Arriving in the NHL - What to expect and how to prepare

Part 1/3 – Scoring-Forwards

If you are a young talented Swiss player and you face the NHL-guys in a camp for the first time you have to expect that this game is played on a completely different level. The speed and the intensity are off the charts. You see monsters out there, Brent Burns, Alex Ovechkin, Jamie Benn, they shoot the puck and you will think: Oh my god, where did I land? In net you will face 6’4” or even bigger walls like Connor Hellebuyck, Ben Bishop or Devan Dubnyk and they wear pillows and stand in your way and they can do full splits on skates, unbelievable! If you follow these shooters and these goalies the first thing you will find out is: You have to become a better shooter. In the NHL, everybody shoots it hard. You have to be prepared to this some sort of shock and most important: Yes, you are allowed to be impressed but you are not allowed to give up. If you have certain smarts you will adapt step by step. And again: Never give up!

How to prepare?

Learn from the best! Of course you have to be physically and mentally prepared but this is just the ticket to the game. If you want to win the game you have to be prepared much more: My biggest and most important advise is: Learn from the very best! Watch and tape NHL-games and follow specifics of certain players. As follows I will help you to identify these specifics in what players. In addition you also can prepare in terms of developing hockey-sense. Hockey sense: Unteachable, Either you are born with it, or you have not... Not true. Hockeysense is teachable und you can improve this of course while playing tons of games and analysing them but also with modern support such as https://www.intelligym.com/hockey/improving-hockey-sense e.g. Personally I don’t know whether this is the best product on the market or not. I just want to remind you, that there exist systems you can use, you should use, actually you have to use in terms of improving your hockey sense, in terms of preparing for the arriving in the big league, the NHL. Do hockey-players watch film? Of course they do, they watch hours long every week, it’s their job to figure out how to make life miserable for opposing players and it’s their job to learn and to “borrow” some good stuff from the very best. So, if you want to succeed in the NHL study the game, study and evaluate the best players and try to improve your hockey-sense with state of the art technical support.

You can improve your hockeysense!

So, let’s face the players I really recommend to follow, to study. I will start with some “secrets” of the best scoring-forwards. Here we go:

Scoring-Forwards:

As a forward you definitely try to score goals and try to find ways to prepare goals. As I mentioned before you have to learn to shoot the puck, to learn to shoot the puck like the best players in the world. You won’t make it to the NHL if you don’t become a really good shooter. You have to realise that most pucks don’t come to you clean and you might have to fire a shot unbalanced and on one leg plus there is no time to look down, settle the puck and so on. This is not junior-hockey we are talking about. In the NHL you just have a split-second to make a decision for a shot-release. At the same moment the monster-goalie is pushing-out hard and takes away the open space. You have to learn to shoot the puck unbalanced, you have to learn to use the defenseman as a screen to your advantage. You have to learn to take your body to one side of the dman and releasing the puck on the other side. James Neal is doing this well and I also did see such clever shots from Auston Matthews. Goalies hate such screens. Changing the angle in a split-second is another high-end weapon for real snipers and you can do this with a so called toe-drag move. You hold the puck far outside of your body, then pulling it in your feet followed by a quick snapper. Again James Neal is a master of this move. But now let’s move on to some unique weapons of some of the best forwards in the world. I did tell you already about James Neal, just try to follow him and his shooting-strategies. Here we go with

Sidney Crosby

It’s difficult to tell what you should watch with him because he is doing everything so well. His lower-body-strength is exceptional as are his wrists and forearms and he plays with a nearly flat blade but it’s maybe his backhand-shot what really stands out. Watch him shooting the puck backhand, it’s the best in the world. Also very impressive with Crosby is his compete level. Watch him competing in every single shift and in all the corner-battles and face-offs.

Jonathan Toews

Like Crosby also Toews does everything really well. What stands out with Toews is that he is constantly on the move and his positioning is also high-end. He always finds the right spots for the right plays. Watch him moving his feet and where he goes without the puck. You won’t find better players in these aspects.

Vladimir Tarasenko

He is the master of creating scoring-chances and this individually and in terms of creating opportunities for his linemates. He has a high-end mixture of physical strength (he is very stocky) and please watch his exceptional balance! All this goes with very good stickhandling and great patience, he is one of the most patient shooters in the game.

Vladimir Tarasenko, the Tank

Anze Kopitar

He still is a bit underrated because he might not be as flashy as others but please pay attention to his excellent defensive responsibility and his perfect defensive stick-work. He anticipates the plays very well and uses his stick to break down plays. Also his effortless skating is worth a closer look.

Pavel Datsyuk

Probably the best hands in the NHL, maybe just Patrick Kane is on a similar level in this aspect. Follow his hand-skills and watch how he can hide the puck on his stick and how he shoots the puck without ever looking at the net.

Ryan Getzlaf

He plays with a long stick and is a real power-house. Watch him how he loves to play behind the net and he is a master of “provocating” so called dirty goals arising from multiple rebounds.

Henrik Sedin

With Henrik Sedin I do recommend you trying to learn from his unbelievable backhand-passing-quality and watch how well he is protecting the puck.

Alex Ovechkin

I guess everybody knows about his unreal heavy shot. What is unique is that he can shoot the puck with a canon from nearly everywhere, there is nearly no spot on the ice you are allowed to underrate an Ovi-shot.

The one and only Ovi

Patrick Kane

Like Datsyuk he has a ridiculous pair of hands, his stickhandling quickness is off the charts and please also watch his shot-release, world-class!

Jaromir Jagr

Is there a better player in the world along the walls than Jaromir Jagr? Definitely not. Watch him playing keep-away, this is state of the art and he is still going and going and going and is still the best in this and still one of the best players out there in general.

Steven Stamkos

Talking about shot-release you don’t have to go further than to Steven Stamkos. One-timing the puck? Study Steven Stamkos.

John Tavares

With John Tavares I always take him as a posterboy in terms of how strong he is on his feet and how easily he can absorb hits and then drives directly and dynamically to the net. His skating seems to be a bit underrated as he really uses good edgework what helps him to create scroing-chances.

Max Pacioretty

MaxPac is the Mr. snapshot. He can release this type of shots so quickly and with so much power, the goalie never has a chance for a reflex. The goalie has to anticipate his shots if he wants to have a chance to stop them.

Jamie Benn

Jamie Benn is the ultimate hockey-animal. Not only Drew Doughty tells that it is unbelievable tough to play against him. Watch him how he plays tough as nails. I did tell that James Neal is good in using  d-men as a screen in 1-on-1-situations. Jamie Benn is the best in this, watch him!

Jamie Benn

Tyler Seguin

If you watch Tyler Seguin you will quickly find exceptional acceleration from 2^nd to 3^rd gear in his game but what makes him really special is that he is doing more often than not the completely unexpected. His plays are sometimes not logical at all and that’s why he is very difficult to read for defenders and goalies.

In my next column we will take a closer look at the defenders.

And go for it - because its THE cup!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSd8CqBEbcY


This 3-part-column contains quotes from Mark Streit, Jonathan Quick, James Neal, Connor Hellebuyck, Kevin Shattenkirk, Andrew Berkshire, Drew Doughty, Scott Stevens, Patrick Kearns and Logan Couture. Thank you!

Horgen, 26^th January 2016 / Thomas Roost