Connor Bedard Joins What Chaos!

What do you say to people who say that you don't look like a captain because you aren't bald like Nick Falino? It's actually a good point. I'd have to look around the league, the percentage of bald guys that are captain's probably pretty high. Yeah. I think they're wise. How is life different with the sea? I mean, so far, not too different. I think maybe more responsibility, well, there's planning stuff or whatever, but we've got a lot of guys to help with that, but I don't think really changes much. Pete wants to ask the most important question. Oh, yeah, I mean, my first question has got to be like, why did you agree to do this with us again? I mean, you're 18 years old, yeah, I mean, we like ambush the hell out of you. We didn't even really have a show at that point. Why'd you do this again? I thought it was good, you know, it's been a while and yeah, I did it with courts, right? Yeah, yeah. So I think we both both enjoyed it and yeah, you guys have gotten a lot bigger since then. I feel like so, you know, testament to you guys. So likewise. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But no, I thought it's fun. Yeah, that was one of our favorites because everybody was like, you know, he's going through all this stuff and there's so much pressure on him or whatever. And we're like, OK, well, he's not going to give us a better hockey answer than he's giving everybody else. Yeah. So let's just try to have him breathe for a few minutes. Year four is pressure any different or like is your relationship with pressure any different versus when you came into the league? For sure. Yeah. I think probably like my first two years, it's obviously changed, changed in your life. You know, there's some ways I feel like I could have dealt with stuff better and but you just learn, learn as you go. And I think kind of this last year, two years, I feel a lot more. Just like myself, just having fun playing hockey and that's kind of what I value. And so I think you just just learn as you go and get better with it every day. One of our favorite things about you is how mad you get sometimes on the ice. Yeah. Like what it all culminated, I think in a great moment with Utah, like when you were in the field that game and you got into the thing with the fan, what's the angriest you've been, like while playing hockey? Good question. That's all I'm trying to try to tone down to probably but I can't think of one. I mean, there's a lot of moments where you're pretty fresher. I was actually, I was trying the summer, even summer, just like never be mad, you know, or like channel your anger in a better way. It's something that I think, yeah, even the first years, a lot of stick breaks, a lot of stuff like that. So try to be better in that way. How do you like try to channel it, because in some ways, it's good, right? Yeah. Even like that with like a fan or something, like I remember, I was just playing bad one game and I tried to like make myself a little angry, kind of get into something a little bit and then it motivates you maybe. So if you do it like that, I think it's a good thing. But you're being a little baby or some, it's obviously not, not channel it the right way. So I think if it's at a person or at your, your game in the right way, it definitely helped. Got some amazing faces out of it though, like this is the greatest. Yeah. There's a lot of good or I mean, I just like Google's Conor Bedard face, yeah, when you're on camera all the time, you're going to, you know, some good ones and it's, yes, I definitely can, can show expression. So I think it's funny though. Have you seen your, your face game in NHL? I haven't seen it. I know that like guys across the league. I haven't seen it. I haven't seen it. Is mine pretty real? I don't know. I haven't seen it, but I've seen some bad ones. Yeah. But I haven't seen mine. I see. I saw Zegress say that he sends coffee old, his every morning. Yeah. Because it's so bad. And his is bad. It's really terrible. Like someone on our team had a pretty bad one. I feel like all of our more had like one of the better ones. Really? Yeah. Frankie. I did want to ask like what's helped you feel like more comfortable in your own skin over the last, you know, few years, just based on is it just the experience or is it the team kind of transitioning to be more in line with like your age group with like what, what does help the most? Yeah. I think it's probably more internal. I let myself breathe a little bit. Obviously, you know, growing up, you deal with less adversity and and leagues that aren't quite as hard. Um, you maybe if you're playing well, you're happy. If you're not, you're not. And I think you got to separate the two a little bit, uh, life and hockey and think just doing a better job of