2.69 and 4.86), goals against per game (3.92 and 1.71) and the team’s penalty kill percentage (70.0% and 95.8%). Looking at these numbers alone, it would seem that the coaching change had a massive impact on the team. However, it doesn’t take into account the fact that because the team includes so much elite talent (McDavid, Draisaitl, Hyman, Nugent-Hopkins, etc.), it was only natural that those players were eventually going to start producing again. The truth of the matter is that the top scorers were struggling to score and it wasn’t for a lack of trying. But because they couldn’t get going quickly enough, the Oilers organization decided that someone had to be held responsible for it, and the easiest person to hold accountable was the head coach.

There was one important factor that helped turn things around for the Oilers that ESPN didn’t mention: hat tricks by Zach Hyman and Evander Kane. On November 11^th (the day before Woodcroft was fired), Hyman scored a natural hat trick against the Kraken. Then, on November 15^th, Kane scored a natural hat trick against the Kraken. Those two hat tricks served as a significant turning point in the team’s psyche that helped propel them toward their .500 position. The players themselves were already in the process of bouncing back as the coaching change happened. This isn’t to say that Knoblauch didn’t have an effect on the team. But it’s necessary to point out that Woodcroft wasn’t necessarily the problem either. In this particular case, it was a matter of the players needing to push themselves out of a difficult position they’d gotten themselves into early on in the season. However, ESPN wanted to force the narrative that it was primarily the coaching change that caused the turnaround and used stats alone to justify that narrative. According to Buccigross, “[the] Oilers [are] 9-3 under Kris Knoblauch. They haven’t lost since November the 22^nd. They had an .864 save percentage—the NHL’s worst—when Jay Woodcroft was fired November the 12^th. Since then, the Oilers 9-3 under Knoblauch. The goalies with a .903 save percentage.” What Buccigross failed to mention is that Jack Campbell, the backup goalie, was put on waivers by the Oilers on November 7^th due to the fact that he had a 1-4 record, and was replaced by Calvin Pickard (who ESPN interviewed extensively during the first period of the game). Aside from that, Skinner’s playing improved in general. To sum up, the goaltending issues were already being fixed before the coaching change happened.

Buccigross also made it seem as if the Oilers’ winning streak was only spurred by the coaching change, but commentator and former NHLer Ray Ferraro pointed out this fact: “The Oilers have shown over the last couple of years they can go on long stretches. Last year, they went 18-2-1 going into the playoffs. So a seven-game win streak here is something they’ve done before.” But at the beginning of the second period, Buccigross made this statement: “Edmonton 12-12-1 after that horrific start which saw their coach get fired,” and in the third period, he made this statement: “They [the Oilers] got better, they got healthy, they got a new coach, and it just turned everything around.” It’s true: the players did get better, they did get healthier, they did get a new coach, the team’s record did improve. But a simple critical question wasn’t being asked: Was firing Woodcroft necessary? Ferraro came the closest to addressing this question in the third period: “Here in Edmonton, the top guys hadn’t scored early. All of a sudden you’re not a very good coach anymore.” A little context is needed here. At this point in the broadcast, the commentators were discussing the firing of St. Louis Blues head coach Craig Berube (who had just been fired that night after the St. Louis team lost to the Red Wings 6-4). According to Associated Press, Blues General Manager Doug Armstrong did not feel good about his decision to fire Berube, who had served as head coach for the St. Louis team for six seasons, but he “got tired of seeing the Blues being a punching bag.” Berube had led the Blues to their only Stanley Cup win in 2019, and the team’s record was 13-14-1 when Berube was let go. Armstrong also made it clear that the players had nothing to do with his decision: “The players didn’t come in and say ‘fire Craig Berube and we’ll be better.’ The way we play the game right now isn’t good enough….I think we’re a better team than our play indicates.” Not only did Armstrong take full responsibility for his decision, he handled the firing with respect for Berube: “Armstrong dismissed Berube…about two hours after the Blues lost to the Detroit Red Wings…. The two men had a beer and the move was made.” Ferraro pinpointed exactly what was plaguing the Oilers: the fact that their top players weren’t scoring. And when he said, “All of a sudden you’re not a very good coach anymore,” he indirectly pointed to the difficult truth around Woodcroft’s firing: he was being held responsible for something the players were not able to control themselves, a scoring drought.

But that’s not all. According to an AP article that discussed the firing, Woodcroft was the ninth coach to work for the Oilers organization in fifteen seasons. In addition to that, Knoblauch was the fifth coach to be employed by the Edmonton team since McDavid was drafted in 2015. The article pointed out that Woodcroft was not concerned about losing his job prior to getting fired. This was more than likely due to the fact that he assumed the team would bounce back. In addition to that, the article also speculated as to why Woodcroft was ultimately fired:

…they were losing because of a combination of league-worst goaltending, porous defending and a lack of accountability….not being able to keep the puck out of the net, a constant problem with responsibility split among the goalies, defensemen and forwards. Woodcroft ultimately paid the price in large part because he failed to correct players’ habits, not benching them after making costly mistakes and failing to make the necessary adjustments.

As stated earlier, the goaltending situation was being tended to prior to Woodcroft getting fired. Additionally, it’s not specified by AP which players in particular Woodcroft should’ve benched, or what kind of adjustments he should’ve had them make. The article also highlighted McDavid’s struggles this season: “McDavid—whose 153 points last season were the most of any player since 1995-96—was held off the scoresheet against the the [sic] past two games.” Should McDavid have been held accountable for having two rough games in a row? Right after that, the article points out that McDavid was dealing with an upper-body injury “but still has 10 points in 10 games.” So then maybe McDavid isn’t the player to punish. Then the article mentioned Draisaitl’s offensive production: “[he] leads the team with 15 [points],” but concluded with the statement: “Still, only six teams have averaged fewer goals than the Oilers’ 2.69.” The article also includes a quote from Draisaitl, who explained, “We tend to outshoot other teams consistently, probably out-chance other teams consistently. Not in sync right now,” which is true, but as much as they were outshooting other teams, they were struggling to connect with the net, and that’s not a problem that can be tangibly fixed overnight. To sum up, according to AP, it would seem that Woodcroft was fired for not punishing his players when they weren’t playing well. As a result, he was punished. In all honesty, Woodcroft should’ve been concerned about his employment status, not because of the team’s rough start, but because the Oilers organization has blown through several head coaches in a fifteen-year period—and he himself was brought in to replace head coach Dave Tippet, who was fired in the middle of the ’21-’22 season. Although it’s true that a head coaching job in any team sports is difficult to keep long-term, and head coaches get fired quite often, it’s also true that the head coaching situation in Edmonton has been unstable for years, but that’s a topic for another essay. The AP article also talked about the fact that Oilers GM Ken Holland—who has worked for the team since 2019—is in the final year of his contract. It seems that it would also make sense that Holland fired Woodcroft because he not only has his own job to think about, but because he has high expectations for the team. Because the Oilers had such an impressive playoff run in the previous two seasons, the bar had been raised significantly, and because the Edmonton team didn’t blast out of the gate at the beginning of this season in first place, someone had to be held responsible. According to ESPN.com, the decision was mutually agreed upon by Holland and Edmonton’s new CEO of Hockey Operations Jeff Jackson, and Holland justified his decision by saying that “We weren’t playing good enough….I think there’s lots of runway left with this change to try to make a surge here and try to play our way back into the mix. I don’t think [the players tuned Woodcroft] out; I don’t think [he] lost them. But I couldn’t wait around for another 10 games or 15 games to find out.”

It’s important to understand the Edmonton team’s situation as it actually is because a very different picture was being painted by ESPN. After Ferraro made his softly critical statement, Buccigross responded by saying, “And as we’ve seen, coaching changes work sometimes—here in Edmonton, in Minnesota. And perhaps that can be a contagious feeling amongst GMs: ‘Maybe I need to do this, maybe that’ll get us to win six in a row and get right back into it.’” According to Buccigross, the way to fix a team is simply to fire the coach, but even more disturbing is the fact that he frames it as an infectious thing that GMs should want to do: replace the coach in order to stimulate a winning streak. Even worse, though, is that he makes it sound as if each coaching change (Edmonton, St. Louis, Minnesota) came as a result of the exact same set of circumstances—and that’s simply not true. The differences between Edmonton and St. Louis are obvious. Berube was a beloved coach for several seasons, the team wasn’t doing well enough, and it was time for a change. The Oilers organization, who hadn’t had a long-term coach for years, chose to fire Woodcroft because no one (not even him) could make the players score enough goals fast enough. In Minnesota, Dean Evason was the seventh head coach in the team’s entire franchise history. He led the Wild to the playoffs three seasons in a row, but they were defeated each time in the first round. The Wild has been in existence since 2000; the team has never won a Stanley Cup or a conference championship, and they only have one division championship, which they won in the ’07-’08 season. They had lost seven games in a row when Evason was let go and currently, under their new head coach, John Hynes, they’re 9-3, which is great, but it’s safe to assume that Wild fans would much prefer to see their team become a powerhouse and win championships, and that entails more than just merely stimulating a sudden winning streak due to a coaching change. Unfortunately, these nuances were completely lost on ESPN, who instead wanted to institute a blanket statement about Edmonton (the coaching change solved all their problems) and applied that same blanket statement to the other teams who made a coaching change (coaching changes are a cure-all solution) without delivering a more accurate and specific truth: every team’s situation is different and it’s never one thing that turns a team around or makes a team be successful.

