Hitmen set to ‘lock down defensively’ against Bedard on TSN

The Calgary Hitmen host the 17-year-old phenom’s Regina Pats Wednesday at the Scotiabank Saddledome in WHL Eastern Conference action. As Salim Valji writes, the consensus top prospect to go No. 1 overall at the NHL Entry Draft in June had one assist and was minus-3 in a 7-3 loss the last time the teams met.

The Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary is seemingly the only arena in North America that Connor Bedard has not scored in this season.

The Calgary Hitmen host the 17-year-old phenom’s Regina Pats at 7 p.m. MT / 9 p.m. ET Wednesday on TSN 1/3. The Hitmen (23-17-5-1-52 points) are sixth in the Western Hockey League’s Eastern Conference, while the Pats are eighth (22-21-2-1-46) after Tuesday night’s games.

In the teams’ only encounter here this season back on Oct. 2, Bedard – the consensus top prospect to go first overall at the NHL Entry Draft in June – had one assist and was minus-3 in a 7-3 loss. On Tuesday night in Red Deer against the Rebels, Bedard had a goal and notched two assists in a 6-5 Rebels win.

Much has changed for Bedard since then, including a record-setting performance in Canada’s gold medal-winning World Juniors, and he returns to the Saddledome almost an entirely different player. In the six games since returning to the WHL after being named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, he has 15 goals and six assists, including a four-goal, six-point effort versus the Hitmen at home in his first game back.

As such, Hitmen head coach Steve Hamilton isn’t putting much stock into how his team shut out Bedard four months ago.

“To be honest with you, I hardly remember that game,” he said.

“For us, it’s important we play good team defence. Everyone’s going to share the responsibility of defending, just like we do with every shift in every game…we’re not going to a trap or going to a shadowing 1982 setup against Gretzky. We’re going to play the game.”

Hitmen captain Riley Fiddler-Schultz was tasked with the Bedard matchup back in October and will likely again draw that assignment.

“I think we just played our game,” he said, recalling the first time the teams met at the Saddledome this season.

“He’s obviously a good player, but we don’t change anything about how we’re going to play. We just play locked down defensively like we do every game.”

“You’ve definitely got to look out for a guy like him, right?” said Hitmen forward London Hoilett.

“Not many guys have that much skill and talent everywhere on the ice. We’ve really just got to play as a connected five. As long as everybody’s doing their job and playing their role, we should be good.”

FEARLESS MOTTO

‘Fearless’ is the team motto this season, plastered in the Hitmen’s locker room and on the back of their warmup shirts. Coach Hamilton was listening to podcasts in the summer and that was a theme that kept coming up. As they try and make a playoff push in the second half of the season, Calgary’s players have embraced the mantra.

“No matter who we’re going up against, we’re not worried about what they’re going to do,” Fiddler-Schultz said.

“I think it just means that we’re trying to be the best we can be,” forward Oliver Tuck said.

“We’re a group together, a herd of wolves. We’re on it. We’re tenacious. We’re on the puck always.”

HOILETT’S MUSICAL TALENTS

Hoilett scored perhaps the most memorable goal of the season, the Teddy Bear Toss goal in December. The Hitmen third liner has 12 points in 39 games and is lauded for his work ethic and commitment. He was undrafted in the WHL and made the team out of training camp this season. Away from the rink, he has a burgeoning career as a music artist. In January, he released his first album Can’t Sit Still under the name Ty Kiddo.

“I got into music when I was in Grade 8, I believe,” he said.

“Music was a big part of my life. I decided to start making some of my own, give it a whirl. I showed [the music] to my friends and they were like, ‘Hey, you’re kind of good at this.’”

Music was also a way he connected with his late father, Trevor, a former Winnipeg Blue Bomber who passed away in 2020.

“So many of our memories we shared, there’s music playing, whether it’s Bob Marley while playing basketball in the driveway there or on the way to school playing Earth, Wind, and Fire,” Hoilett said.

STUDENT-ATHLETES

It’s exam season in Alberta for high schoolers, which means several players are balancing life on the ice and in the classroom, including writing some important tests. January is diploma season, with exams scheduled for English, French, sciences, mathematics and social studies courses and administered by the province’s department of education. This academic year, they are worth 20 per cent of the overall mark for that course. Several Hitmen, including Hoilett, have been writing exams in recent weeks, with goalie coach Theodore Zubot acting as a chauffeur for players going to write the tests.

“You’ve definitely got to use your time effectively,” Hoilett said.

“When you have some off time, instead of maybe doing what I want to do, maybe music, I have to put the headphones away and just grind some homework and make sure I’m ready and prepared to pass the exams.”

The Canadian Hockey League’s scholarship program enables hundreds of graduates from the WHL, OHL, and QMJHL every year to pursue post-secondary studies.