that and just realizing that, you know, how lucky we are to do this and just have fun with it. So probably message I tell myself a lot. Your player's Tribune thing was very good. Uh, a lot of it was about just like I wants to fucking win. Yeah. I think this team is now and like specifically with the Byron trade, like a lot of people freaked out. They were like, Oh, you shouldn't trade picks that high and everything. How did you feel? Because you added a really good young player and I'm sure that you're like, let's, let's go. Let's get some guys here. Yeah. No, we were fired up. Um, I mean, you pick forth overall. You hope it's going by. You know, he's a fourth overall. Yeah, literally. And you're extremely happy if someone that good and he's been, he got your after a team with Kalmokar and then he goes to team with Dalline and you're, you're not going to take their job. You know, so he's, he's a number one D man, um, he's going to be great and he's going to change our team. He's going to log minutes first unit power play first pair. So, um, I'm, I'm excited for him to get this opportunity and he's, he was drafted to be that guy and that's who he is. Still going to be good. I know you're, you're really competitive. So it's probably hard to feel it in the moment. But like also, how much value do you put in some of the tougher times leading up to hopefully what's the come and like the climb? And I know you're like a big basketball fan watching the next this year. Yeah. Overcome like just like all the shit that's been attached to them and break through it and see the reward on the other side from like the city and from the fan base. How much do you think about that when you think about like your future here in Chicago? For sure. All the time. It's funny. You mentioned it. I feel like not even as a next fan, just like, does most like a motion. I felt watching sports just like seeing them when it's in the city like and that's what it would be like here. Obviously if we won if the bears won, when the Cubs won, like, you know, it's, it's, I think you do look at those times and you go through it together, like coming in with guys and adding pieces and losing and trying to figure out ways to win and, and we feel we're at a point now where the expectation is the win and that's an exciting part whether, whether we do or not, but we're overly confident that we're going to. Do you think, I mean, when you got hurt last year, it was like mid December, I want to say, but team was 500-ish like a point out of the playoffs. It's not like this team was picking forth overall the entire season. So when you look at this group now, are you like, you know what, this, yeah, obviously you expect to take steps forward, but like you don't want to put a limit on it. For sure, we, I mean, we're in, in and out of the playoffs, switching every day till basically the Olympic break, you know, I think kind of mid-January is when maybe we started, we went on a little losing streak and we couldn't really, really find it, but, you know, we, we look at last year is almost like a missed opportunity, I think, obviously I feel probably when I came back from injury, I didn't produce it quite the same level and there's frustrations individually as a team and we just know where we can be. We saw it last year. We added, oh, we added pain or we had these guys, I think we're a better team now. Everyone's a year older. So there's no reason we can't, we can't go, go do that. You still think you're going to miss like the first month, we don't have to talk so much about the injury thing, but like they say it's going to be a month. Yeah. Do you think it's going to be a month? I don't know. I mean, I'm just doing what I can. It feels really good. I'm out there doing basically everything on the ice. Well, who knows, that's obviously not really up to me in the end, you know, I play right now if I could, but you know, a lot smarter people that can make that decision and, but we'll see, just kind of do what I can on day to day. I know that when you've been rehabbing, you've been skating on your own before the practices and everything. Now that you're captain, aren't you worried that looks like you're putting yourself before the team? Yeah, it is weird a little bit like you get to see and you're just not really around the guy. But I got in the room with them for like 10 minutes, probably the best 10 minutes on my day, you know, just just just shooting it for a bit, but now that's a good point. How much more challenging is it mentally to get hurt like in a summer and then see things ramp back up like the team get back together? I'm sure it's really hard right now when there's all this excitement about the season being starting and the guys being out there versus in season and, you know, a missing time