Given all of that, the Blackhawks, as a team, are in a completely different situation than the Oilers, and it’s much more cut and dry. They’re rebuilding. As Ferraro noted in the first period, “The Blackhawks have four young defensemen, combined 98 games of NHL experience. It’s going to be a tough matchup for most of them.” He was referring to Louis Crevier, Isaak Phillips, Filip Roos, and Alex Vlasic, who are all in their early twenties, except for Roos, who is 24. Phillips and Vlasic made their NHL debuts during the ’21-’22 season, Roos made his NHL debut during the ’22-‘23 season, and Crevier made his NHL debut four days before the game against the Oilers. The team’s youngest defenseman, Kevin Korchinski, who is nineteen, made his NHL debut two months earlier, but was not playing that night (he was on personal leave). The senior defensemen were Connor Murphy, Jarred Tinordi, and Nikita Zaitsev, all in their early thirties. Tinordi, who had played with the Canadiens, Coyotes, Penguins, Predators, Bruins, and Rangers, joined the Chicago team in October 2022 after being claimed off waivers. After being drafted in 2010 by the Canadiens and spending much of his career playing in the AHL, he didn’t score his first NHL goal until 2020. He was not playing that night; he’d been placed on the injured reserve due to suffering a concussion, and Crevier had been called up to replace him. Zaitsev, who signed with the Maple Leafs in 2016, requested a trade after the ’18-’19 season that brought him to the Senators. After a failed attempt by the Ottawa team to trade him in the 2022 offseason, he was placed on waivers briefly, demoted to the AHL briefly, and in February 2023, he was traded to the Blackhawks. 29-year-old Seth Jones, the leading defenseman for the Blackhawks, was not playing either, after suffering a shoulder injury. Drafted in 2013 by the Predators, he was traded to the Blue Jackets in 2016, where he signed a six-year, 32.4 million dollar contract with the Columbus team and was a top defenseman. In 2021, he was traded to the Blackhawks, where he continued to play as a top-performing defenseman. In general, the Blackhawks are a different team than they were since the last time they made the playoffs during the 2019-2020 season. They still had Johnathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, and Corey Crawford. They also had Brandon Saad, Dylan Strome, and Alex DeBrincat. The Chicago team has won six Stanley Cup Finals, and the last three were won in 2010, 2013, and 2015. For ten years they’d been a powerhouse team, but at the time they were playing the Oilers, they were dead-last in their division with a record of 9-18-1.

The Chicago team has had a few different coaches since they fired Joel Quenneville in November 2018 (after winning three Stanley Cups with them). They were 6-6-3 when he was let go. Quenneville is the second winningest coach in NHL history, behind Scotty Bowman. Since 2018, the Blackhawks have employed three head coaches: Jeremy Colliton, Derek King, and Luke Richardson, who has been the head coach since the ’22-’23 season. He is the fortieth head coach for a team that’s been in existence since 1926. The most experienced player for the Blackhawks is 36-year-old left winger Nick Foligno. Born in Buffalo, New York, he was drafted by the Senators in 2006, and was traded to the Blue Jackets in 2012, where he became team captain. In 2021, he was traded to the Maple Leafs where he dealt with injuries, and in July 2021, as a free agent, he signed a two-year, 7.6 million dollar contract with the Bruins. In June 2023, he was traded to the Blackhawks, along with Taylor Hall, who also currently plays for the team. Foligno was interviewed by Leah Hextall in the second period. Here are the two questions she asked him:

…Nick, you’re a veteran of over 1100 games. Part of your responsibilities here with the Blackhawks is to help Connor Bedard become a professional, but I’m wondering what YOU’VE learned from watching the eighteen-year-old.

With 97 on the ice, do you think Bedard could be the best?

And here is what Buccigross had to say about Foligno:

Game 1,109 for the 36-year-old Nick Foligno. Signed a one-year, 4 million dollar deal with the Blackhawks to provide some veteran leadership and he’s done that. He’s played all 27 games, 4 goals, could be an addition at the trade deadline for a team and then come back and sign again with the Blackhawks for another year if he and they liked how this year went.

Because the game was so heavily focused on Bedard, it makes sense on a surface-level to ask the veteran forward about him. Foligno signed the one-year, 4 million dollar contract with the Blackhawks after being traded away by the Bruins—a team where he was nicknamed “Uncle Nick” due to the fact that he was seen as such an impactful leader. After the ’14-’15 season, he was named team captain of the Blue Jackets. During that season, he led the team with 31 goals and he was second to Ryan Johansen in assists. The questions, although seemingly innocent, expose the hierarchy that exists in all team sports, not just hockey, between “elite talent” and “veteran players.” Veteran players serve a specific function, which is to teach by example and to directly and indirectly impart the wisdom they’ve accumulated over the years to younger “more valuable players.” Taking it further, veteran players, like Foligno, are also seen as expendable. This is evident in the fact that, Foligno, after serving as team captain for the Blue Jackets for six seasons, and being a good goal scorer for the team, was traded away at 33 and has struggled to find a home with another team since then. It’s also evident in the way Buccigross talked about him: “[he] could be an addition at the trade deadline for a team and then come back and sign again with the Blackhawks for another year if he and they liked how this year went.” Not only is he expendable as a veteran player, he’s a commodity. He could essentially be unofficially “loaned out” to another team looking for immediate veteran experience in order to make a successful playoff run, and then return to the Blackhawks so that he can continue to help the them develop Bedard.

On a positive note, Buccigross’s statement does confirm the intangible value a veteran player brings to a hockey team (especially during playoff season), but then he immediately devalues Foligno by commodifying him. It’s true that players are traded all the time in team sports. But Foligno is more likely to be traded because he’s not Bedard. The goal of this essay is not to dissect the NHL trade system, but it’s important to understand that Hextall’s and Buccigross’s questions/statements are problematic; they reinforce a particular hierarchy that says that players fall into two categories: talented and expendable. This way of framing players also takes away from the fact that they’re all athletes, and there would be no hockey without athletes. They’re not only the life-blood, they’re the reason hockey exists. To talk to Foligno as if his only concern should be to educate the young Bedard, and to speak of him as if he’s nothing more than a commodity to be loaned out to the team who is in most need of his wisdom and experience in order to achieve playoff success is to significantly devalue him as an athlete and as a human being. Foligno understands exactly what Hextall pointed out: “Part of your responsibilities here with the Blackhawks is to help Connor Bedard become a professional.” And it is safe to say that Foligno is both comfortable with and honored to be able to perform that role for the team. However, Foligno probably also has another goal, which is just as important: to find a secure home with a team for the rest of his career. Like most athletes, Foligno more than likely wants to play as long as he’s able, and like most athletes, he probably wants to play as long as he’s able with a team that recognizes and wants to make use of his skills, both tangible and intangible, in a more long-term way. A few weeks after the game between the Oilers and the Blackhawks, Foligno used his veteran skills on the ice in an impactful way. On December 23^rd, during a game against the Blues, a Blues player executed a late hit on Crevier against the boards, who initially started to skate away. But right after the hit, Foligno skated up to the Blues player and got in his face, which caused Crevier to skate back over to him and get in his face as well. This is a perfect example of what Foligno was brought in to do, help the less experienced players (not just Bedard) learn how to assert themselves at the NHL level.

