Mcdavid, Draisaitl exploding offensively under ‘defensive-minded’ coach Tippett
Remember that time the Edmonton Oilers hired Dave Tippett and everyone in the city was worried about how this staunch defensive-minded coach was going to handcuff Connor Mcdavid and Leon Draisaitl?
Well, here we are, 26 games into the season (heading into Wednesday) and look how badly the production is being choked out of them.
Mcdavid’s had a six-point night, a five-point night, a fourpoint night, five three-point nights and is on pace to absolutely shatter his personal best for points in a season (116).
And he’s second in scoring to Draisaitl, who’s had a 13-game point streak, an eight-game point streak, 14 multiple-point games and has only been kept off the scoresheet three times in 26 starts.
They have 95 points between them in 26 games, sit one-two in the scoring race and are almost 10 points clear of third place.
Amazing what they’ve been able to accomplish with their hands tied, isn’t it?
“If you talk to (Tippett), I don’t think he wanted us to play less offence, he wanted us to play better defence,” said Draisaitl, adding he was never really concerned about Tippett’s defensive reputation. “No, not at all. He’s done a great job. You can still be good defensively and have offensive chances. Guys like Connor and myself, once in a while we have to take chances, that’s our job.”
Tippett heard the concerns when he first took the position in Edmonton, that he would somehow transform Madavid and Draisaitl into stay-at-home forwards whose talents would be wasted in a system designed to suck the life out of every game and win 2-1.
But as Mcdavid and Draisaitl flourish in the best offensive year of their careers, doing things we haven’t seen in Edmonton since the Gretzky-messier Era, it’s becoming clearer by the day that coach is not at all allergic to offence, he just likes to see his players go after it in a specific way.
“I’m not dumb, I open the gate and say, ‘Go play,’” laughed Tippett, when asked why 97 and 29 are having career years offensively on a team whose primary objective this year was to improve team defence.
“The coach’s job is to maximize the players he has. Different players bring different things and you try to maximize each player. It’s no different whether it’s a penalty killer or a defenceman or even a goaltender.
“We’re trying to max out each guy. Connor and Leon are the same thing. You try and play them in the right situations and let them do their thing, and they’ve done it very well this year.”
Mcdavid and Draisaitl are certainly maxing out, which doesn’t surprise Tippett given that his game plan is actually designed to spend as much time on offence as possible.
“I’ve known that all along,” he said of the dynamic duo’s ability to generate offence on his watch. “There is a structure we want to play without the puck and there are some things you have to do that are non-negotiable, for those guys or whoever. They recognize that, but those are not things that are hurting their offence at all.
“With players like that, if they don’t have the puck, they might as well get it back because when they get it, good things happen. If you don’t have it, get it back or be in position to get it back again, and when you get it, go do your thing.”
Being better defensively by being on offence is a style Tippett has installed everywhere he’s coached, it’s just that he’s never had two players who’ve turned puck possession into such a deadly weapon. He, Mcdavid and Draisaitl seem a match made in heaven.
“If you win the puck back earlier, you have a chance to create something offensively,” said Draisaitl. “I think we’ve been better this year defensively than in years past and obviously it’s showing.”
While he wasn’t expecting to be transformed into Guy Carbonneau under Tippett, even Draisaitl didn’t imagine he would be leading the scoring race, playing over 25 minutes a night and challenging his buddy for the Art Ross.