Connor Bedard Should Be Allowed To Play In The Stanley Cup Playoffs This Year
Leah Hennel. Getty Images.Connor Bedard is currently getting a chance to play in the WHL playoffs for the first time in his career. This is after he willed the Regina Pats into the postseason by leading the WHL in goals (71), assists (72), and points (143). Keep in mind that he missed 11 games this season while leading Team Canada to a gold medal at the World Juniors and being the tournament MVP.
So if you were curious about how his playoffs are going so far, I'd say it's actually how you'd imagine them to go.
His 3rd goal and 5th point of the night in game 2 against Saskatoon sent the game to overtime, and Regina went on to win in overtime to get a 2-0 series lead. Through 2 playoff games he has 5 goals and 8 points. This fucking kid can't be stopped.
The kid is a special player. The only issue is that I have no idea how to watch the WHL playoffs. I'm sure there's a streaming link out there somewhere but if I have to create an account for something, I'm out. I already have too many different passwords floating around out there and too many subscription services bombarding me with texts every day. So instead, I'm relegated to just having to follow Bedard's dominance in the WHL playoffs through updates on Twitter.
But I hate people who complain about a problem without at least offering a solution. So here it is--I think we should allow Connor Bedard to be used as an emergency skater for any team facing elimination in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year. If any team can grab some random dude off the streets to be an emergency backup goalie, then I think teams should be allowed to use Bedard as an emergency skater. You don't have to sign him to a contract or anything. But if your team is facing elimination in the playoffs, you should be allowed to have him dress for your team and use him if you want. Like let's just say for example that the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to get bounced out of the first round again. It's game 6 and they're down 3-2 in the series to Tampa. They should be able to use Bedard in that game, put him on the powerplay with Auston Matthews, win that game 6-1, and then proceed to get their ass kicked in game 7 without him.
It would be great for the league, it would be great for every team facing elimination, it would be great for Bedard, it would be great for all the fans back home who get a chance to watch him play before the draft. Just a thought.
P.S. -- Congrats to the Philadelphia Flyers on completely wasting a perfect year to suck harder than any team has ever sucked before. This team was dead in October and somehow they still only have a 6.5% chance to end up with that first pick.