It’s also important to note that for the first few months of the season, Foligno wasn’t the most experienced player on the Blackhawks. That title belonged to 38-year-old Corey Perry, who had his contract terminated by the Chicago team at the end of November. Born in New Liskeard, Ontario, Canada, he was drafted by the Ducks in 2003 and spent fourteen seasons there. Over the past few seasons, the right winger has played with the Stars, Canadiens, and Lightning before signing with the Blackhawks in June 2023. He was brought in for the same reason as Foligno, to bring a veteran presence to the developing team. However, unlike Foligno, Perry has playoff experience. He won a Stanley Cup with the Ducks in 2007, and appeared in the Stanley Cup Final in 2020, 2021, and 2022 with the teams that lost (Stars, Canadiens, and Lightning). According to Daily Faceoff, Perry’s contract was terminated due to “an alcohol-fueled incident that included corporate partners and team employees.” In an official statement Perry released on social media, he apologized for his behavior and explained that he was taking steps to take care of his mental health and issues with alcohol. As a result of Perry’s termination, Foligno has now become the player with the most NHL experience on the team. And as of December 12^th, collectively, as a team, the Blackhawks were in the middle of a losing streak. During the first period, Buccigross pointed out that “Hawks have lost six straight road games. Looking to avoid their first seven-game road losing streak since the ‘03-‘04 season. Those were those dark times for Hawks fans. They lost a franchise record of sixteen in a row on the road during that ‘03-‘04 season.” Not only would they extend that losing streak to seven games by losing to the Oilers 4-1, they would go on to lose their next two road games to the Kraken and Canucks, and then lose three more road games against the Blues and the Stars, extending it to twelve straight road losses by December 31^st.

Connor Bedard scored the first goal of the game and Buccigross didn’t waste any time elevating the young center to hockey god-like status: “There’s very few in the world that can pull off a shot like that, and fellow NHLers have seen that since he was fifteen, sixteen years old. When you’re a prodigy like Bedard, you get those opportunities. Whether it was MacKinnon or McDavid, they couldn’t believe how this teenager could shoot the puck, and that’s how he does it.” As much as the game was structured around the Connor versus Connor narrative, it was evident from the very beginning that Bedard was going to be regarded as the more exciting and more impressive player. Buccigross’s statement, “Whether it was MacKinnon or McDavid, they couldn’t believe how this teenager could shoot the puck…,” immediately established a hierarchical structure that places Bedard above two elite forwards (MacKinnon and McDavid) at eighteen. Bedard scored within the first few minutes of the first period after Vlasic got the puck to him; he was able to skate through the Oilers zone quickly and shoot it past Skinner’s glove. In all honesty, a big reason Bedard was able to score that goal was due to the fact that he was left undefended. And because he’s such a fast skater, Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm had trouble catching up to him. This is not to diminish Bedard’s talent, but rather, to more accurately explain what happened: he was wide open, he got the puck, he skated to the net super-fast, and was able to get it past Skinner. According to Buccigross, prior to that goal, “Bedard had a five-game goalless streak, the longest in his young career.” He went on to say, “So that has to feel good for the rookie who leads all rookies in goals, assists, and points. Twelve goals, twelve assists, and twenty-four points now.” However, the momentum of the game shifted significantly after the Oilers tied the game halfway through the first period. The tying goal was equally, if not more impressive, than the Bedard goal. McDavid passed the puck to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins between Crevier and Lukas Reichel, who then skated up to the net and shot it in. To be fair, Crevier and Reichel are rookies themselves, and didn’t have much of a chance against McDavid or Nugent-Hopkins. This is mainly what made the hyped-up Connor versus Connor narrative ill-fitting for the game. A good portion of the Blackhawks team consists of young, less experienced players. But only one player was being highlighted—Bedard.

After that goal, McDavid extended his point streak to ten. During the game, two charts were put up. The first one was for the longest road point streaks for players eighteen and younger and it included Nathan MacKinnon (16), Connor Bedard (10), Sidney Crosby (7), Steve Yzerman (7) and Sylvain Turgeon (7). The second chart showed the most 10-point streaks in NHL history and it included Wayne Gretzky (31), Guy Lafleur (15), Mario Lemieux (14), Marcel Dionne (14), and Connor McDavid (13). The charts clearly show that Bedard and McDavid are in the company of all-time elite hockey players. And that’s exactly what they have in common. But the two centers are in completely different places in terms of their careers. McDavid, and the rest of his Oilers teammates, have had their eyes on winning the Stanley Cup for the last two seasons. Bedard is in the middle of his first NHL season and is not only getting his feet wet playing against top NHL players, he is also having to deal with the sports media spotlight. During the first period, Bedard attempted to score a goal, but didn’t succeed. Right afterward, Buccigross let the audience know this vital fact: “He’s got the tablet right away. Maybe wants to look at that and see ‘what could I have done differently there?’” In addition to that, Bedard was mic’d up, but said very little. At the beginning of the second period, Leah Hextall gave audience members more information about Bedard and the tablet:

Well, Bucci, we saw Connor Bedard take a look at the iPad late in the first period, probably to see that beautiful goal he scored, but he will not be doing that often. Head coach Luke Richardson has limited iPad time on his bench. The reason being, he does not want his players, especially Bedard, getting in the habit of watching video too much. He feels it disconnects them from the game. The best teaching moments, he believes, are from watching players on the ice.

It seems obvious to point out that commentators taking up time to talk about Bedard looking at a tablet is ridiculous and unnecessary. However, the deeper truth behind drawing attention to Bedard and the iPad is that they had nothing else to talk about. And why is that? Because of the one-dimensional narrative they chose to push, Connor versus Connor.

Oilers center Sam Gagner scored the second goal for Edmonton at the end of the first period. Here’s what Buccigross had to say about Gagner: “Sam Gagner. Sixth overall pick in 2007, played seven years here in Edmonton. Then he went away. Then he came back for a 25-game stint in ‘18-‘19. Now here he is again for his third stint in Edmonton for the 34 year old. Career game 1,029. He gets his fourth [goal] of the year in his fourteenth game.” Right after that, he made this statement: “What a relief it is for players like McDavid when the fourth line does score. So much is put on the shoulders of 97.” Sam Gagner, born in London, Ontario, Canada, was drafted in 2007 by the Oilers and made his NHL debut in October of that same year. What Buccigross failed to mention is that Gagner made his debut as the youngest player in the NHL—at eighteen. The same exact age as Connor Bedard. Additionally, he played on what was called “The Kid Line,” along with Andrew Cogliano and Robert Nilsson, who were also rookies. The Kid Line refers to a line of young players, and it originated from a line that played for the Maple Leafs in the 1930s, which consisted of Charlie Conacher (18), Harvey “Busher” Jackson (18), and Joe Primeau (23). The line was put together by head coach Conn Smythe and it was a powerhouse line, delivering Toronto a Stanley Cup victory in 1932. The Kid Line label was also applied to an Oilers line that consisted of Adam Graves, Joe Murphy, and Martin Gelinas (all in their early twenties), who brought the Edmonton team a Stanley Cup victory in 1990. The label was used for another Oilers line that consisted of Taylor Hall (who now plays for the Blackhawks), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Jordan Eberle. Most recently, it was used to describe the Rangers line of Alexis Lafrenière, Kaapo Kakko, and Filip Chytil during the ’21-’22 season. Like most sports, young talent is prevalent, and although not all the lines listed above achieved Stanley Cup victories, they were still considered elite players. Sam Gagner was not merely a player who played for Edmonton for seven years, “went away,” “came back for a 25-game stint,” and then reappeared magically. He set/broke team records: longest assists streak by a rookie (with nine assists in eight games), tying Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey in collecting eight points in one game (he was also the eighth NHLer of all time to do this), scoring eleven consecutive points and surpassing Gretzky, who held the record for ten consecutive points.

Here’s a little more information about Gagner. In 2014, he was traded to the Lightning, who only held on to him for an hour before he was sent to the Coyotes. In 2015, he was traded to the Flyers primarily due to the fact that the Arizona organization didn’t believe he could play center at the NHL level. In 2016, he signed a one-year deal with the Blue Jackets, where he had an excellent season as the top-four goal scorer (behind Cam Atkinson, Nick Foligno, and Brandon Saad) and third in assists (behind Alexander Wennberg and Zachary Werenski). The success of that season allowed him to sign a 3-year deal with the Canucks, where he was placed on waivers during preseason and loaned out to the Toronto Marlies of the AHL. In November 2018, he played seven games with the Canucks, who called him up due to injuries, and then was sent back to the Marlies. A top scorer with the Marlies, he was traded to Edmonton (where he had five goals and seven assists during a 36-game period), and was traded to the Red Wings in 2020. Just before the beginning of the ’22-’23 season, Gagner signed a one-year, league minimum ($750,000) deal with the Jets, and his season ended with the Winnipeg team when he underwent surgery on both of his hips in March 2023. When Buccigross made the statement: “What a relief it is for players like McDavid when the fourth line does score. So much is put on the shoulders of 97,” it sets up that talented versus expendable hierarchy that he attempted to established between Bedard and Foligno—McDavid as the elite talent and Gagner as the much-needed, but expendable veteran. But here, it’s much worse, because Gagner has history with the Oilers and Buccigross’s statement made it sound like he was nothing more than fourth line filler. Although Gagner would get sent down to the AHL in early March, it’s highly unlikely that McDavid viewed the 34-year-old veteran as a nameless fourth line player who occasionally unburdened him with a goal here and there. More than likely, McDavid viewed Sam Gagner as an important part of the team, not just because he played a good portion of the season for the Oilers, but because of the important role he played for the team at the beginning of his career. And although the Oilers are slightly older than the Blackhawks, and more experienced, their team leaders—McDavid and Draisaitl—are both in their late twenties and their longest-tenured player—Ryan Nugent-Hopkins—is thirty. The team leaders need veteran leadership. And Gagner filled that role. As does another player on the team, center Derek Ryan, who is the oldest player on the team (37).

