The Utah Hockey Club has made its debut in the National Hockey League, and they did so with great success. They defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 to open the 2024-25 season, despite Connor Bedard having a great game.
Bedard has now officially entered his sophomore year in the league, coming after a Calder Trophy-winning first year in the league, where he led or co-led all rookies in goals, assists, and points.
Bedard had an assist in both of the Blackhawks’ two goals scored in the game, completing a very rare feat. According to NHL Public Relations on X, Bedard became the third teenager in Blackhawks history to record multiple points in a season-opening game, joining only Stan Mikita and Denis Savard. Utah was up 3-0 in the game when the Blackhawks first got on the scoresheet.
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The 3-1 goal came from an excellent play by Connor Bedard, who passed the puck to Tuevo Teravainen, who beautifully finished it off with a backhand shot. But fans were quick to point out that Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev didn’t bring his A-game when trying to stop Bedard just before he set up Teravainen for the goal.
In fact, it looked like Sergachev was held back from hitting Bedard, which led to him being able to make the play. On social media, many reacted to how Sergachev acted.
”For some reason Sergachev decided not to send Bedard into outer space, which was a choice I appreciate,” Pete Blackburn said on X.
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Fans were even speculating that Bedard’s not being hit was a league-wide conspiracy to protect the young star from injury.
”There must’ve been a memo sent out to all the teams that Bedard must be kept alive through the season,” one user said on social media.
”He knows Bettman is in the front row,” another said.
”It looks like pond hockey when opposing teams defend Bedard,” a third added.
