Blackhawks’ Nick Lardis confident goals will start coming in bunches: ‘I have it in me’
Connor Bedard scored 71 goals in just 57 games in his final season with the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats. He followed that up with 22 goals in 68 games with the Blackhawks. It was good enough to win the Calder Trophy as the league’s best rookie, but nearly every game with a zero in the personal goal column felt foreign to him, felt like an affront to his very being.
Oliver Moore averaged a goal just about every three games as a sophomore at Minnesota; he’s scored three in 36 games in the NHL. Ryan Greene had 12 goals and 13 goals in 40-game seasons as a sophomore and junior at Boston University; he has four in 41 games with the Blackhawks. Colton Dach was better than a point a game his last two seasons in the WHL; he’s a fourth-liner grinding out a point every four games in the NHL.
Landon Slaggert was one of the very best players on every hockey team he ever played for until he got to the NHL. So was Artyom Levshunov. So was Ryan Donato. So was Sam Lafferty. So was just about every single player who’s ever played in the league.
Learning to score in the NHL typically takes time. Obviously. But learning to handle not scoring in the NHL does, too. Nick Lardis is still working on the first part. But if the second part is gnawing at him, he’s certainly not letting it show. Going from 71 goals in 65 games for the Brantford Bulldogs last season — the first 70-goal scorer in the OHL since John Tavares — to just one in his first seven in the NHL has been an adjustment.
But it turns out you don’t score 71 goals at any level without a little self-belief.
“I knew I wasn’t going to come into pro and score every single night,” Lardis said. “That’s just not how it works for even the best players in the world. Obviously, I know I have it in me. I feel like the confidence will never go away. At the same time, you have to understand it’s the best league in the world. It’s not going to come easy. Especially as a young player. I’m just making sure I’m working hard every single day, doing the little details right, showing up prepared for the games, and having the confidence to do what I can do. It’ll come.”
Especially if Lardis keeps playing the way he did on Tuesday night in a 3-2 shootout loss to the New York Islanders. Playing for the first time on a line with cagey veteran Teuvo Teräväinen and fellow rookie Oliver Moore, Lardis was a menace all night. Coming off a career-high three shots in a career-high 16:03 of ice time against Pittsburgh on Sunday, Lardis had five shots on goal (eight attempts) in 15:12 against the Islanders.
In the waning seconds of the second period, he was hounding the puck on a power-play shift, getting one shot off, tracking down the puck behind the net and winning the battle for it, then finding a soft spot on the ice for a one-timer from Moore that beat New York goalie David Rittich between the legs with just 1.7 seconds left to tie the game at 2-2.
“He’s a confident player, confident kid,” Moore said. “You can see it out there. He’s making little plays that go a long way for our line, for the team, and he’s getting more trust, so it’s good.”
The Teräväinen-Moore-Lardis line was easily Chicago’s best in the game, with Teräväinen getting a goal off a slick Levshunov-to-Moore pick-and-roll play earlier in the second period. Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill even went with an all-rookie trio of Lardis, Moore and Levshunov to open overtime, and Lardis was the first shooter in the shootout, greeted by a loud ovation from the 19,603 fans at the United Center (he shot wide).
Lardis’ comfort level is clearly growing along with his role. That he was called up from Rockford immediately following Bedard’s injury didn’t do him any favors at the beginning. Given his dominance in the OHL and his strong start in the AHL — 13 goals and 13 assists in 24 games with the Rockford IceHogs — the external expectations were likely unrealistic.
Internally, the pressure was more muted. Nobody, least of all Lardis, expected him to singlehandedly replace Bedard’s offense. Or Frank Nazar’s eight days later.
“Definitely not,” Lardis said with a knowing chuckle. “Connor and Frankie are two of our best players on this team. They’ve shown that they can dominate at this level. It’s motivating to step in and help the team out as much as possible, but at the same time, I’m just trying to show that I can play at this level.”
Blashill certainly wasn’t expecting an immediate cure-all in the wake of Bedard injury. Lardis’ ice time had been minimal since his recall, and dropped to a season-low of eight minutes, 17 seconds in Ottawa on Dec. 20 — the other game in which he scored, oddly enough.
But in the last two games, his role has increased noticeably, and he’s running with the opportunity. If fans weren’t already clamoring to see Lardis on a line with Bedard when he returns (hopefully sometime in January), they certainly are now.
Still, nobody expects Lardis to start scoring at that 71-goal pace again anytime soon. It just doesn’t work like that. A play midway through the second was a good illustration of where Lardis is — and why the Blackhawks have such high hopes for him. He made a quick read and a quick break through the neutral zone, getting behind the Islanders defense and taking a Teräväinen pass in stride. He did well to get a shot off, but he didn’t get all of it, as he still was being hounded by three defenders despite starting with a step on them.
Time and space are at a premium in the NHL, a league in which even fourth-liners and third-pairing defenders can skate. Gone are the days of “bumslaying,” when skill players could feast on plodding plugs at the end of the opponent’s bench. And as Bedard did two seasons ago, Lardis has quickly realized that NHL goaltenders aren’t quite as porous as those in lesser leagues, and that long-distance or sharp-angle shots that led to goals in the OHL or AHL are easily turned aside in the NHL.
It’s not just about finding a soft spot in the ice and firing away. In the NHL, it typically takes the kind of extra effort that led to Lardis essentially setting up his own goal on Tuesday.
“I’ve talked to the coaches, and they love when especially young guys are focusing on getting little details right,” he said. “It’s a hard league to score, and you’re not going to score every single night. Sometimes when you focus on it a little too much you start to cheat a little bit. Just have to make sure I’m playing the way the coaches want me to play. The chances are there, so there’s nothing to be upset about. It’s gonna come.”
Lardis and Moore were both selected by Chicago in the 2023 draft — Moore in the first round, 18 slots after Bedard, and Lardis early in the third. They became fast friends at development camp and had good chemistry in Rockford early in the season. So they’ve leaned on each other for advice and support as they find their way in the NHL.
Both are still trying to figure out how to translate their lower-level dominance to the toughest league in the world. Tuesday was a big step in that direction — but just one of many.
“Generally, all these guys have scored at a high level,” Blashill said. “Obviously, last year, (Lardis) scored at a ridiculous level. But a lot of guys have done that and come (to the NHL) and it’s way harder. I don’t see any dip in his confidence right now. I see him being him. He’s a somewhat low-key guy that just keeps doing his deal. He’s brought a little edge, a little physicality. He’s a pretty good defensive player. His game is still in good order and he’s getting looks. He’s just got to continue to figure out one, where to shoot from and (two), how to shoot it in the net.”
Jason Dickinson left the game with an unspecified injury in the first period, leaving the Blackhawks without their top three centers. Blashill said Dickinson is questionable for Thursday’s home game against the Dallas Stars.
Dickinson has already missed a dozen games with injuries this season.
“He’s such a good person, he’s such a good teammate, he’s a real good hockey player,” Blashill said. “When he’s healthy, he means a lot to us. It sucks that he’s got to constantly grind through different stuff. I feel for him. He’s a guy who you love having around, you love having as part of your team and you love having on the ice.”