there. It's a bit of a weird feeling, you know, even just like new guys coming in or what line you're going to be on, power play, like all that stuff, kind of building chemistry. But out of the day it is what it is, you know, I feel obviously you make a decision in summer to do that. But it is almost harder once you're ramping back up and stuff than when you're in a slaying doing nothing all day, you know, because then you feel like, oh, I can't do anything, but now it's like I could play, you know, but obviously, you don't, you want to be safe and you want to do the right protocols and stuff, but I'm just excited to get back and obviously watching you guys start the year. What do you do other than rehab when you're injured to kill the time? Yeah, right when I got hurt, I remember I crushed love Island pretty hard. for like the first few days and then, uh, but then once you get home and stop you're just hanging out with with your buddies and whatnot and I'm kind of at the ring for the same amount of time. Like when I skate there working out and vice versa and then we, we go hang out, we go for lunch, whatever. So, um, once the, if the guys are on the road and I'm not there, then obviously you got to fill your time a bit more. But, um, right now I'm living pretty normally. Does it bum you out that you're going to be set to return like right around the start of Grand Theft Auto coming out? Yeah, it's a, uh, what is it six? The one that's everything out and so I mean, some of the boys will be, uh, maybe, maybe you might be the only guy in the ice. I know, I know some of the boys will be playing a little worse. Maybe at that time, it's also going to say that. Yeah, it's, uh, Stephen Adams was, yeah, who's just like, we're talking about that yesterday. He's like, look at the stat lines across the league before and after that, that game comes out. So, well, famously that like, didn't Kyler Murray have worse every time there's a new college duty, yeah, numbers plummeted, unbelievable. Did you see the Odyssey? I did, which think it's okay. Like, it's not really, really for me. I don't know the story and stuff. Like, like people that love it are like into the, like, mythology, whatever. Like, it's probably above my IQ level, some of it. So, um, I thought it was good though. Like, it's cool. I just didn't really get it. Have you heard the song Choosing Texas? Yeah. Okay. A lot of people, a lot of people would say, no, I haven't. I've never heard it. How I just, I listen to the songs that are already on my phone. That's why let's do it everywhere though. It's a big gym locker room song. Yeah, but even like any sports event, you go to, I feel like they play it like out there. You know, yeah. There is so that there's a lot of discourse about it because it's broken records for being like the longest running number one single, whatever. And a lot of people are like, how can that be? I haven't heard this song. Yeah. So, some people think it doesn't exist. I didn't know that. It's an easy search. Who is like the biggest star in the world to you? The most famous person. Yeah. Nick full, you know, like genuinely. I don't know, Justin Bieber, maybe that's a pretty good one. I mean, I was expecting somebody that I like, I wouldn't know or like, would be kind of like, Bieber's around my age. I was just thinking like most famous. Yeah. Caner. He's there. Yeah. That's got to be exciting stuff there. Yeah. Would Messi be in the next message? Messi's like always. There's a good one. Well, you're just like a huge, you're a huge, huge sports guy, right? Like just a cross the board. Yeah, I'm pretty into it. Maybe in America, like Josh Allen's probably right now. The biggest that's what I've shown. He's probably a bill span. Yeah, I didn't want to ask you. What do you think of the, uh, the, uh, Jalen Brown trade? I mean, I was pretty shocked at the return. Yeah, just because like, I mean, Paul George is obviously like plays older than Brown, but maybe I don't know. Both teams obviously got what they want. I guess. Do you think Philly's going to be good or you think that's going to be a disaster? No, I think they'll be, they'll be pretty sick. I maybe the best starting five ever. No, I'm not going to stay it. Don't say it would be better than that. I, I can't see that crashing and burning with LeBron. No, LeBron's going to average like 12 and like 10 though. And people are going to say he's like, watch, but then like whenever someone doesn't play, who got like 30, you know, that's what I think. Yeah, he's just adaptable. Who would your favorite be in the NBA this season? Player team team. I mean, the bulls obviously. Oh, I mean, my favorite to win. I mean, favorite to win. Uh, the bull. Yeah, still the bulls, but no. I'm with the spurs. They're probably going to win