The Chicago Blackhawks took on the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night and they played a solid game. The difference in the game, besides Scott Wedgewood in the net for Colorado, was the playmaking of Nathan MacKinnon.
He collected two assists in the third period to push Colorado over Chicago in what was otherwise a close game. These two assists extended his NHL lead in points but he also reached an incredible milestone.
The first of the two assists was point number 1000 in the brilliant career of Nathan MacKinnon. At only 29 years old, he reached that plateau incredibly quickly. It only took him 856 games.
The reason that the Blackhawks should take note of MacKinnon is Connor Bedard. Like MacKinnon, Bedard was a number one overall pick in the draft.
MacKinnon is a future Hall of Famer but he wasn’t always like this. He had his fair share of ups and downs early on too. MacKinnon didn’t have a point-per-game season until his fifth year in the NHL at 22 years old.
Chicago must be patient with Bedard the way that Colorado was with MacKinnon. At 19 years old and through 113 games played, Bedard has been better than MacKinnon up to that point. Even Nathan MacKinnon recognized it after their win over Chicago in Denver.
“He’s close to a point-per-game.” MacKinnon said about Bedard. “I’d have killed for that when I was 19”.
When MacKinnon was in his early 20s, there was some wonder about his ceiling in the NHL. Those wonders have been answered as he will be remembered as one of the greatest forwards in NHL history.
None of this means that Bedard is going to be the same as MacKinnon but it does put things into perspective. It takes time to become a super-elite forward in the NHL if you are going to become one.
Bedard needs to just keep playing and working on his game. Playing the game the right way will lead to a ton of points for a player this talented.
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