Getty Connor Bedard of the Chicago Blackhawks celebrates a goal
Not only do the Chicago Blackhawks have an extraordinary first-year player on their roster in rookie Connor Bedard, but following Saturday’s events they can also say they put together a real-time, animated hockey telecast for the first time ever.
NBC Sports Chicago and the Blackhawks partnered on Saturday, April 6, to host the first-ever local animated real-time sports broadcast in a matchup against the Dallas Stars that ended in victory for Chicago, 3-2 in favor of the hosts.
CARTOON BEDSY GOAL 🚨
The Blackhawks scored three unanswered goals to open the game, all of them in the second period. Connor Bedard was the young man opening the score on such a historic night, and he did so in a hilarious, cartoonish fashion as shown on NBC’s broadcast.
The folks from NBC were so good at handling this game that they even put together an animated version of the anthem as it was happening inside the United Center in Chicago.
Cartoon anthem goes crazy 🇺🇸
Instead of showing the game played in the actual venue, NBC opted to build a digital representation of Chicago featuring iconic elements of the Windy City.
Chicago Sweated the Victory But Upset the Stars
After opening the game by going three goals up over the Stanley Cup contender Stards, the Blackhawks showed their worst version following a good couple of periods and 30 minutes of domination on the scoreboard, but not on the ice (Dallas outshot Chicago 32-11, yet led 3-0).
The win, which marked the third consecutive victory by Chicago and will serve the struggling team to build toward improving next year, wasn’t easy to pull off.
Reichel splits the D and finds Athanasiou at the net! 🙌
Dallas tried to mount a comeback during the final 25 minutes of play. Roope Hintz scored his 29th goal of the season with less than five minutes on the clock for the end of the second frame, and Jamie Benn‘s 20th goal on the year exactly 20 minutes later and already in the final stanza put Dallas’ comeback at an arm’s reach.
It was too late for the Stars, who didn’t have enough to overcome the 3-goal deficit they found themselves into earlier in the game thanks to goals by Bedard, Andreas Athanasiou, and Seth Jones.
Blackhawks Are Confident Improvement Is Coming
This was a rather shocking outcome. Chicago and Dallas cannot be more separated in the NHL standings with the former having 51 points (second-fewest) in 76 games to the latter’s 105 (third-most) in 77.
The Blackhawks, however, have been on a (relative) heater of late. Chicago has won two of their last three games and three of their last five. Those victories included beating fellow minnows Calgary and San Jose (as well as Philadelphia), but you can only play what is in front of you.
It was Chicago’s third consecutive home win, Bedard’s first goal-scoring outing in eight matchups, and goaltender Petr Mrazek‘s career-high 50th start this season.
SETH JONES IS ON A HEATER! 🎉
“[Last month’s results] show that we have it in here,” Jones told reporters in his postgame conference on April 6. “It’s nice to win. You look at the totality of the season, it doesn’t mean much. But I think we still want to build and understand what it feels like to win and want to keep that feeling in this locker room. That builds that winning mentality.
“(If) we finish out the year strong, we can take that into the summer, continue to build and say ‘This is how we want to play, this is what makes it successful.'”
The Blackhawks have six games left and boast the second-highest odds of landing the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NHL draft at 13.5%, according to Tankathon.