New York City has been home to graceful and agile performers seemingly since the city's founding. But perhaps there has never been anyone who could move with such grace and agility as Connor Bedard.
In his first appearance at Madison Square Garden as an NHL player, Bedard and his Chicago Blackhawks took on the New York Rangers in a battle between the league's best rookie and the league's best team.
But the lights of Broadway shone too brightly for this year's first overall pick, who failed to make an impact on the game and ended in a 4-1 loss to the Blackhawks.
Bedard finished the night with the most minutes of Chicago's offensive skaters, but also had a -2 rating as a crucial giveaway led to New York's opening goal.
First star Aretmi Panarin walked away with a goal and an assist, second star Vincent Trocheck had an assist hat trick and third star Jacob Trouba had a goal that sealed the game early in the third period.
Connor Bedard's Broadway debut did not go as planned, falling 4-1 to the New York Rangers
Nearly four straight minutes of play opened the night without a whistle, giving Bedard, whose line didn't start the night, the chance to get his first ice contacts right away.
From the puck drop, the Rangers appeared to be in control, putting five shots on net before Chicago scored the first at 9:37.
New York's efficient and snappy puck movement meant a lot of offensive zone time and a lot of completed passes, but no goals resulted.
By the time Bedard came onto the ice after the first TV timeout, he had racked up just 2:48 of ice time in 11:00.
In fact, it was Bedard's first touch of the ice after that timeout that led to the Rangers' first goal. The first overall pick couldn't withstand a hit from Vincent Trocheck, which turned the puck over.
The Rangers took the ice and a cross-ice pass from Alexis Lafreniere found New York's leading scorer: Artemi Panarin. The Russian buried the one-timer for his 24th goal of the season to go 1-0 up at 1 p.m.
Chicago poked and prodded in an attempt to find an answer, with Bedard coming incredibly close to burying a shot in front of Rangers goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin.
Later, the two became tangled when Bedard's shot hit the goalie's pads and the officials blew a stoppage because the skater became tangled in his equipment.
Bedard made a mistake when he was hit by Vincent Trocheck (16) and lost the puck
That led to a goal on the ice, beautifully buried by the Rangers' top scorer – Artemi Panarin (10)
As the seconds of the first period ticked down, Bedard perfectly executed a stick lift on K'Andre Miller and then raced onto the ice in a two-on-one. His pass found teammate Ryan Donato, but his linemate's shot didn't find the back of the net and the Blackhawks went into the locker room at the first intermission looking for a goal.
Just over four and a half minutes into the second period, the Blackhawks gained their first man advantage of the evening when Rangers defenseman Adam Fox was sent to the penalty box for interference. The blueliner felt bothered by Chicago's Boris Katchouk and pulled him to the ground by his head.
But just over a minute into that power play, Chicago's Kevin Korchinski committed an interference penalty of his own, giving the crowd four-on-four action.
That four-on-four turned into a Rangers power play and their second goal of the night, which came from chaos in front of the net. On the power play, Trocheck's shot off a feed to Mika Zibanejad went off the crossbar. Behind the play was New York's Chris Kreider, who pushed the puck into the net with his right skate as he came to a stop.
Blackhawks goaltender Petr Mrazek was furious as he raised his arms and turned to the officials who told them Kreider had kicked the puck and told them to go to the monitor. After a lengthy review, referee Corey Syvret announced that there was 'no obvious kicking action' and the Rangers fans cheered for the 2-0 lead.
Rangers remained on the front foot in the second period but were unable to produce. An errant pass from Trocheck hit Panarin in the face, sending him to the bench for medical treatment.
A feed behind the net to Brennan Ohtmann, who was making his NHL debut after being drafted by the Hartford Wolf Pack (New York's AHL affiliate), was met by Mrazek's pads who denied him what was a special first NHL goal would have been.
Chicago finally managed to finally get on the board with under three minutes left in the second. A long feed from behind their own net found Katchouk, who passed it to an open Colin Blackwell. Blackwell put the ball on his backhand and passed Shesterkin for his first goal of the season, making it 2–1.
A tangle of bodies caused Chris Kreider (20) to deflect the puck off his skate into the net
An irate Petr Mrazek appealed to the referees to check the replay if it was kicked
A lengthy evaluation followed and Kreider (20) was awarded the goal, his twentieth of the season
Chicago's only goal came from Colin Blackwell (43), who scored his first of the season
As they entered the locker room, the crowd watching on social media discovered that there were two All-Stars in our midst when the NHL announced the first set of names for the big weekend in late January: Bedard for Chicago and Shesterkin for New York.
The Blackhawks hoped that with just one goal separating them from a huge win at Madison Square Garden, they could come out with renewed energy and take the game back.
Instead, Rangers captain Jacob Trouba knocked a knuckleball over Mrazek's shoulder about a minute and a half into the third period to make it a 3-1 game.
Just over a minute later, New York piled the ball up thanks to a low shot from Jimmy Vesey off a feed from Will Cuylle that went under Mrazek's pads and into the net. 4-1 New York.
Chicago, recognizing that they would not be able to pull off a victory, tried to extract their pound of flesh through aggression.
Defenseman Jarred Tinordi traded blows with veteran Blake Wheeler, eventually sending the Rangers veteran to the ice with a flurry of vicious right hands.
New York got two goals early in the third from Jacob Trouba (L) and Jimmy Vesey (R)
The final moment of excitement came when Chicago's Jarred Tinordi fought Blake Wheeler (17).
Bedard skated away with more than 6:00 hours of ice time, but was thoroughly outmaneuvered
With the clock ticking, Bedard's attempts to score a goal were unsuccessful. He was picked in the pocket by defenseman Braden Schneider, later thwarted by Shesterkin and couldn't find his teammates for any points as he skated to the bench for the final time of the night.
“I thought we did a pretty good job for the most part,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said when asked how he rated his team's performance in stopping Bedard.
“There's skill … the movement, the agility, it's skill, the ability to pass or shoot, so I thought we did a pretty good job with that.”
Bedard's talent is undeniable. His movement on the ice, his abilities both with and without the puck, and his vision on developments are clearly present.
But success will be difficult to come by in the short term as the Blackhawks continue their rebuild from the depths of the NHL standings.