Bedard will try to snap scoring drought in hometown of Vancouver

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times, but the Connor Bedard story is really a tale of three cities.

Bedard will play his first NHL game in his hometown of Vancouver on Saturday night against the Canucks. He returns home riding an eight-game goalless streak, matching the longest drought of his rookie season.

So there is no shortage of storylines here. Bedard missed last year's game in Vancouver due to a broken jaw. The Blackhawks are scheduled to return to British Columbia on March 15.

Before the Hawks left town, Bedard talked about playing in front of friends and family for the first time in the NHL.

“(Ticket demand) is not crazy, but I'll be paying to play for a night,” Bedard joked. “It will be good to have some people there.

“I'll probably just go home and hang out, have dinner at home and then go back to the hotel. Same as any other game day on a Saturday.”

Bedard actually grew up in North Vancouver. He was such a prodigy on the ice, he was granted exceptional player status, allowing him to join the WHL a year early at 15. He was the first player from Western Canada to earn that distinction.

Thanks to the juniors draft lottery, Bedard spent what were essentially his high school years playing for the Regina Pats in Saskatchewan. So add Regina to his list of homes, along with Vancouver and Chicago.

“Obviously, it will be good to have family and stuff there,” Bedard said. “But in the end, it's another game.”

Bedard got off to a pretty good start this season, producing 9 points and 3 goals in the first nine contests. Since then, it's been 4 points and no goals in eight games.

Coach Luke Richardson tried changing up lines. Bedard was matched with Philipp Kurashev and Teuvo Teravainen during Thursday's 3-1 loss in Seattle. He began the season with Teravainen and Nick Foligno.

“Some guys play well and a line gets going for a while and sometimes it just goes stagnant, so change it up,” Richardson told reporters in Seattle. “I thought he had some good chemistry before with Kurashev last year at times and even early in the season with Teuvo, so let's try it again.”

The Hawks are hoping a special event like Saturday's game in Vancouver might provide the spark to send Bedard on a hot streak. His quick wrist shot has been maybe his most impressive talent since his youth hockey days, so more goals is a reasonable expectation.

“I don't see him ever flinching really on anything,” Richardson said. “If he could get in there and score a couple goals and kind of snap that drought, I think that would be a great platform for him to do it and there would be a lot of happy people, including us.”

Added teammate Ryan Donato, “He's just got to stay positive. I know when he's getting hot and feels good, he can be one of the most dominant guys in the league. He's one of the hardest workers I've ever met, so I don't think that's going to be a problem.”

Donato scored the Blackhawks' lone goal in Seattle 3:22 into the third period. It brought the Hawks within 2-1, but the Kraken added an empty-netter to seal the outcome.

Donato, 28, now has a team-high 8 goals on the season, which is halfway to his career-high. Against Seattle, he was able to poke his own rebound off the goalpost, then off the skate of goalie Joey Daccord and into the net.

But the Hawks are in a team-wide scoring drought with just one regulation goal in four straight contests. Foligno offered some strong words to reporters after the game in Seattle, suggesting the Hawks aren't working hard enough on the offensive end, settling for easy dumps and long-distance shots.

“I just think we've got to get on the inside more,” Foligno said. “It's desperation at the end of the day. Dono's goal was a great result of it, it's just wanting it, wanting to score. Wanting to get in the hard areas, wanting to make a difference, wanting to be around the net and pay a price.

“We just don't have enough guys wanting to do that, right? We can say all we want, 'Got to get shots through.' It's just a mindset of wanting to get to the net.”