Born in Spokane, Washington, Ryan was undrafted, and spent many years playing Canadian college hockey and hockey in Europe before he made his NHL debut at 29 for the Hurricanes in 2015. In 2018, he signed a three-year contract with the Flames, where he was a solid third-line player. Once his contract was up with the Flames, he signed a two-year deal with the Oilers. One of his big strengths as a player is consistency. Since coming to the NHL, Ryan has scored an average of ten-plus goals each season and has averaged around 20 assists. On December 30^th, the Oilers beat the Kings in a shootout, which was a significant win for the Edmonton team. Derek Ryan scored the game-winning goal. Here’s what McDavid had to say about his teammate after the game: “I was thrilled to see him score that, I was thrilled to see him score. Obviously a big goal. It was his birthday yesterday as well—big 37….He’s a guy that brings it each and every single day…just does his job and his thing every single day. He’s a leader in this room, his voice carries a lot of weight. He means a lot to this group.” It’s also important to make note of the fact that Derek Ryan was a big reason Gagner was able to score that second goal. After Crevier and Kulak were fighting for the puck along the boards behind the net, Ryan was able to grab it and quickly pass it to Gagner, who was standing right next to the net and easily shot it in. Buccigross, by flattening out Gagner’s role on the team and his career in general, missed an opportunity to make comparisons between the Oilers center and Bedard. Sam Gagner, although not a number one overall pick, was also a highly-touted young player, and hasn’t had a stable home with a team since he was traded away by the Oilers in 2014. These nuances can’t be highlighted in a game where just one paper-thin narrative (Connor versus Connor) operates as the only lens with which commentators allow the audience to view the game.

In the second period, Buccigross let the audience know how much time the two Connors had been on the ice so far: “McDavid’s played 8:35 [minutes], Bedard has played 8:14 [minutes] so far.” He also pointed out another interesting fact: the Connors weren’t actually playing against each other on the ice. “Luke Richardson won’t counter with Bedard. He’d like to keep him away from McDavid as much as possible because of how much the McDavid line has the puck during their shift. He’d rather avoid that matchup if he can.” Another reason why the Connor versus Connor narrative lacked substance was due to the fact that the players weren’t physically playing against each other. And on the rare occasion that they were on the ice at the same time, Buccigross made sure to point it out: “4-on-4, Connor versus Connor. Both are out there right now. There’s Bedard on one side of the circle, McDavid’s on the other.” However, what Buccigross could point to was the McDavid Line: “That line was put together by Knoblauch [McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman], the head coach, they have been absolutely on fire.” And he could also talk about Bedard as a super-star rookie: “Connor Bedard, again leads in goals, assists, and points. Last thirty years, four guys have done that at season’s end: Brad Richards, Evgeni Malkin, Artemi Panarin, Elias Pettersson—won the triple crown of sorts for rookies. Goals, assists, points.” Ferraro also gave more context about Bedard’s hockey journey prior to his first season as an NHLer: “Last year when he was playing for the Regina Pats in the Western Hockey League, the hype around Bedard and what he was doing was so enormous he was selling out buildings on his Western swing through here in Edmonton.” Not long after that, Buccigross made this proclamation: “He is the new young hero for young hockey players around North America.” High praise. Especially for an eighteen-year-old playing against a team whose captain was also anointed with similar honors. Although the broadcast frequently showed a split screen of the two Connors side-by-side, McDavid felt very invisible and Bedard felt hyper-visible. But there was one chart that was displayed during the game that reinforced something both Connors have in common: pressure. It showed Connor McDavid’s point breakdown for the season so far: 5-pt Game (1), 4-pt Game (1), 3-pt game (2), 2-pt game (10), 1-pt Game (8), 0-pt Game (6) (the Zero-Point Game stat was highlighted). Underneath that it said “7 games with 0 pts last season.” This chart was letting the audience know that as of mid-December, McDavid already had six games without a point. Last season, he had seven pointless games total.” It seemed like an overly-judgmental chart, even if it was presenting facts. During the second period, Ferraro made this statement about Bedard

There’s so much pressure on Bedard as they try to rebuild this Blackhawks franchise. Yet, it’s probably more internal pressure, because as Nick Foligno was saying, he wants to be so very good, but the Hawks are a long ways away from having a deep, deep—they’ve got to figure out which of these guys can play, which ones are gonna be NHLers. They’ve got all these draft picks coming down the pipe….It’s gonna be a ways yet for the Hawks before they get back to a playoff team.

It’s true that the Blackhawks are not anywhere close to being a playoff-contending team. And even though this gives Bedard the luxury of being able to develop along with his team rather than being thrust into a must-win situation as an elite rookie, the external pressure is still severe. And Ferraro is right: the internal pressure is probably intense as well. ESPN put up a useful chart during the game that showed Bedard’s performances at home versus on the road. At this point in the season, Bedard had scored 2 goals at home and 10 goals on the road, he had 5 assists at home and 7 assists on the road, he had 7 points for home games and 17 points for road games, and he also had a 10-game road point streak. It was mentioned in the broadcast that a possible reason for Bedard doing better on the road than at home was due to the fact that it’s easier for him to play in front of a road crowd rather than a home crowd. This might also be due to the fact that the three cups the Blackhawks won are still fresh in the minds of everyone in Chicago—fans and the organization alike. And they want to get back to that caliber of playing as soon as possible. But young talent can’t be rushed to develop quickly, although in many cases it is, because expectations always increase exponentially when a team is able to acquire elite talent. They have to be good now, even though it’s unreasonable to expect them to be good now. They just have to be good now. This was especially true for McDavid, who was drafted during a time when the Oilers hadn’t been a playoff team since 2006, when they played the Hurricanes in the Final and lost. And because Edmonton had enjoyed the tremendous success of Wayne Gretzky, they wanted to experience that again with McDavid, who seemed the closest to reaching that level of hockey brilliance. But interestingly enough, this comparison wasn’t made during the ESPN broadcast. McDavid felt like a bit of a ghost player who wasn’t meeting the “expectations” of the sports media and Bedard was being presented as the newest shiny toy.

Leon Draisaitl scored his twelfth goal of the season with over six minutes to go in the second period. It was the third goal of the game. He shot it from his usual area on the right side of the net; he was up against the boards, and after he shot it, Zaitsev accidently redirected in with his stick. Although this is something that happens in hockey—players accidentally helping their opponent score—it was more glaring due to the fact that the Blackhawks are last in their division. Within the first minute of the third period, Hyman scored his sixteenth goal of the season, and it was a power play goal. After the Oilers passed the puck around a bit, McDavid got the puck to Hyman, who was in front of the net and able to redirect it in with his stick. This goal also points to another major difference between the two Connors: McDavid has plenty of teammates to pass the puck to. Although he did not have a goal in the game, he had two assists. As of early January, he had 40 assists, just behind Nathan MacKinnon, who, at that point in the season, had the most assists in the NHL (44). McDavid has options. Bedard does not. During the third period, after the Blackhawks came away from a power play without a goal, Buccigross pointed this out: “No shots for Chicago on that power play. We could never quite see Bedard rip one. Of course, with their injuries, Ray, no real quarterback on that power play for Chicago right now.” And as Ferraro emphasized, “No, and they really miss Taylor Hall, who could help them get into the zone and get set up,” it became obvious that the Blackhawks, even with Bedard, would not be able to have much success without all of their pieces. Taylor Hall is the team’s most valuable player in terms of talent and experience. Born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he was drafted by the Oilers in 2010, made his NHL debut a month before his nineteenth birthday (October 2010) and in 2012, he signed a seven-year, 42 million dollar contract with the team. Like Gagner, he set/broke team records: he was the first player to score a hat trick 7:53 minutes into a game; he broke Gretzky’s record of scoring two goals in nine minutes by scoring two goals in eight minutes. However, in 2016, he was traded to the Devils and after a few seasons there, he was traded to the Coyotes in the middle of the ’19-’20 season. The Coyotes chose not to resign him, which made him a free agent. He signed a one-year, 18 million dollar contract with the Sabres, and at the end of the ’20-’21 season, he was traded to the Bruins, where he signed a 4-year, 24 million dollar contract. He had an excellent ’21-’22 season as a top-four goal scorer for the Boston team, and during the ’22-’23 season he was part of the Bruins team that broke the NHL record for the most wins in a regular season. He was also the top scorer during their short playoff run, but afterwards, he was traded (along with Foligno) to Chicago.

