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Women Talking asks if you’ll listen. There is, of course, an argument to be made that Sarah Polley’s adaptation of Miriam Toews’s critically acclaimed novel is meant to be more seen than heard. After all, the material has been taken from the page and repurposed for the screen. And while it’s understood that any great film is an amalgamation of mediums meant to touch more senses than most, there’s also the expectation that it be a feast for the eyes first and foremost. 

The film, however, is highly desaturated. It’s so devoid of color, in fact, that it seems only a step removed from a black-and-white film. That is until viewers are invited into a space even more desaturated, a subdued yet not completely colorless in-between space that exists in flashbacks. And those flashbacks depict the film’s protagonists in an equally in-between space.  

Like the book before it, the film is based loosely on a real-life, ultra-conservative Mennonite colony in Bolivia where, for years, girls and women were rendered unconscious with animal anesthetic, raped, and then told it was the work of the devil. The flashbacks find some of the women immediately after they come to. They are stunned. Suspended in a split second, they exist neither before nor after the assaults, but rather in the fleeting space after the rape and right before the true realization that something terrible has happened. Something that, even when compared to the rest of the film, is more devastating and draining. But does the color change denote a spectrum and, thus, the possibility of a brighter existence to come? Again, you’ll have to listen, because while this depressed aesthetic choice is fitting given the subject matter, it is perhaps wholly secondary to the women talking. 

The discussions occur in a hayloft over the course of a few days as the women debate whether to do nothing, to stay and fight, or to leave. Among them are two families: the Friesen family and the Loewen family. The former consists of Agata (Judith Ivey), her daughters Ona (Rooney Mara) and Salome (Claire Foy), and their niece Neitje (Liv McNeil), whose mother committed suicide after the attacks. They are prepared to stay and fight. The latter consists of Greta (Sheila McCarthy), her daughters Mariche (Jessie Buckley) and Mejal (Michelle McLeod), and Mariche’s daughter Autje (Kate Hallett). They are prepared to leave. Absent are the most devout who have already chosen to do nothing, among them Scarface Janz (Frances McDormand). 

Also missing are nearly all the men. Those who have committed the heinous crime at hand were taken into custody, and the remaining men who committed the sinister act of standing by have left to bail them out. Then there’s August Epp (Ben Whishaw), a previously excommunicated community member who has recently returned and is the only man privy to the talking. Unable to read or write, the women recruit August to take the minutes, which Ona has deemed important. There’s that hint again that a different future might exist. A future, perhaps, in which these women continue talking and maybe even add some additional methods of communication to their repertoire. After all, they’re off to a strong start. 

Although almost solely shot in the hayloft, the film never feels limited. Brought to life by the characters’ complex conversations and the actors’ powerhouse performances as they dig into the nuances of each option, the film unfurls into a sprawling parable applicable, of course, to the suffering we all endure in a patriarchal society. While the women ask themselves how as pacifists they will fight or where they will go if they leave, it’s easy for everyone involved in the film, from production to consumption, to begin interrogating their own decisions. 

Women Talking3.5/4 starsPG-13, 104 min. Limited theatrical release 12/23, wide theatrical release 1/20/23mgm.com/movies/women-talking

How does it sit, for example, that the film was produced by Plan B, a company cofounded and owned by Brad Pitt, who has been accused of domestic violence by his ex-wife Angelina Jolie? In an industry rife with abuse—some of which Polley has written about in her memoir Run Towards the Danger—does this simply remain one of the costs of doing business? It shouldn’t, of course. No one, real or fictional, should have to endure abuse as an avenue to success. Yet, here we all are. 

By the film’s end, the women do decide, led to action by the conversations, which are sometimes soft and understanding and sometimes filled with rage. But what’s evident throughout the shifts in mood, from hopeful to harrowing and back again, is that it’s an engaged exchange in which listening is just as respected as talking. This idea is underscored in the expanse of the film as well by composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (Tár, Joker). Working alongside Polley, Guðnadóttir’s music drives the women toward their decision. The next time you find yourself debating a difficult choice, a position the patriarchy seems to perpetually place us in, perhaps ask yourself what it is you’re hearing. 

