This western Canada road swing is a trip that comes up somewhat frequently for NHL teams, as the league looks for efficiencies in travel. In the previous three seasons, there have been 27 such road trips in which a team,

Turning to Blackhawks second-line center Philipp Kurashev, his offensive numbers plummet when he’s not skating with Bedard. Kurashev has been on the ice for just 1.15 goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 without Bedard dating back to last season, compared to 2.2 goals when they’re jumping the boards together.

Weird things happen at the beginning of an NHL season, but the situation in Colorado is bizarre even by those standards.