Hall is another example of a talented player who hasn’t had a stable home since being traded away by the team that drafted him (the Oilers). And due to a knee injury that will require surgery to repair, he won’t be available to play for the Blackhawks for the rest of the season. Like Ferraro pointed out, Hall would be the player to help Bedard score in key situations (like a power play), and also help him to develop as a player. At the beginning of the season, Bedard played with a variety of linemates, but as of November, Bedard’s linemates had primarily been Nick Foligno and Philipp Kurashev. And yet, Buccigross didn’t mind pointing out how few shots on goal Bedard had: “Connor Bedard, 2 shots on goal, one in the first, one in the second, none since. Eleven minutes left in the second period, that’s his last shot on goal. It’s a hard league just to get shots on goal, much less score.” McDavid had a total of 3 shots on goal in the game; Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman both had the most shots on goal for the Oilers (4). For the Blackhawks, Connor Murphy had the most shots on goal (4). So, the fact that Bedard only had 2 shots on goal wasn’t as tragic as Buccigross made it seem. In all honesty, the game, although interesting to watch, wasn’t as exciting or thrilling as ESPN wanted it to be. And that’s because the two Connors are not in the same place career-wise, and the Oilers and Blackhawks are in completely different places team-wise. And when one-dimensional narratives are forced, countless nuances get missed. McDavid and Bedard aren’t the only players on their teams. They have plenty of players around them who have stories of their own. But those stories don’t get told. One of the worst aspects of the sports media is its undying desire to privilege one player over the rest of their team, to turn team sports (like hockey), that require a collective of athletes in order to achieve a common goal, into an individualized, one-guy-leads-and-everyone-else-follows narrative. It flattens out the game as a whole because that’s the only lens the audience is permitted to see it through: the highly-publicized top player leading a team of nameless, faceless teammates.

A more compelling matchup was the game that the Oilers played two days later (December 14^th) against the Lightning, who won two Stanley Cups in a row in 2020 and 2021, and still have their top scorers from those championships (Stamkos, Kucherov, Point). They’re the caliber of team the Oilers need to be able to compete with (and beat) during the regular season in order to be a successful playoff team. It was the second time the Oilers faced the Lightning (on November 18^th they lost 6-4) and they lost 7-4 in a historic game; Stamkos had a four-goal game for the first time in his career (his fourth goal was an empty net goal). Kucherov, Cirelli, and Mott all had goals. On the Edmonton side, Nugent-Hopkins, McDavid, Hyman, and Nurse all had goals, Bouchard had two assists, and even though Draisaitl didn’t score, he had 7 shots on goal, and Foegele had 6 shots on goal. Additionally, the last two goals the Lightning scored were empty net goals, and the Oilers outshot them 57-24. However, ESPN did cover the three games the Oilers played in New York just before Christmas. During the December 19^th game against the Islanders, Buccigross made the statement that “They [the Oilers] are not a playoff team. They’re under .500.” Which was technically true. They were 13-15-1. And even though they lost to the Islanders 3-1, the New York team spent the entire third period defending their net, and the Oilers outshot them 31-21. On December 21^st against the Devils, Steve Levy made the comment at the beginning of the game that “They [the Oilers] had a terrible start. Got their coach fired.” A more honest assessment is that the Oilers organization, not the players, fired Woodcroft, due to impatience and frustration. During the game against the Devils, the Oilers scored four goals in the third period in 1 minute and 9 seconds, which led to a 6-3 victory. And on December 22nd against the Rangers, they scored four goals in the third period and snapped Quick’s seven-game win streak in a 4-3 victory. All three of those teams are playoff contenders. On December 28^th, the Oilers beat the Sharks 5-0 in a game that was important for two reasons. 1: The last time they faced the Sharks was on November 9^th, and they were in a different place. Their record was 2-9-1, and they lost 3-2 to the San Jose team who was in last place in the division, and it was utterly devastating. 2: As an Oilers commentator pointed out during the December 28^th game, “it’s probably the loss that cost Jay Woodcroft his job.” Prior to that loss, they lost to the Canucks four times, they lost to the Flyers twice, they lost to the Jets in overtime, they lost to the Rangers, the Stars, and the Predators. Those losses were all against playoff contenders. But the loss to the Sharks, who were last in the division at 2-10-1, was demoralizing for the team as a whole, and unacceptable to the Oilers organization, who fired Woodcroft a few days later. When the Oilers beat the Sharks the second time, they had a winning record of 16-15-1, and that decisive victory was much-needed for the Edmonton team not just on a professional level, but on a psychological level.

The Blackhawks went on to lose their next two games after playing against Edmonton. They lost to the Kraken 7-1 on December 14^th and then they lost 4-3 to the Canucks on December 17^th. Taylor Raddysh was the lone goal scorer for the Blackhawks against the Kraken, and Bedard had 3 shots on goal. Against the Canucks, Foligno scored two goals, Cole Guttman scored a goal, and Bedard had 2 assists. One of the most compelling games they played during this stretch of the season was a game they lost (7-5) to the Blues on December 23^rd. The first goal of the game was scored less than four minutes into the first period. After Blackhawks defenseman Isaak Phillips attempted to shoot the puck at the net, he accidentally hit his own teammate, right winger Reese Johnson, who immediately fell down. Blues left winger Pavel Buchnevich grabbed the puck, skated into the neutral zone and passed it to center Robert Thomas, who scored. However, right after that, Bedard skated to the Blues zone and shot the puck hard around the back of the net. Kurashev reclaimed it and shot it back to Bedard, who was behind the net all alone. He skated over to the net, picked the puck up with his stick, and dropped it in behind goalie Jordan Binnington for the tying goal. This is a perfect example of the extremes the Blackhawks were dealing with as a team: not uncommon but costly mistakes that make a struggling team look worse, and the high-level, brilliant plays Bedard was able to make that helped keep the team afloat. In addition to that, Foligno scored his first shorthanded goal of his career in that game. In the game against the Jets on December 27^th, the Blackhawks won in overtime, and it was Bedard who scored both goals in that game. His first goal happened with four minutes to go in the first period. The Jets, up to that point, had 8 shots on goal and the Blackhawks only had 1 shot on goal. Murphy passed the puck to Bedard in the Jets zone, who shot the puck at the net. It bounced off of goalie Connor Hellebuyck and the eighteen-year-old center was able to get the puck into the net while sandwiched between two Jets players. Morgan Barron had the tying goal for the Jets in the second period, and even though the Winnipeg team outshot the Blackhawks 38-25, the Chicago team showed up much more aggressively in the third period. Bedard scored the game-winning goal with under three minutes to go in overtime. He skated from one end of the ice to the other, shot the puck between two Jets players, and it went right past Hellebuyck’s glove and into the net. Hellebuyck is one of the hardest goalies to score against in the NHL and he’s one of the biggest assets the Jets have. It was no small thing that Bedard was able to score that goal against him. And these are the exact moments when Bedard should be shining, and does shine: important game moments when a team needs a player to execute the kind of plays that are incredibly difficult to make to help them achieve victory. And although the Chicago team finished out 2023 with two straight losses to the Stars, Bedard’s talent is clearly undeniable. He’s the centerpiece of a team that’s in rebuilding mode, who have had the luxury of being able to count on him to give the team momentum and keep them running even though they’re in last place.

The Oilers faced the Blackhawks two more times during the ’23-’24 season, but unfortunately, the Connor versus Connor narrative was cut short due to the fact that Bedard was injured on January 5^th in a game against the Devils. In the first period, Bedard was hit by Brendan Smith and was taken out of the game. Right afterward, Foligno went after Smith, broke his finger, and had to leave the game as well. Bedard’s jaw was fractured and it was estimated that he would be out for six to eight weeks. The second Connor versus Connor matchup would’ve taken place on January 9^th. At the time that game was played, the Oilers were a wild card team and the Blackhawks had seven players on the IR (the most in the NHL). The Oilers won 2-1, and had two goals taken away. McDavid, who already scored a goal in the game (his fifteenth of the season), had his taken away due to goalie interference, and Hyman had his goal taken away after it took the referees several minutes to figure out whether or not Draisaitl (who set the goal up by passing the puck to McDavid who passed it to Hyman) was offside. They eventually determined that he was. The third matchup took place on January 25^th; the Oilers won 3-0 and extended their win streak to 15 games. However, there were two important developments that took place for both teams during the month of January. On January 12^th, Nick Foligno signed a two-year extension with the Blackhawks and on January 22^nd, Corey Perry signed a one-year deal with the Oilers. During a press conference with Ken Holland and Corey Perry, the Oilers GM explained that he’d gotten to know Perry during the 2010 Olympics and had tried to sign him in 2019, but he chose to sign with the Stars instead. After Perry was fired by the Blackhawks, Holland reached out to him and they were able to agree to a one-year deal. These are excellent moves for both teams. Not only does Foligno get to continue to mentor the young players on the Chicago team, he gets to feel a little more stabilized as an older player who hasn’t had a home with a team in some time. Not only does Corey Perry get to continue to compete as a 38-year-old hockey player, he gets to make another playoff run with a serious contending hockey team, and provide veteran leadership to a group of incredibly talented hockey players who could definitely benefit from it.