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It’s that time of the season where I measure a year’s worth of political progress by comparing steps forwards and steps back, in the hope that overall we’ve made progress.

I could fill this issue with many examples of elections, budgets, and spending plans from 2022. But I’ll settle on a few items. Starting with some good news . . .

The CTA’s Red Line Extension project. 

I’m happy to say that the year ended with Mayor Lori Lightfoot doing something right. That’s right as in correct—not as in ideology.

I’ve been critical of Lightfoot for much of 2022. But on the Red Line, I have to say thank you, Madame Mayor (and thank you City Council for overwhelmingly approving her proposal). You did what your predecessors—Mayors Emanuel and Daley—said they wanted to do, but never got around to actually doing.

That’s extending the Red Line south from where it currently stops at 95th to 130th Street, and building four new stops—at 103rd, 111th, Michigan Avenue, and near Altgeld Gardens.

The mayor and council did it by committing about $959 million in Tax Increment Financing dollars (the feds will pick up most of the rest of the cost). So finally some worthwhile economic development from the TIF scam.

Frankly, I don’t think those two aforementioned mayoral predecessors wanted to extend the Red Line, no matter how many times they said they did. Frankly, I think those predecessors saw that project as a waste of money.

So they did just about every other CTA project. They built the Pink Line. They repaired the Brown Line. They fixed up the Red Line. They built the flyover at Belmont. They rebuilt the 95th Street station, but no Red Line extension.

The extended Red Line will bring service to Washington Heights and Roseland, communities that have suffered for investment under Daley and Emanuel.

As far as I can tell, the governing principle of Daley and Emanuel was to mostly spend TIF money in areas that were already booming, thus gentrifying already gentrifying communities, while leaving lower-income communities, like Washington Heights and Roseland, to fend for themselves.

We all know what happened.

Over the last 20 years, Chicago’s Black population has drastically fallen—including in Washington Heights and Roseland.

It was demographers like Alden Loury, now an editor at WBEZ, who brought this to my attention. I remember asking Loury why Chicago’s powers-that-be did not sound the alarm about the outward Black migration.

To which he said something like,”Ben, I don’t think they saw it as a problem.”

Truer words were never spoken.

I hope extending the Red Line sparks renewal on the far south side. So, one giant step forward. On the other hand . . .

The only no vote in the council was cast by Alderperson Pat Dowell on the grounds that her near south-side ward was largely paying the city’s share of the project.

Or as she put it at a city council hearing, “Because these benefits are citywide, everyone should have skin in the game of paying for this project. This has to include the entire city.”

That’s inaccurate. TIF is a citywide tax hike. The Red Line TIF district will raise property taxes on every Chicago property—not just property in Dowell’s ward.

To say otherwise is to feed the notion that somehow 3rd Ward residents will, as the Sun-Times put it, “bear the burden” of the extension’s costs.

Again, not true. Again, every property owner’s taxes will rise for this project. Again, a TIF is a citywide tax hike. Whether she intended to or not, Alderperson Dowell contributed to Chicago’s ignorance of TIFs. 

So it’s like a quarter step back. I’ll settle for that.

Now onto the national front. Democrats defeated MAGA attempts to take control of the Senate—even picked up a seat. So that’s a big step forward—if you believe in democracy as opposed to Trumpocracy.

And yet, last week House and Senate Democrats joined their Republican counterparts to add $45 billion to the defense bill that President Biden had already requested.

Let me repeat that to make sure there is no confusion about what Democrats did.

Next year’s entire defense budget is not $45 billion—it will be about $858 billion.

No, the $45 billion is what Congress is adding to what Biden wanted to spend. Like $851 billion on bombs and guns was not enough!

That $45 billion is obviously a lot more than the $3.6 billion it will cost to extend the Red Line. They could probably extend the Red Line to Carbondale for that kind of cash.

Now, I obsessively followed the 2022 elections in many states (not just Illinois). And I don’t recall any Democrats running on platforms of upping the defense budget by $45 billion.

