BiggE
SELL THE DAMN TEAM
Exactly. Lots of players skate well and have skills, but it’s smarts and hockey sense which often separates the elite from the average. Bill Barber, Mark Howe, Eric Desjardins, Mark Recchi, Simon Gagne, Kimmo Timonen, Chris Pronger, Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier were all skilled, some more than others. Some of those guys were excellent skaters, some not so much and other than Pronger, they were average or below average in size. But what they all had in common was the innate ability to read the game in real time and make the smart play.We’ve seen a popular terminology switch, among coaches and the like, in switching the word “defense” out with “checking.” (Not that kind, sit down, Deslauriers.) It removes the dichotomous aspects with the implication that checking is a 3-zone concept. Some players excel at different aspects of that. It’s a bit different than “puck controlling,” which is obviously the goal, in keeping the discussion centered on off-puck work.
I think Provorov is an even better example than Hagg or someone in differentiating between technique and impact. He absolutely had solid technique: gaps, body leveraging, stick work. And yet he got caved defensively for complex reasons, often having to do with the puck. Prime Justin Braun? Technique and impact. You can be pretty bad in traditional defense and have great impacts. But that does not describe Frost.
I don’t think you can teach this. Yeah, you can perhaps improve it with good coaching to a small degree but for the most part you have it or you don’t. Hell, even Scotty Bowman couldn’t turn Risto into a top pair D, he’s just too slow when it comes to reading the play.
I’ll take a team of average skilled players who possess great hockey sense and smarts over a more skilled team of morons every day of the week.