On February 6^th, the Oilers’ historic 16-game win streak was snapped by the Golden Knights (they’re tied with the Blue Jackets and behind the Penguins, who hold the record for the highest winning streak in the NHL at 17 games) as well as Stuart Skinner’s 12-game win streak; he had just surpassed Oilers goalie Grant Fuhr’s record of ten wins in a row. The Edmonton team lost 3-1 in a game that ESPN framed around Knoblauch being the sole reason why the team had such an extreme turnout. During the previous game on January 27^th against the Predators, the Oilers broadcast displayed an interesting chart: +34 Goal Differential, 14 Goal Scorers, 11 Winning Scorers, and 6 Third Period Goals Allowed. What is especially significant here is the fact that fourteen different players scored during the win streak and eleven different players scored winning goals. It very much points to the idea that the players themselves as a collective started to click and perform better. This was bound to happen, considering the fact that there is so much talent on the Oilers aside from McDavid and Draisaitl. But it wouldn’t be obvious from ESPN’s broadcast. At the very beginning of the game, Emily Kaplan quoted Bruce Cassidy, who explained why he thought the Oilers were playing so well recently: “He says ‘they’ve changed their defensive system and trust me, I recognize it. It’s been the same system that I’ve been coaching for the last fifteen years.’ He noted that their forward usage is a lot more even. That’s less taxing for McDavid and Draisaitl. And he also said they’re a lot less relying on the power play as they’ve been in years past.” It’s important to take a moment to break down Cassidy’s explanation because it’s a bit misleading. The team he currently coaches (Golden Knights) employs zone defense, and so do the Bruins (his former team). While it’s true that the Oilers adopted a zone defense strategy this season, it was something that Woodcroft implemented. Interestingly enough, defensive issues developed early on in the season, and it was one of the hot topics Woodcroft had to defend. What’s even more interesting is that the decision to change defensive styles was embraced by the organization because they wanted to improve, and the team that had the best record in the previous regular season (the Bruins) utilized zone defense, and the team that won the Stanley Cup (the Golden Knights) utilized zone defense. According to NHL.com, on October 25^th, after a 7-4 loss to the Wild, the Oilers defensive system was being criticized by the media. Here’s what Woodcroft had to say in defense of it:

I think through training camp and through the first five games of the regular season, it [zone defense] had performed pretty well. I think through five games we gave up one defensive-zone goal…I think it is a different system, it’s a system that was embraced by everybody in our organization as an area we wanted to go to….Through five games in the regular season we gave up one goal in that coverage, in the defensive zone. Yesterday we gave up a few, certainly we can be better, but for me, anytime you’re working through a new way of doing things there’s growing pains. Through five games we gave up one goal.

On September 26^th, David Staples wrote an article for the Edmonton Journal talking about whether or not zone defense would be a good idea for the Oilers to implement. He quoted Oilers assistant coach Glen Gulutzen, who had just given a seminar on defensive systems during the offseason. Gulutzen explained that there were three main defensive systems in the NHL: zone, swarm, and man-to-man. And he also made this point: “It’s really the execution of the system, not the system itself.” Meaning, the systems should work if they’re executed properly. He also pointed out that Tampa Bay’s two Stanley Cups were won using man-to-man defense, so it’s also a matter of what works for each individual team. He also gave some advice for figuring out which defensive system to implement:

Know who your players are. Know what your D is like. Do you have that cerebral centre? Do you have big strong centres? Maybe with cerebral centres you play more of a zone. They’re more free to wheel, more free to pick off passes. They can read the game pretty good. You got great big D like Vegas, that town the cup, they can block shots. You got smaller D, maybe it’s more man-on-man, better feet, quicker, quicker to close. That’s up to you. No one system is going to win it all. We know that by looking at the NHL.

Staples gave his thoughts on what defensive system the Oilers should use:

1. I’ve already written a number of posts arguing that the Oilers coaches should adopt the Vegas/Boston system. Boston crushed it in the regular season and Vegas was a defensive brute in the playoffs. Edmonton? They were mediocre on defence all year and failed to shut down the Vegas attack in key moments of the playoffs. Whatever the Oilers were doing should be open to review and to change because it was broken in the playoffs. It needs fixing.

2. Based on my own observation, I see the Oilers personnel as best suited to a zone. It’s not like Edmonton has small d-men. Darnell Nurse, Mattias Ekholm, Vincent Desharnais, Cody Ceci, Philip Broberg, Evan Bouchard and Brett Kulak all have good size. They could put up a fierce wall of resistance in front of the Edmonton net. I also think they’re far more effective there than they are chasing attacking players out towards the blueline, where they tend to get beat in open ice, then find that their teammates have failed to cover for them in front of the Oilers net.

Edmonton will benefit from a simpler zone system, one where the d-men guard the net front, the wingers the high slot and point, and the centres take care of players wheeling around the outer slot with the puck.

Woodcroft did exactly that: he implemented a zone defense. It’s also important to note that Woodcroft was not the only coach fired. Assistant coach Paul Manson was fired as well and replaced by Oilers hall of fame defenseman Paul Coffey. Although less experienced as a coach, it can be safe to say that he was brought in due to his defensive skills and instincts so that the team could strengthen its defensive game. When Woodcroft was fired and Knoblauch was brought in, he kept the zone defense, but made adjustments. Ryan Lotsberg wrote an article for Heavy Hockey on December 13^th that explained the adjustments Knoblauch made to the team in more detail, and he started out by making it clear that, “I’ll be fair to Woodcroft and Manson. There were a lot of underlying numbers that suggested positive regression was inevitable for the Oilers based on the way they were playing in the early part of the season.” After that, he went on to explain how Knoblauch improved the team. He adjusted the neutral zone system:

My observation was that it was far too easy for teams to go through the neutral zone with speed. The two forwards being stuck in the middle of the ice offered no real resistance. That forced the players defending the blue line to back off for fear of being beaten wide. The other issue that created was a large gap high in the offensive zone in which offensive players trailing the play and joining the rush late could walk into a prime scoring area with speed, time, and space.

The 1-2-2 system still has one forward pressuring the puck in the offensive zone and forcing the puck one direction, but the other two forwards are in position to challenge the puck in the neutral zone. That added traffic in the neutral zone adds resistance and makes it more difficult for the opposition to enter the offensive zone with control.

He explained how Woodcroft implemented zone defense:

Woodcroft was using a box plus one zone defence. Four players would form a box, and one player would pursue the puck aggressively. The player pressuring the puck would change depending on where the puck was in the zone. The idea was to create traps where a player would skate the puck into two players resulting in turnovers.

I’ll be clear in saying that this defensive zone system wasn’t the reason that the Oilers started so poorly this season. Having said that, the issues that I saw with this system were that there was often confusion as to who should be pressuring the puck. The system called for a lot of switches, and those switches led to confusion.

Another issue I saw was that the spacing of the players in the box was too wide. The reason for that was so that players would be closer to the boards to create those traps with the player pressuring the puck. However, we saw many examples of dangerous scoring areas being left open as a result of that wide spacing.

After making it clear that zone defense wasn’t the problem, but how specifically the players were struggling with it, he explained how Knoblauch tweaked it:

Knoblauch has gone away from the box plus one system. He is still using a zone defence, but he doesn’t have one player aggressively pressuring the puck. He has made slot coverage a priority by tightening the spacing of the box formation and by putting the centre in the middle of the box.