Never heard one of them say—we have to hold onto the House and the Senate so we can spend even more money on weaponry than what President Biden wanted to spend. As opposed to spending it on transit, schools, health care, or any of the dozens of programs that people in this country really need.

Quite the contrary: I know of activists who worked their tails off for Democrats who they hoped would cut defense.

This headline from the Sunday, December 18, New York Times print version said it all: “Bonanza for Arms Makers As Military Budget Surges.”

I don’t recall one Democratic candidate or voter saying, “We need a bonanza for arms makers!”

Certainly, I didn’t read that refrain in any of the hundreds of solicitations I received all year long from Democratic candidates.

As always, Democrats are their own worst enemies. So one step back.

Finally, on the state level . . . 

Democrats beat MAGA in every statewide race, including governor and supreme court. And all those Republican candidates managed to concede defeat without crying that the election was stolen and storming the state capitol. Call that a step forward.

As you can see, I’m really trying to look on the bright side, folks. Hope 2023 is one giant step forward for all of you.

The Latest from the Ben Joravsky Show

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If you love the Deftones as much as I do, you’ve undoubtedly passionately defended them to a nu-metal naysayer. “They’re not really nu-metal,” you might argue. “Sure, they had some rap parts on their first record, but they’ve actually spent most of their career leaning into dream-pop and shoegaze influences.” (I can’t be the only person out there going to bat for the band on a fairly regular basis, can I?)

Deftones front man Chino Moreno has been open about his love of classic shoegaze, goth, and dream pop since the band broke out in the mid-90s, and they’ve pushed those elements further and further to the forefront of their alt-metal with each release. Over the years, Moreno has also used various side projects (including the trip-hoppy Team Sleep and his collaboration with former members of Isis, Palms) to explore his fascination with these styles. But he straight-up dives into them with Crosses, his mostly electronic duo with former Far guitarist Shaun Lopez. They’ve been putting out slick, catchy, industrial-tinged dream pop and witch house since 2011, and their love for those dreary, mysterious sounds runs so deep that last year they released a cover of Q Lazzarus’s dark synth-pop classic, “Goodbye Horses.” On their brand-new EP, Permanent.Radiant, gorgeous tracks of slick, airy synths and cloudy soundscapes serve as a foundation for Moreno’s signature yearning croon. These songs are deep, heavy, and beyond smooth; if your favorite parts of Deftones records are the sweet spots, then you definitely shouldn’t miss this release.

Crosses’s Permanent.Radiant is available through the artist’s website.

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Credit: Kirk Williamson

For the cover of our last print issue of 2022, we wanted to capture the spirit of the year, as we see it, in our own Reader way. We asked photographer Carolina Sanchez to see if she could find a street musician who was being ignored, a situation which many can relate to as the essence of this year: lots of work, not a lot of respect. Sanchez found the musician, Kaliq Woods, at the corner of State and Randolph, where he “usually plays the clarinet but because of how cold it was his keys froze and got stuck, so he opted into playing the drums instead.” Sanchez added, “[Woods] had a man next to him dancing most of the time, who randomly came up while he was playing the timbales and sang ‘Merry Christmas’ over and over again.”

From “Rescuing the legacy of Dancin’ Man” to our cover model’s festively dancing friend, it’s been a turbulent and surprising year for us all. Here are just a few of our favorite images that Reader stories begot this year. We look forward to bringing you more glimpses into our unique Chicago world in the next.

Starbucks baristas at five locations in Chicago have voted to unionize in recent months. Credit: Michael Izquierdo

In April, contributor Amy Qin spoke to local Starbucks baristas working to build support for a union (“Brewing solidarity”). As of August, workers at six Chicago-area stores had voted to unionize, following the wave of support for labor unions that emerged nationally in 2022.

Elmo holds a pigeon he coaxed into his hands. Credit: Lloyd DeGrane

Reader staff writer Katie Prout’s “Searching for the Pigeon Lady” (February) started as interest in a particularly legendary downtown ornithologist but swiftly grew into a series of larger questions about resilience, centered in private moments in public spaces.

