ELMONT, N.Y. — Not long after Anders Sorensen ran his first practice as Blackhawks coach last Friday, he pulled teenage star Connor Bedard aside for a one-on-one meeting.
The two of them discussed ways Bedard might be able to get more out of his ongoing second NHL season, with Sorensen sharing his thoughts and Bedard also offering his own ideas at Sorensen’s invitation. Bedard appreciated the two-way nature of that meeting and their conversations since.
“[Anders] has been great,” Bedard said Wednesday. “We all love how he’s come in and taken control. He’s very open-minded with stuff. He’s talked to me lots one-on-one already and given me good advice.”
Sorensen, 49, has found his footing as a first-time NHL coach with relatively little experience coaching pros — he was coaching 15-year-olds as recently as 2014-15 — by seeking input from his vast network of current and former players.
Perhaps none are as talented at and intelligent about hockey as Bedard, though.
“He’s a really good person,” Sorensen said. “That’s a huge part of why he’s so successful. But he’s [also] a really smart hockey person, so just getting his thoughts on things is important. He watches a lot of hockey and I watch a lot of hockey, so we exchange ideas.
“It comes back to [the fact] that the players are the ones playing. Sometimes they see things that we don’t see as coaches, and trying to get their feel for that is important.”
Sorensen has emphasized the importance of continuous motion for Bedard, both when it comes to teammates trying to get him the puck and him getting in position to receive the puck.
His vision, puck-handling and agility are all elite, but his straight-line speed isn’t, so it’s difficult for him to maneuver into space — especially considering how closely defenses key on him — if he receives the puck while stationary.
Once he’s carrying the puck, Sorensen has encouraged him to look for trailers on the rush, since Hawks defensemen have been urged to jump up more aggressively in those situations. As soon as opposing defenses realize they have to respect and cover Hawks defensemen, that should open up more space for Bedard and his linemates (currently Philipp Kurashev and Ilya Mikheyev).
“Whenever you can add more guys and more options, it makes the game easier, so that’s great for us,” Bedard said. “We want [the defensemen] shooting the puck, whether it’s off the rush or off low-to-high [passes].”
Bedard has tallied an assist in each of the Hawks’ first two games under Sorensen, earning a helper on Alex Vlasic’s power-play goal in the loss to the Jets and feeding Taylor Hall for the deciding goal in the win over the Rangers. He’ll seek his second three-game point streak of the season Thursday against the Islanders.
He has recorded only one shot on goal in those two games combined, however, and his five goals in 28 games this season remains a source of frustration for him and a problem for the Hawks’ offense. That’s one major reason why the team has scored more than three goals just once in their last 15 games — a dire offensive drought that Sorensen was brought in to fix.
Individually, Bedard is on pace to finish the season with just 15 goals, down from 22 last year — which in itself fell short of his expectations. His rates of shot attempts, shots on goal and scoring chances during five-on-five play are all down significantly from last year, too, so it will be interesting to monitor if those begin ticking up.
His confidence at least seems to have rebounded from its mid-November low point.
“I feel all right,” Bedard said. “There’s great games; there’s bad games. You always want to be getting better, so that’s all you can focus on.”
