A SPECIAL SOURCE TO NHL GREAT: DETROIT RED WINGS SPOTLIGHT

Every hockey player has to manage a bad puck, and NHL stars make it easy. Bad pucks include bouncing pucks, incomplete passes, deflected pucks, intercepted clear attempts, rocketing collecting his passes, and turning ugly plays into offense. Great plays make the highlight reel, but making the most of bad plays is what wins hockey.

There are hard-to-quantify skills that the great players in the NHL have that the average player doesn’t. Not speed, hockey IQ, strength, creativity, courage, vision, conditioning, shooting, stickhandling, checking, fighting, passing, or any other measurable skill. Ability. What are the achievements of the Red Wings?

Classifying a player as a good hand usually refers to stickhandling. The deke and hanging when the player holds the puck is exciting.

But a good hand at resolving a bouncing puck, taking a rifle pass that looks like it’s absorbed into the stick, or making an imperfect pass look good is another skill. Every controlled pass is the difference between continuing to attack or returning to defense.

The offensive zone has few uncontested paths. Nearly every play involves a deflected pass, a bouncing puck, or a defense ready to make an important check. In defensive zone play, often receiving the puck along the boards in the face of heavy forechecks or inaccurate pucks from coerced teammates.

Complicating matters is that the ice quality is often uneven and the puck jumps off the ice ruts. Enclosing an imperfect pass, quickly settling a puck that behaves like a tennis ball, or moving the puck from skate to stick in a seamless motion distinguishes stars from non-stars.

Which Detroit Red Wings player had this skill?

The previous generation Detroit Red Wings had a lot of good pass receivers. Brendan Shanahan had power and precision that allowed him to take every type of messy pass in one go.

Pavel Dachuk was able to turn a waist-high pass flat into an ice pack without breaking his stride. It seemed to have a magnetic force on the stick to control it. Without a team of quality pass receivers, the pack cannot be a possession team.

Which Detroit Red Wings currently have this skill?

The Detroit Red Wings have more players who are good at receiving passes. Dylan Larkin’s sprint-to-stick move is world class. Moritz Cider makes every kind of wild puck calm, controlled and playable into attack. Jakub His Vrana directs bouncing pucks with ease, and his Quick His stick turns plays into shots and productive passes.

David Perron is top-notch in touch passing, turning bad pucks into attacking opportunities. Lucas Raymond has evolved from great to great in his ability to transition from imperfect passes to plays. Elmer Soderblom amazes at how well he manages a bad pack. His long reach helps, but receiving passes with confidence and skill is key to predicting how well he will do.

There are three young players that I am very optimistic about.

Future Detroit Red Wings Albert Johansson calmly accepts the puck, knocks down clear passes with ease, and transitions effortlessly from defense to offense. This skill allows other aspects of the game he’s learning to develop faster. Joe Veleno improved on this point. He’s evolved from being just tolerable managing bad packs to being solid.

The biggest change is Philip Zadina. He was below average to terrible in the area of ​​receiving passes. He double-clutched a good pass and lost a scoring opportunity. Despite his player history as a strong one-timer, it was nearly impossible to give Zadina enough passes in his fine wheelhouse. Almost every incomplete pass bounced off his stick.

All jumping packs are turnovers. He was the definition of holding the stick too hard. He looks calm now. He’s embracing the pack instead of fighting it. He’s hitting less-than-perfect passes with accuracy.

Zadina has the skills but needs confidence to be a strong pass receiver. It looks like he’s turning a corner. Zadina’s success will be measured by how well he manages his passes hard and bad packs.

There is much debate about the game’s great passers. But being a good receiver of passes and a bad puck manager is often a better predictor of the NHL star’s power. The Detroit Red Wings are developing and acquiring more players with this special source.