“It’s a precious commodity,” says Beau O’Reilly. “This was hugely important music, not only in 1966 but in 1936. It’s how culture moved around the country,” Credit: Sarah Joyce for Chicago Reader

Beau O’Reilly, a fixture in Chicago’s theater and music scenes since the 70s, continues to perform and create opportunities for other artists. Contributor Mark Guarino talked to O’Reilly in April about theater work on the fringes for “Beau O’Reilly keeps the folk cabaret alive.”

Greg reads his poem “Thoughts of a Lonely Man” aloud from his notebook. The cat he shares with his girlfriend Stacey perches on his knee. Credit: Sarah Gelbard

In January, contributor Sarah Gelbard spoke to unhoused people and their allies (“Homeless in a pandemic-stricken Chicago”) about the conundrum of hundreds of Chicago public housing units sitting empty when there is obvious need.

Journalist Dometi Pongo curated open mics and now exemplifies the idea that one can be creative and still be themselves. Credit: ThoughtPoet

Contributor ThoughtPoet shared “#SadBoyEnergy (The Prelude)” with our readers in February: a photo essay examining what it means for Black men to suffer from depression and related stress. Multimedia journalist, host, and speaker Dometi Pongo is pictured above.

Leonard Lerer, 62, chief scientific officer of Back of the Yards Algae Sciences Credit: Matthew Gilson for Chicago Reader

For July’s “Something magic’s growing at Back of the Yards Algae Sciences,” Reader senior writer Mike Sula discovered an unlikely team of bioprospectors experimenting with algae and more. Scientist Leonard Lerer is pictured next to a spirulina photobioreactor.

Credit: Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth

After a tumultuous series of events, the Reader was able to move forward in May with its preconceived plan to shed itself of private ownership and embrace nonprofit status. The transition was not without challenges. In Apri, Reader union members led a protest outside a now-former Reader owner’s home, which ultimately helped push the process along. The demo attracted fellow journalists, longtime Reader readers, and labor comrades from other guilds. (“‘Free the Reader!’” by Elly Boes, Grace Del Vecchio, and 14 East Magazine, April)

Credit: Olivia Obineme

19-year-old Austin resident Indya Pinkard was one of several teens that writer Justin Agrelo interviewed about safety, gun violence, the expansion of the city’s curfew for young people, and more, for July’s “Young people dream up a safer summer in Chicago,” a publishing collaboration with the nonprofit newsroom The Trace.

Credit: DuWayne Padilla

Culture editor Taryn Allen spoke to members of OnWord Skate Collective this summer about plans for a film about their work (“Welcome to the skate park,” July). The group embraces skaters of all ages and abilities, and prioritizes women, trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people.

Artist Derric Clemmons stands near one of his Urban Trees art installations on Commercial Avenue in the South Chicago neighborhood on Saturday, May 21, 2022. Credit: Eddie Quiñones for Chicago Reader

In May, contributor Irene Hsiao took in the public and interactive art of southeast side native Derric Clemmons and his South Worx Art Group (“Reshaping the landscape on the southeast side”), who built structures as part of a city initiative to revitalize the area near 89th and Commercial.

Members of the band the Breathing Light perform music on the street under a pop-up tent as part of the People’s Fest in the Douglass Park neighborhood in September 2022 Credit: Kelly Garcia

Over the course of the year, Reader staff writer Kelly Garcia covered the concerns surrounding large festivals taking resources from public parks, specifically festivals in Douglass Park preventing residents from being able to use the park’s resources.

Ernie Alvarez Credit: Kelly Garcia

Garcia’s subsequent series of articles looked at the story from several angles: uncovering contracts that revealed financial donations from Riot Fest to influential alderpersons (“Donations, violations, and fees,” September), a timeline of community organizing around the issues (“Riot acts,” August), an interview with Douglass Park youth soccer coach Ernie Alvarez (“A promise worth keeping,” July), and reporting about the People’s Fest, a public event that galvanized support for the neighbors (“A performance for the people,” September).