In addition to that, Lotsberg pointed out that this adjustment helped to make Skinner’s job easier in front of the net. He also explained how Knoblauch put together the McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman line, which obviously proved to be an incredibly successful top line. On December 17^th, Gregory Babinski wrote an article for The Oil Rig that also explained some of the changes Knoblauch made and he prefaced it with this statement: “Woodcroft brought success to the Oilers during his head coaching tenure, and some would suggest that he would have seen the club to this point if he had the chance” and also commented that “the Oilers turnaround is a collective effort.” Babinski noted that Knoblauch made changes to the penalty kill and while coaching in the AHL, the penalty kill was one of this strengths. He explained that four defensive players (Nurse, Ceci, Ekholm, Desharnais) were seeing more penalty kill time and Brent Kulak’s penalty kill participation decreased. He also noted that more forwards were being used during the penalty kill (Janmark, Nugent-Hopkins, Ryan, McLeod, Brown, Foegle), explaining that “…while the unit was struggling, we saw a lot of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Evander Kane on the penalty kill.” He also made note of how even strength play improved in general:

The biggest change in icetime comes through playing a more traditional 12-6 lineup, with a clear cut top four defencemen. Virtually all the Oilers defence saw a rise in icetime, but this is as much to do with the demotion of Philip Broberg than anything.

In turn, and through injuries, the forwards have seen less icetime by average across the board. The top-six players, most notably McDavid and Draisaitl, have seen less icetime, but still a healthy amount above the rest of the team’s forwards. McLeod has centred a clear checking line, while a fourth line of Sam Gagner, James Hamblin, and Ryan has formed some chemistry of late.

To sum up, the defensive players are playing more, the top forwards are playing less, but still more than most of the forwards, which makes perfect sense, seeing as how the Oilers’ win-streak was the result of collective scoring, rather than two or three players doing all the scoring. However, Babinski makes this interesting point: “This is not drastically different from what the team ran under Woodcroft, though having a consistent 12 is a change, perhaps allowing for some chemistry lower in the lineup.” It’s interesting that these writers, who are familiar with the Oilers on a more technical and nuanced level, all seem to want to give Woodcroft credit for being a good coach while also honoring the changes Knoblauch has made. It’s also evident that the changes Knoblauch made, although effective, were not drastic. As Lotsberg pointed out, “A lot of people thought that Knoblauch would falsely get credit when the team inevitably started regressing towards the mean. Let’s give Knoblauch some credit here though. The changes he has made have been impactful.” Unfortunately, that’s exactly what ESPN has done consistently since Knoblauch was hired and the Oilers, as a team, turned their season around: treat him like the savior of the franchise.

Returning to Cassidy’s assessment, it’s also true that the forward usage has evened out, and the writers above seem to confirm that, and this change has taken the pressure off of the scoring leaders and allowed other forwards more icetime. However, it’s important to point something out. Last season, the top two scorers for the Oilers were McDavid and Draisaitl, by a wide margin. McDavid had 64 goals and Draisaitl had 52 goals. The third and fourth top scorers were Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman, who both had 35-plus goals. Behind them were Evander Kane (16 goals), Warren Foegele (13 goals), and Derek Ryan (13 goals). McDavid and Draisaitl were among the top scorers in the league and so at that time, the wide gap between 50-60 goals and 30-plus goals for a team was (and is) pretty large, but accepted by all, because Edmonton’s two elite players were performing brilliantly. In other words, it wasn’t a problem that they were scoring that many goals compared to other players on their team. Forward usage wasn’t an issue. However, as of February 2024, the top goal scorer for the Oilers was Zach Hyman, with 30 goals. Right behind him were Draisaitl (23 goals) and McDavid (21 goals). And right behind them were Kane (15 goals), Nugent-Hopkins (12 goals), and Foegele (10 goals). Compared to last season, McDavid and Draisaitl’s scoring is a lot less. The fact that Hyman is already at 30 goals is not surprising since he finished last season with 36. In the previous season, Kane finished with 16 goals, so he’s already on pace to improve his goal-scoring from the season before. However, Nugent-Hopkins’s numbers are much lower as well. This goes back to the main point of why the Oilers have struggled: less scoring from the top players early on in the season. Forward usage evened out primarily because McDavid and Draisaitl were not able to score as frequently and as quickly as they did in the previous season, and more icetime was not the solution. That’s why Knoblauch lowered it a bit. And to be honest, the forward usage evening out isn’t a large reason of why they improved to wild card status. It just looks that way because in the previous season McDavid and Draisaitl were scoring so much and this season, because they weren’t early on, the rest of the forwards needed to pick up the slack until the top forwards could get back on track. If McDavid and Draisaitl had been scoring early on, the Oilers would’ve been playoff contenders immediately, like in previous seasons. During the sixteen-game win streak, fourteen different scorers were collectively scoring goals, which is excellent, and that’s certainly what separates a good team from an average team. By nature, good teams have more goal-scorers. But it wouldn’t be too presumptive to say that pressure was a factor for McDavid and Draisaitl at the beginning of the season because both players recognize what it takes to be elite scorers and because they weren’t hitting those numbers early on, it had to cause an immense amount of stress. In the ’21-’22 season, Draisaitl led the Oilers with 55 goals and McDavid came in second with 44 goals. The third goal scorer was Hyman, with 27 goals. That’s a large gap. Those top forwards not only know exactly what they’re capable of, they want to achieve that high-level of playing on a consistent basis, and they weren’t able to do it early on this season, which caused a ripple effect. So, while collective scoring is always ideal for a hockey team, when there are two players like McDavid and Draisaitl who score at an elite level, and they’re not able to, it’s naturally going to affect the team. So, the evening out of forward usage was a way to lower their stress more than anything else, because high-stress makes it hard for anyone to do what they do best. In truth, the Oilers were a playoff contender even though their game record didn’t show it. It just took them a little longer to get there from a record standpoint.

If we use the Golden Knights as an example, their top goal scorer during the previous regular season was Johnathan Marchessault with 28 goals. That’s a low number compared to the top goal scorers in the league, who scored between 64 and 51 goals. However, the second and third goal scorers behind Marchessault were Jack Eichel (27 goals) and Reilly Smith (26 goals). Right behind them was Mark Stone with 17 goals and then William Carrier, Mike Amadio, Chandler Stevenson, and Nicholas Roy, who all had 16 goals. There was still a drop-off between the top three scorers and the forwards scoring just beneath them, but it isn’t as extreme as with the Oilers. The number two goal scorer for the Golden Knights last season, Jack Eichel, was selected in the draft second overall behind McDavid in 2015, but has not scored at the same level. The most goals he’s ever scored in a season was 36 in ’19-’20. However, he now has a Stanley Cup Championship and McDavid does not. This is not to criticize Eichel, but to help give a more accurate picture of how significant McDavid and Draisaitl are as goal-scorers. The Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup in the previous season because their goal-scorers got hot during the playoffs. Marchessault led the playoffs in scoring with 13 goals, but here’s an interesting fact: Draisaitl also scored 13 goals in the playoffs, and his team didn’t win the Stanley Cup. It would be really easy to argue that one of the reasons that the Golden Knights won was because their forward usage was more even across the board, but that’s misleading. Their collective scoring was so much lower than the top goal scorers in the league during the regular season, which didn’t only include McDavid and Draisaitl, but David Pastrňák, Mikko Rantanen, and Brayden Point. The truth of the matter is that when you’re a team like the Golden Knights who don’t have elite scoring, the best option is to spread the time around more evenly so that all of your goal-scorers have a better chance to score. That same game plan is less feasible for a team like the Oilers on a grand scale because they have elite scorers in McDavid and Draisaitl. But it was necessary this season for Knoblauch to lower their icetime and allow the other goal scorers a chance to pick up the slack, but it’s not a long-term plan. When elite players are playing an elite game, the best option is to let them play as much as possible, but not overwork them. McDavid and Draisaitl were not overworked in previous seasons. They were simply doing what they do best: scoring goals. Evening out the forward usage is a temporary solution for the Oilers, until their top forwards can get to scoring again. And to be utterly honest, this essayist would prefer a team that includes a few elite scorers paired with a group of good goal scorers rather than a team that only includes good goal scorers on a team that has to even out the icetime in order to compete with playoff contenders. This essayist would take a McDavid or a Draisaitl or a Pastrňák over a Marchessault or a Eichel or a Smith even though the latter three have a Stanley Cup to their names because elite scoring, as a whole, is more valuable. With that being said, it’s also important to point out that Marchessault finished the ’23-24 regular season with 42 goals and Eichel and Karlsson came in behind him with 31 and 30 goals. The top performing goal scorers that came in behind them—Barbashev, Stone, and Stephenson—all scored between 19 and 16 goals. The Golden Knights, in terms of goal scoring, look more like the Oilers than in the previous season, and they finished in a wild card spot. It will be interesting to see how they perform in the playoffs.

