Jeremy Roenick stepped out of line this week.
That sentence has been uttered thousands of times about the former Blackhawks great, who has created more controversies over the past few decades than arguably any other player in franchise history. This latest misstep isn't as high-profile as most, but it was also completely unnecessary.
On his podcast with former NHL referee Tim Peel on Friday, Roenick whined at length about current Hawks star Connor Bedard not saying hello to him at the Winter Classic, accusing Bedard of not respecting hockey history as a result.
It was an absurd tirade for several reasons. Roenick, Chris Chelios and Denis Savard were guests of honor at the game, dropping the ceremonial opening puck drop together, but there's no reason why Bedard should have had a personal obligation to interrupt his pregame or in-game routines to greet them.
Bedard has demonstrated his maturity in many other ways over the past two years, and he had a much more important responsibility at Wrigley Field: actually playing the game.
Furthermore, even if Roenick believed Bedard should have had such a personal obligation, it shouldn't be such a big deal. And even if it was a big deal to Roenick, it should've been addressed privately with Bedard rather than aired publicly and posted on social media.
Roenick is thoroughly connected within the Hawks organization — especially right now, coming off his Nov. 11 induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame and his Dec. 19 celebration at the United Center. He surely wouldn't have had any difficulty getting in touch with Bedard if he just asked.
"All the players came up to me, 'Chely' and 'Savy,' congratulated us, saying hi, giving us respect, except for one," Roenick said on the podcast. "I'm just going to say this because I care and I want to make sure it's understood: There needs to be respect in the game, and there needs to be respect for the history of the game.
"I understand he's 19, he's young, he's shy [and] so on and so forth, but these are the things that have to change in Chicago in order for them to start winning. And that's having the respect or at least the acknowledgment of, 'We've got to go up and say hi, way to go.' Because we are a family. ... Whether we played 20 years ago or we're playing now, we're all still a part of that family."
Arguably even more ridiculous were Roenick's ensuing comments, suggesting Bedard's disinterest in him must mean Bedard's current Hawks teammates don't respect him — which is objectively false.
If Roenick doesn't have enough of a relationship with current Hawks players to be able to talk to Bedard privately, how could he possibly understand Bedard's relationships with his own teammates, or the dynamic in the locker room?
"I'm not ripping on him in terms of his personality or anything like that," Roenick said, despite doing exactly that. "This kid needs to learn ... if he's going to be a captain of this team, there's a lot of things he has to think about in terms of being that leader. ... Unfortunately, he dropped the ball on that opportunity."
For the record, Peel — Roenick's podcast co-host — posted a tweet during the Winter Classic calling Bedard "overrated," so some odd bias against the former No. 1 overall pick could be affecting things here.
Since Roenick's suspension and subsequent firing from NBC Sports in late 2019 after joking about wanting to have sex with fellow NBC broadcaster Kathryn Tappen, he had been well-behaved, publicly at least. His Sept. 23 news conference at Fifth Third Arena discussing his long-awaited Hall of Fame selection was genuinely inspiring.
But with that pageantry behind Roenick, his pot-stirring tendencies have apparently been unleashed again.