Credit: Carolina Sanchez for Chicago Reader

Contributor Zinya Salfiti visited Central Camera in August to find out how the century-old downtown camera store has weathered fire, floods, and pandemics (“Central Camera Co. stays focused”).

Ollyvia Putri Credit: Jeff Marini for Chicago Reader

Mike Sula continued his coverage this year of innovative local food purveyors who are unjustifiably under the radar, with stories like September’s “Pastry chef Ollyvia Putri’s 20-layer cakes are legit.”

Members of the dance company Silent Threat (below) see themselves projected on the side of the Merchandise Mart during the premiere of Billiken. Credit: Kyle Flubacker

For August’s feature “Black Chicago dance culture shines at Art on the Mart,” Reader senior writer Leor Galil gifted us with histories from local Black dancers about their experiences with the famous Bud Billiken parade. Galil talked to the filmmakers and subjects of the short film Billiken, which was projected for the public as part of the Art on the Mart series.

Over a thousand people rallied in the Loop for the “We Won’t Go Back” abortion rights rally which gathered in Federal Plaza and marched throughout the Loop ending near Grant Park. The march was a response to a leaked Supreme Court opinion indicating the Roe V. Wade, which protects the right to abortion, will be overturned. Credit: Kathleen Hinkel

Reader senior writer Deanna Isaacs writes about a variety of subjects for her regular culture column. Isaacs tackled the near-total upheaval of reproductive rights that the U.S. experienced this year, including a “secret draft” of a Supreme Court ruling that was uncovered this spring (“The end of Roe,” May).

The Brewed’s decor is steeped in horror—Jason Deuchler is standing in front of a re-creation of a mural from Candyman’s lair in the original film, and he’s checking out a sandworm from Beetlejuice built for the shop’s Halloween party earlier this month. Credit: Steven Piper for Chicago Reader

Our music section’s regular Chicagoans of Note series allows our writers to interview local people who play in, work in, or otherwise inhabit Chicago’s music communities. In October, Leor Galil talked to Jason Deuchler (DJ Intel), who co-owns the horror-themed coffee shop The Brewed.

Credit: Yijun Pan for Chicago Reader

Contributor Yolanda Perdomo talked to Albany Park resident Adam Carston about Windy City Ballyhoo, his pandemic lockdown project turned social media archive of Chicago’s moviegoing past (“Now Playing: Chicago’s history in movie ads,” October).

Fans at Kehlani’s August show at the Aragon Ballroom Credit: Debbie-Marie Brown

Reader staff writer Debbie-Marie Brown immersed themselves in the fandom of R&B artist Kehlani and found a community of mostly young, mostly LGBTQ+, and all very passionate fans (“Blue water road to Chicago,” September).

Coach Shawn Sorsby shows his son the basics. Credit: Debbie-Marie Brown

In October, Debbie-Marie Brown found another passionate community—kids who love chess and compete nationally with the help of the Chicago organization A Step Ahead Chess (“Making good moves”).

Mike Moses at the Regenstein Library Credit: Clayton Hauck for Chicago Reader

For November’s “What Paul Moses Taught,” contributor Hannah Edgar talked to Mike Moses, who brought his father Paul Bell Moses’s archives to the University of Chicago’s Regenstein Library, which then blossomed into a moving exhibition of family history and art.

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While Chicago indie supergroup Doom Flower were getting to work on their new second album, Limestone Ritual (Record Label), they hit a speedbump that would’ve killed a lesser band’s momentum. As Tribune critic Britt Julious reported in a November profile, drummer Areif Sless-Kitain couldn’t make it to the recording sessions, and because he’s such a cool, intuitive, in-the-pocket player (with a list of credits that includes the Eternals and Brokeback), he’s difficult if not impossible to replace. Front woman Jess Price (of Campdogzz) and bassist Bobby Burg (Love of Everything, Joan of Arc) made the best of the situation by lifting drum tracks from a breakbeat record, which gives Limestone Ritual a distinct trip-hop effervescence. Matt Lemke (Wedding Dress) embellishes the spartan sampled percussion with svelte synths that give the songs a futuristic lounge mystique. Limestone Ritual doesn’t have a single focal point—the interplay between Price’s tendrils of guitar and Burg’s resonant, minimal bass is as engrossing as Price’s half-mumbled singing. The sublime, easygoing guitar melody of “Break Cycle” exudes a sleepy optimism, which is exactly the tone I’d like to see for the music of 2023.

