Silfverberg offers a well-rounded game
Ducks’ defensive specialist has scored at least once in each game of Oilers series
KELOWNA, B.C. When Randy Carlyle was between NHL jobs before landing his current position as Ducks head coach, he hung around Anaheim’s Honda Center and acted more like a scout than an unemployed bench boss.
He absolutely loved Ducks winger Jakob Silfverberg.
“I was sitting in the press box and watching Silfverberg, and he reminded me of Daniel Alfredsson,” said Carlyle, who game-planned against the former Ottawa Senators captain while coaching the Toronto Maple Leafs. “He had the same kind of demeanour. He was very good on the defensive side, and he found ways to provide offence.”
Alfredsson is now high up the management food chain with the Senators and Silfverberg has six playoff goals this spring for the Ducks, only one behind Pittsburgh Penguins rookie sensation Jake Guentzel heading into Monday’s action.
Silfverberg, who skates on a forward line with Ryan Kesler and Andrew Cogliano, has scored in each of the three games against the Oilers, totalling four in all. He scored twice and added an assist in Sunday’s 6-3 win in Edmonton.
Silfverberg has eight points in the 2017 playoffs, and has 31 in his last 30 playoff games going back three springs.
Silfverberg was gobsmacked to hear the Alfredsson comparison, though. And not just because they’re both right hand-shooting Swedes who play right-wing.
“Huge compliment. I got a chance to play one season with Alfie in Ottawa,” said Silfverberg, who was traded to Anaheim from Ottawa in the 2013 Bobby Ryan deal.
“Obviously, I’m not there yet, but being drafted by the Senators, I looked up to him. Super humble guy. I played with him in the Olympics (at Sochi in 2014), and at the World Cup last September. He was one of the mentors we had for Sweden."
Ryan is good, but even if he has seven points during this stirring playoff run for Ottawa, he’s always left people wanting more with his skill-set and size.
Not so for Silfverberg, the 39th player taken in the 2009 draft who grew up in a hockey family. His father, Jan-Erik Silfverberg, was a decorated defenceman at night and a construction worker by day for Brynas, the Swedish League team in Gavle.
He’s been a defensive presence for years on right wing but he’s gone from scoring 13 goals to 20 to 23 the last three seasons.
“He’s an unsung hockey player, and we’re very, very fortunate to have him. He can do a lot of things,” said Carlyle. Silfverberg can check, defend (plus 33 the past three years), and score. He’s on the first power play unit. He’s also a bargain at $3.75 million per year for three more years.
He’s definitely high up on the Ducks’ list of seven protected forwards for the Las Vegas expansion draft, and today, only Getzlaf and Kesler are better.
His Swedish teammate Rickard
(Silfverberg is) an unsung hockey player, and we’re very, very fortunate to have him. He can do a lot of things.
Rakell, who scored the first goal 25 seconds into Game 3 on Sunday, is more of a one-shot scorer with 33 goals this season, but Rakell doesn’t have Silfverberg’s polish away from the puck.
“It’s a fine line, but I’ve always said the best defence can be the best offence,” he said. “Our line has done a better job of that, of not just sitting back this year and playing safe, of being in the attack mode. And a guy like (Connor McDavid), if you can force him to play defence, that’s good.”
Cogliano, Kesler and Silfverberg have been on a line together for two years now, an eternity in the game-by-game jockeying coaches do nowadays.
“He’s flown under the radar and he’s got the type of shot that makes people pay,” said Cogliano.
“His shot comes off his stick, I don’t want to say 'weird’, but it comes off really quick and it catches goalies off-guard. They don’t always see it, but that’s what makes him a special player.”
RANDY CARLYLE