\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFebruary 13, 2026\u00a0\u00a0(2:09 PM)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t ![\"Dec](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/641989.webp.webp\" "\\"Dec")
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Photo credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Connor Bedard missing Team Canada\u2019s Olympic roster hits hard, and Jon Cooper\u2019s honesty makes it feel even colder.<\/p>\n
Cooper didn\u2019t rip Bedard\u2019s game. He basically told everyone the door stays shut unless you already own a key.<\/p>\n
The message came when Canada needed injury replacements, and the conversation instantly swung back to Bedard.<\/p>\n
Cooper leaned on one word that changes everything: familiarity.<\/p>\n
He talked about trusting guys you have already \u201cwon with,\u201d the kind you go through a wall for. That is not about talent; it is about comfort under stress.<\/p>\n
“And familiarity is a real thing\u2026Would we have loved to have kept the 4 Nations team and just added two guys? For sure. Because when you win with people, you know them, you trust them, you want to keep going through a wall for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
– Jon Cooper<\/p>\n
Bedard\u2019s numbers are not the problem. He has 23-30-53 this season, and he is still driving offense on a rough Chicago team.<\/p>\n
Chicago sits at 22-26-9, so every night turns into survival hockey, not highlight hockey. That kind of context can get lost in a best-on-best room.<\/p>\n
Canada unveiled its Olympic roster on December 31, and it is loaded with guys who already shared tight tournament minutes together.<\/p>\n
Connor Bedard forces Team Canada to explain itself<\/p>\n
Blackhawks fans are tired of the moving goalposts, because the kid keeps answering every on-ice question anyway.<\/p>\n
Bedard is 20, the 2023 first-round, first-overall pick by the Chicago Blackhawks, and the pace does not scare him.<\/p>\n
The other wrinkle is availability. Bedard missed time with an upper-body injury that started December 12, and these short events punish even small gaps.<\/p>\n
This is also about roles. Canada can chase \u201cknown\u201d details like forecheck routes, penalty kill reads, and faceoff trust, even if Bedard\u2019s ceiling is higher.<\/p>\n
The annoying part is that familiarity can flip fast. One big shift, one big game, and the room suddenly \u201cknows\u201d you.<\/p>\n
For Bedard, the next milestone is simple: keep stacking nights that look like Olympic hockey, not just Blackhawks hockey.<\/p>\n
Previously on Chicago Hockey Insider<\/p>\n
POLL<\/p>\n
FEVRIER 13|437 ANSWERS<\/p>\n
Team Canada head coach Jon Cooper makes it clear as day why Connor Bedard remains at home during the Olympics<\/p>\n
Should Connor Bedard be on Team Canada\u2019s Olympic roster?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PUBLICATION Sam Walker February 13, 2026\u00a0\u00a0(2:09 PM) Photo credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images Connor Bedard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5115],"tags":[521,37,96,5263,508,5,2086,15211,4,15349,3037],"class_list":["post-460498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-blackhawks","tag-blackhawks","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-chicagoblackhawks","tag-connor-bedard","tag-hockey","tag-jon-cooper","tag-milano-cortina","tag-nhl","tag-olympic-roster","tag-team-canada"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116084114739757685","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}