Doom Flower Chris Sutter (Meat Wave) and the Deepdogs DJs (members of Deeper) open. Thu 1/5, 8:30 PM, California Clipper, 1002 N. California, $5, 21+

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The Chicago Bears came into the 2022 season without enough talent to be a good team in the NFL. All they had was a quarterback that they are trying to develop with limited weapons and some solid players on defense.

Well, after trading guys like Robert Quinn and Roquan Smith, you can’t expect the defense too much else. They just simply aren’t good enough.

It is no surprise that the Bears are 3-11 staring down a game against the Buffalo Bills who are one of the best teams in the entire National Football League. This Christmas Eve matchup is not going to be easy for the Bears.

Now, on Wednesday night, the NFL announced their selections for the 2022 Pro Bowl. Justin Fields was thought to be someone that might make it as he is just the third player in NFL history to reach 1000 rushing yards as a quarterback. He has a chance to break the single-season record.

Justin Fields is not going to represent the Chicago Bears in the Pro Bowl.

They completely disrespected him though as the NFC is sending Jalen Hurts, Geno Smith, and Kirk Cousins. That is a complete joke as Fields is very well deserving of this honor.

Hurts is the only one that deserves it more than Justin. If his injury isn’t too bad for the final three weeks, he will likely be the NFL of the National Football League. At a minimum, he will come in second with or without the injury. At this point, he deserves to win it.

As for Smith and Cousins, they are both having really nice years on their current teams. Both of their squads have overperformed which is a result of their play but neither of them was as good as Fields.

The situation that Fields is in with the Bears is nothing close to his fault as he is the only reason that they have been in most of these games. The fact that he is a snub from the Pro Bowl is just sad.

As a result of this snub, the Bears are sending absolutely nobody to the Pro Bowl. There will be replacements that play in the game for injuries and for players who are playing in the Super Bowl instead but that doesn’t mean as much as being originally selected.

Fields would probably go if selected under those circumstances but it would be nice for him to just get the respect that he deserves. Maybe that will come when the Bears become relevant again. Hopefully, that comes soon. Fields will be a big part of it all.

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The Chicago Cubs no longer have Willson Contreras. He is headed to the St. Louis Cardinals in what is a terrible move from a Chicago Cubs perspective. That is a very hard void to fill for a team looking to improve in 2023 and beyond.

It looked like they were going to trade him during the 2022 season but they decided not to. He went on a little farewell tour around town but ended up staying just so he could leave for nothing. It was a very bizarre move for the Cubs’ front office.

Now, Yan Gomes is expected to be the starting catcher going forward but the Cubs added a little bit of a wrinkle to that idea on Thursday. They signed Tucker Barnhart to a two-year deal with 2024 as a player option. There is a guarantee of 6.5 million but it can get as high as 9.5 million.

This is an amazing move for the Cubs. Gomes may or may not get more playing time but Barnhart is one of the best defensive catchers in the league. He isn’t a very impactful hitter most of the time but his ability to play his position defensively is as good as anyone in the league.

The Chicago Cubs made a great signing on Thursday with Tucker Barnhart.

The pitchers on this team will absolutely love throwing to Barnhart on a regular basis. He is so good at framing and keeping baseballs from getting past him. The entire Cubs team will benefit from having a catcher that can play that well defensively.

Anything that he gives them with his bat will just be an extra bit of goodness that wasn’t expected coming into the season.

The Cubs have shown a commitment to winning in 2023. They may or may not succeed with it but they aren’t signing Barnhart for no reason. If they didn’t think they had a chance at the postseason, they probably would have just saved their money.

