This is a rebuild and everyone knows it's a rebuild and the Blackhawks have been admirably clear-eyed about what this phase looks like. That said, watching Connor Bedard this season has made the patience easier. He does things with the puck in small spaces that you genuinely don't see from 20-year-olds, and there are stretches where you can see him starting to impose himself on games rather than just reacting to them. That growth has been the real story at the United Center this year.

The supporting cast is still being assembled. Some nights the players around Bedard make his life easier and some nights they don't, and the inconsistency is predictable given where the roster is in its development cycle. The defensive structure has improved under the coaching staff but it's still a group that gives up chances it shouldn't. Tyler Bertuzzi and some of the veteran additions were brought in to add some credibility to the lineup while the young guys develop, and that's pretty much exactly what they've been.

Tickets to see this team right now are worth it specifically because of Bedard, who is going to be one of the faces of this league for a long time and these are the early chapters. United Center isn't rocking the way it will be in a few years but there's something appealing about watching a generational talent figure out how to be great at this level. Every game he plays right now is part of a longer story that's still being written and we're all just early readers.