Bedard enjoyed watching Canada's dramatic overtime victory over the United States in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship Thursday, and there's a good chance he'll get to play in next year's international tournament.

Bedard deserves criticism. He should be better than he has been. But the recent unloading of abuse felt almost coordinated, as though the powers that be in the national media had decided that Bedard was soft and entitled, was everything that was wrong with today’s game. Maybe Don Cherry had called a Zoom meeting.