When Barnhart plays, it may even be in late-inning defensive situations. With that said, he is sure to get his fair share of starts as well. The Cubs clearly aren’t playing any games when it comes to letting the league know that they are at least trying.

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The Nashville Predators showed up to the United Center on Wednesday night wearing their Reverse Retro jerseys so the Chicago Blackhawks had to wear their road whites.

It was actually a really cool thing to see as that is very old-school for the NHL. Unless it is a special occasion, you only see the white jerseys at home which is not the way that it always was.

Unfortunately for the Hawks, the game didn’t go very well for them. They had a 2-1 lead in the contest but allowed the Predators to score three unanswered goals to come out with a 4-2 victory.

Nashville is a really good team that can get to another level this season and it showed in this game. Their best players were their best players and that is why the Hawks lost.

With guys like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews not scoring right now, it is going to be tough to beat teams like Nashville who have studs like Matt Duchene, Roman Josi, and Nino Niederreiter playing at the top of their game.

Connor Bedard:

After this loss to Nashville, however, there is one silver lining. At 7-20-4, the Blackhawks have the worst record in the National Hockey League. If that holds, they will have the best odds of winning the 2023 NHL Draft Lottery.

That would be amazing news for them as it would mean that Connor Bedard is headed to Chicago. This is one of the best players to be the number-one pick since Auston Matthews went to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2016.

That is saying something too because Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Rasmus Dahlin amongst others have been sensational.

Bedard is going to play with Team Canada at the World Junior Championships next week and he is going to tear it up. In their one pre-tourney game, he went off.

There are four Blackhawks prospects already there for him to play with along with other studs like Shane Wright (Seattle Kraken’s top prospect) and Adam Fantilli (who will be the second overall pick in 2023).

Bedard is a special player and Blackhawks fans might want to start catching a glimpse of him in this tournament. Even if they end up second overall, Fantilli won’t be a bad consolation prize. This is your chance to see them together.

Other NHL News:

The biggest news around the NHL right now is something that Blackhawks fans are familiar with. We know that Ovechkin scored his 800th career goal at the United Center last week.

Now, his next goal will tie Gordie Howe for the second most in NHL history, and then he’ll pass it at 802.

That is truly going to be a special moment in the league’s history as Ovechkin chases down Wayne Gretzky’s total of 894. This is going to be a great time to be a hockey fan as The Great 8 tries to chase down that record.

The league is in such a good spot right now with all of the young talent being combined with some of the legends that are still playing like Ovechkin.

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The Chicago Cubs have been bad for a couple of years now. They plan on turning things around a bit in 2023 which is possible if they stay healthy and everyone does their job. So far, they have had a solid off-season as there are some impactful players coming to the north side.

The most impactful of them all is Dansby Swanson who the Cubs signed about a week ago. He had a great contract year with the Atlanta Braves in 2022 and now he is being rewarded for it with this very lucrative contract. He will be the new starting shortstop for the Cubs.

Dansby Swanson is a great hitter but he is also going to make a great defensive duo with Nico Hoerner. Hoerner, of course, as a result of the Swanson signing will permanently move from shortstop to second base.

He was a great shortstop for the Cubs in 2021 in his own right but moving him to second is a great move for everyone involved. He is very solid defensively which will be perfect for Swanson as he will be able to do his great work at shortstop.

The Chicago Cubs are in a good spot with the middle of the infield going forward.

Both of these guys have nice bats but their production on defense will be awesome to watch. There are going to be some very interesting double plays turned between these two as not much will get through the two.

Nico Hoerner’s recent reaction to this signing speaks volumes about his maturity. Instead of saying anything against the fact that he has to move to second (a much less popular position than shortstop), he has taken it in stride and even said some very positive things about the situation.

Hoerner clearly understands that baseball is a business of winning and adding Swanson with him moving to second will help them start winning again. After all of the losing that Hoerner has been a part of, 2023 might be refreshing for him if they are actually an improved ball club.

The Cubs have a long way to go still. They could use some upgrades to the corners of their infield but once that happens, the Cubs will be set in this part of their game because this duo is so good.

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