it. Yeah, but like Philly's up there. Philly, okay. See spurs New York probably the big four. You had the meeting with Wembee a couple of years ago. Just hilarious, uh, visually. But can you like, can you ever see yourself like embracing being a heel in the NHL? Like I feel like Wembee has like taken a turn and kind of embraced the, the heel roll. Maybe the finals just helped that. But like, so a lot of like the public opinion kind of shifted on Wembee based on the finals. Yeah, I think that that's like almost sicker than like being the most beloved guy, you know, but you got to win, you know, to be hated. So, um, maybe if we win this year, we're in the playoffs and people don't like us. So that's fine though. Would you think a deer and fox in the finals? He was so good. Yeah, I'm like, I'm not good. I'm like, if you're like breaking shit down, yeah, no, I mean, I'm not going to say too much negative. I guess the spurs disappointed. I mean, we've talked a lot about the Knicks and how electric that was, but like, uh, I'm sure being here for the bears like last year was also insane because I had some of the same feelings watching the bears on their run where it was like, it was all coming together. And you see how good of a sports city this is for sure. Yeah, it was just like the comeback. Then it's just like sometimes it just feels like magic, you know, a little bit. So I think obviously this year, hopefully they can, you know, duplicate that and go on around. But, you know, they're young, too. So Kalybson is what 30 years. So it's going to be fun for us down, especially as we all get better. Did you see that Cooper flag had a, or a Cooper flag card sold today for $8 million? Oh, I did. And I saw Max go for like, uh, what was that? A mill? I think it was a million, uh, which one? Mackle saw Bernie. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it was like 800,000 or something. Maybe a million, oh, damn. Like one and a half. Yeah, like Cooper flag. I think it's, he's in top five. Most valuable cards of all time now. Wendy's got everyone up there. I would think, do you know anything about cards? No, I was pretty young. I collected them a lot, but I don't know much. Any other things, like anything in the Annie or dance moms universe or whatever in that. Annie, so Annie was the, was that yeah, I made an Annie reference. Okay. And you understood it. And Kortzinski didn't, you said that when you came, uh, to like the practice facility, and you were hanging around the team for the first time, you were surprised by how they had something in somebody for everything. Some, there was always someone who could help you with this, right, and get you that. And I compared it to the, I think I'm going to like it here, seen from Annie. And you were like, yeah, yeah. And Kortzinski was like, I don't know what that is. And you were like, how do you not know what that was? And then you were grilling him over it. I'm I forget it now, honestly. I've watched the movies, dance moms too. And obviously seen, um, I got the odd like real on Instagram with like, uh, I always get the one where she like goes to the cops after someone like tells her to put her phone away, you know, my favorite one. But, uh, no, I, I, I have this, my sister watched that stuff. Hell, I'm not going to lie and say I wasn't into it a little bit. I mean, you watch love islands. It's, I mean, my wife is a huge bravo head. So like, I've been pulled into it. I'm massive in on traders. We as like a show or I see now I'm to do highly recommend. Is it another like dating show tip? No, it's like, uh, it's like a game show, um, sort of like competition show. It's, um, there is a castle full of people. They go to Scotland and there's a UK version. There's a US version and there is a, it's a castle full of like 22 people. And three people are traders and their role is to murder the other people and the other people are faithfuls. And they all just hang out together and do shit together. And at the end of every night, the traders meet up and murder someone, which is. And they're like out of the house. Yeah, yeah. And they're trying to figure out who it is. So yeah, that's what it is. It's like among us meets like real world road rules challenge. That's a, it's very fun. And every night they have a like big discussion and vote. Somebody out who they think is a traitor. And then they reveal after they've been kicked off, whether they're a traitor of faithful shit bangs. The host of the US version is Alan coming and he acts like the most ridiculous person. Like the, it's the, it's a ridiculous show, but it's fucking awesome. I highly recommend. I got a big time. I will. We're so happy you came back on the show, man. We're big fans. We love watching. Yeah, and best of luck this season. Thank you. Appreciate it.