Cassidy’s final observation about the Oilers’ overall improvement—“they’re a lot less relying on the power play as they’ve been in years past”—is misleading and it has to do with logic more than anything else. The idea of the Oilers “relying on the power play” is a bit preposterous. During the ’22-’23 regular season, the top three power play teams were the Oilers, the Maple Leafs, and the Lightning, and during the playoffs, the top three power play teams were the Oilers, the Jets, and the Bruins. As of late February 2024, the top three power play teams were the Lightning, the Maple Leafs, and the Hurricanes, with the Oilers coming in at fourth. It’s safe to say that none of the teams above “rely” on their power play. They’re all playoff contenders. When it comes to the power play, what often gets forgotten is why power plays happen in the first place: because the other team commits a penalty. And teams commit penalties for a few reasons: 1) to keep the other team from scoring, 2) in an attempt to get under the other team’s skin, and 3) by pure accident. If we look at the top power play teams for both seasons, there’s one specific thing all of those teams share: elite scorers. It’s no surprise that they’re the top power play teams because other teams are constantly trying to keep them from scoring. However, there are plenty of examples in the NHL of teams that do draw penalties in order to get the power play advantage and the reason why is because those teams are struggling to score and the 5-on-4 advantage increases their odds of scoring goals. It is safe to say that none of the top power play teams mentioned above were or are in that position. They don’t need to draw penalties in order to score. The power play is an added bonus for them because other teams, in their effort to keep them from scoring, commit penalties against them, which inevitably causes them to score anyway because as top-scoring teams, they’re given an even bigger advantage in a 5-on-4 situation. Although the Oilers currently only have the fourth best power play in the NHL, it has nothing to do with the fact that they’re relying on it less. It could be argued that one of the reasons they haven’t had as many power play goals is due to the fact that they were struggling to score early on in the season and the numbers reflect that. It has absolutely nothing to with reliance.

During a postgame interview, Draisaitl pointed out a criticism that had been thrown at the Oilers which was that they could only score when they were on the power play. And he said something to the effect that the power play was a weapon they had that other teams didn’t have and he’s absolutely correct. But to go further, it’s a weapon Edmonton gets to use because other teams give them lots of opportunities to make use of it. It’s not actually a weakness. However, as valuable as the power play advantage can be, it doesn’t guarantee success for a team. To give an example, during the Blues/Sabres game on February 10^th, ESPN reported that the St. Louis team had significantly improved their power play. When the Blues fired Berube in December, they had one of the worst power plays in the league and they were 13-14-1. Under their new coach, Drew Bannister, they had the tenth best power play in the NHL and were a wild card team. It is true that a drastic improvement like that can be the difference for a team. Overall, as of late February, the Blues were ranked 22^nd in the power play and were in the wild card race. On February 10^th, when they were in a wild card spot, they beat the Sabres, who were not a playoff team, 3-1, and scored one power play goal. The next day, they beat the Canadiens 7-2, another team that is not in playoff contention, and had three power play goals. However, on February 13^th, they lost 4-1 to the Maple Leafs, who were a wild card team, and three of Toronto’s top players weren’t playing that night (Marner and Tavares were ill and Reilly was suspended). In that particular game, they had two power play opportunities, but failed to capitalize off of them. Then, on February 15^th, they beat the Oilers 6-3 and they had multiple power play opportunities. In the first period, the Oilers committed a tripping penalty, which initially put the Blues on the power play, but after a minute into it, they committed a hooking penalty, which resulted in Draisaitl scoring a power play goal. In the second period, the Blues had three power play opportunities and scored two power play goals. In the third period, the Oilers committed a slashing penalty and then an elbowing and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties which put the St. Louis team on a 5-on-3 power play, but they didn’t capitalize off of it. After that, the Oilers committed a cross-checking penalty and the Blues were not able to score a power play goal off of it either. Even though the Blues won 6-3, they could’ve scored more goals due to the power play advantages they’d been given by the other team. On February 17^th, they lost to the Predators 5-2 and had one power play goal then played the Maple Leafs again on February 19^th with Marner and Tavares back in the lineup, and lost 4-2. In that game, they had one power play goal, but the Maple Leafs also had one power play goal and one shorthanded goal. In truth, power play advantages can only take a team so far. As of late February, the top four goal scorers for the Blues (Buchnevich, Kyrou, Thomas, and Neighbours) all had 19 goals. The Blues can’t rely on the power play alone to keep them in playoff contention because their goal scorers have to be able to score as consistently as goals scorers do on other playoff teams, power play or not. The Oilers’ true strength is really their ability to score consistently. The power play is just an added bonus they get because other teams, who recognize how consistent their scoring is, do whatever they can to stop them, which includes committing penalties.

In a pregame interview on December 28^th, Draisaitl was asked this question: “How would you reflect on the first 31 games of the season so far?” and he responded by saying “…a little too up and down, a little inconsistent…we’re obviously looking to find our game a little bit and get some consistency….” This interview took place at the beginning of the Oilers’ win streak, when the team had just accomplished two big victories over the Devils and the Rangers. It’s safe to say that the Oilers as a whole found consistency as they went on to win sixteen games in a row. At of the end of February, McDavid entered a ten-game goalless streak, and although he jokingly commented that he wasn’t going to try and score goals anymore, but focus just on getting assists (he had 23 assists during this ten-game period), the Oilers’ consistency did drop off since his last goal. In the first five games without a McDavid goal, the Edmonton team lost 3-1 to the Golden Knights (which snapped their win-streak), they beat the Ducks 5-3, lost to the Kings 4-0, beat the Red Wings 8-4, and then lost to the Blues 6-3. This does seem to suggest that a consistently scoring McDavid helps keep the team stabilized. Bedard returned to the ice on February 15^th after missing fourteen games. Scoring continued to be a major issue for the team; they were shut out four times during Bedard’s absence after only being shut out three times all season prior to his injury. Even after a fourteen-game absence, Bedard still led all rookies with 40 points and tied with Marco Rossi of the Wild with 17 goals. This also does seem to suggest that Bedard is an important factor for the Blackhawks. McDavid and Bedard are both worthy of the admiration and attention they receive as elite players. McDavid ended the season with 32 goals and 100 assists. However, Hyman finished the season with a career-high 54 goals (third in the league), Draisaitl finished with 41 goals, and Connor Brown, who struggled to get his first goal all season, finished with 4 goals. As a whole, the Edmonton team finished second in their division and secured a playoff spot. Bedard finished the season with 22 goals and 39 assists. However, Jason Dickinson also finished the season with 22 goals and 13 assists. And Kurashev, Foligno, and Johnson weren’t far behind with 18, 17, and 16 goals. As a whole, the Chicago team finished last in their division with only 23 wins 22 consecutive road game losses. Sports teams are multidimensional and the narratives should be multidimensional as well. Connor versus Connor is an incredibly thin narrative because it lacks nuance, perspective, and depth. It’s also a lazy narrative because at the end of the day, ESPN can get away with only highlighting McDavid and Bedard precisely because they are important players. The narrative doesn’t get questioned because it isn’t inherently false. But it is one-dimensional and it does cheapen the viewing experience and it doesn’t uplift the more truthful narrative that hockey is a team sport. It’s requires a collective effort to be a successful team.

In truth, it could be argued that as of late February, the Oilers were a successful team because they were third place in their division and were playoff contenders and the Blackhawks weren’t successful because they were last place in their division and struggled to win consistently. It’s also true that it’s not solely because of McDavid that the Oilers were having a successful season and it’s not solely because of Bedard that the Blackhawks were not having a very good season. There are multiple factors as to why a team is a success or a failure that goes beyond one or two key players. ESPN (and the sports media in general) could vastly improve how they frame sports by emphasizing the collective over the individual. If they did this, the narratives would not only become more interesting, they’d become more representative of what sports teams actually look like—multiple athletes coming together to achieve success (winning games, making the playoffs, winning championships). Players like McDavid and Bedard can still be highlighted, but not in a way that diminishes the team aspect of the sport. In the case of McDavid, it’s hard to talk about him without talking about Draisaitl, Hyman, Nugent-Hopkins, Kane, Bouchard, etc. And yet, ESPN does it. With Bedard, it’s difficult to talk about him without talking about where the Blackhawks are as a team in rebuilding mode, but because he’s so good, it’s easy to celebrate him as a rookie, and detach him from the players around him who are also young and learning how to be NHLers just like he is. As long as the sports media continues to privilege the individual over the collective when it comes to team sports, the narratives they present to their audience will continue to be one-dimensional, distorted, and inauthentic and not truly representative of what it means to be an athlete working with other athletes to achieve a common goal. It would be incredibly beneficial to the sports world (and society in general) if media outlets started presenting team sports, like hockey, in its truest light—a collective effort by a group of individuals who all have their role to play whether they’re elite, veteran, multiskilled, specialized, or gifted in ways that don’t always translate into hard stats. Emphasizing a collective encourages a collective viewpoint, which is something that’s sorely needed in the world—because just like sports teams, societies don’t function through one person, they function collectively.

April 29, 2024