Connor Bedard has come into the pre-season looking like he has something to prove. While the expectation is that he is going to score more and produce more points, I'm talking about his nastiness on the ice.

To this point, Bedard has gotten into multiple altercations and hasn't taken anything from anyone. In the final pre-season game against the St. Louis Blues, the 19-year-old started things with Zachary Bolduc.

The two were battling in the Blackhawks' end and Bedard started to give Bolduc some shots, leading to a couple of pokes/slashes on Bedard. Chicago's superstar then started to go after Bolduc while a scrum ensued around them.

Head coach Luke Richardson said, "I liked the guys standing up for each other as a group of five out there." Bedard also noted the importance of having his teammates join in and support him, saying "It's hockey. It's a physical sport. It's good to see for myself and for our whole team that I was getting into it and our whole team jumps in there. I think that's the brotherhood you need."

Bedard is the best player on the team and a franchise piece, so there is some worry that he will get hurt in a scrum like the one he started. Richardson explained that "I think Connor needs to stay out of that stuff if he could, but I like the thought process of it and his mentality that he's not going to take anything from anyone out there, he's here to stay, and he wants to win his ground out there."

Bedard fighting back this season is already letting the league know he isn't going to be pushed around. Superstars need to stand up for themselves and can't just rely on tough guys on the team to do something after the fact. There is also the example of Bedard getting into it with Joel Eriksson Ek near the bench when the Blackhawks played the Minnesota Wild. While this didn't cause a pileup like in the game against the Blues, Bedard was still standing up for himself to a player much bigger than him.

Richardson also said "we can't afford that (an injury), especially with a guy like that. So just teaching (Bedard) how to manage those emotions and staying out of that because I think he's obviously more important on the ice than off the ice, and that's probably never a good tradeoff for us."

In just his second season, Bedard is going to demand more respect and create more space for himself on the ice with how he's starting to play.

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