Rookie learns nuances of playoff hockey
Before Game 4, the playoff education of Drake Caggiula had taken place in the school of hard knocks and missed opportunities.
It’s a big classroom for an NHL rookie, and there are so many instructors. Some he surely doesn’t like much at all, but plenty can be learned from the opposition about rising to the occasion. In fact, Anaheim Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf put on a clinic in Game 4. Edmonton Oilers forward Caggiula took notes and passed that test, too.
In the waning moments of the third period, with the game on the line, Caggiula scored a goal so huge it had the potential to cause a seismic shift in the series. With goalie Cam Talbot on the bench, Caggiula pounced on a loose puck in the slot and roofed it for a 3-3 draw, sending Game 4 to overtime. Had the Oilers carried momentum into OT and won it, the series was virtually theirs.
“It gave us an opportunity,” Caggiula said in the aftermath of the Game 4 loss.
“It’s nice to get the first one off my back, but we’ve got to make sure we play a full 60 minutes going forward here.”
They lost Game 4 on a Jakob Silfverberg one-timer just 45 seconds into OT, another goal engineered by Getzlaf, who bumped his career playoff totals to 112 points in 112 games. Positively professorial.
Caggiula’s goal, on the other hand, snapped a nine-game points drought that was becoming a concern for a kid accustomed to seeing his name on the scoresheet. That’s just part of the educational process, and he managed to stay positive.
“Some guys have been in the league for a while, some guys are young, and it has been a learning experience every single day,” he said. “We’re starting to get a grasp on how a series goes and how momentum doesn’t necessarily carry from one game to another, and the momentum in any given game can change drastically. You’ve just got to make sure you stay even keel throughout the whole process.”
Though not at the head of the NHL’s rookie class, far from it in fact, the 22-year-old from Pickering, Ont., is an eager student and always has been. He gets an ‘A’ for effort and almost 15 minutes of ice time from the Oilers’ headmaster Todd McLellan most nights. That is reminiscent of his four-year stint at the University of North Dakota.
“The one thing that really stands out in my mind is he was a worker,” said UND head coach Brad Berry. “He invested in his game on a daily basis. We’d practise for a couple of hours on weekdays, but he’d build his schedule so that he could come between classes, too, and work with the coaches on the ice on his individual skills.
“You see that now. He has some high-end skill and he’s a worker. When he scored that goal, there were a lot of people who were proud, none prouder than our group at North Dakota.”
Caggiula’s puck skills are obvious, so too the great wheels that help him leverage his minimal bulk. Before he scored his goal, the five-foot-10, 185-pounder got tongues wagging with a big hit on Getzlaf against the side boards. Berry saw plenty of that at UND, too. Secondary scoring is so valuable, crucial even, at playoff time when go-to guys like Connor McDavid draw closer checking and their production inevitably falls off. Caggiula is surely one depth player who can provide it but had been stymied until Wednesday.
“I don’t want to make any excuses, whatever the situation is. You’ve got to perform, no matter the circumstances. You see rookies on other teams like (Pittsburgh’s Jake) Guentzel doing really well. That’s not an excuse. You’ve just got to find a way to overcome that little hurdle.”
Consider that another lesson learned.