HALL OF CHANGE
No. 1 pick in 2010 took up Devil GM’s challenge and reinvented his game after disappointing season
As Ray Shero sat across from Taylor Hall at dinner at the end of last season, the New Jersey Devils GM saw a broken player with an expression on his face that said he was badly in need of a pep talk. But before that could happen, Shero delivered a swift kick. Snap out of it, said Shero. You’ve shed your tears and sulked long enough. Now, bury the past and get on with your life.
It was a harsh message for a player who was still feeling the effects of being traded from the only team he knew. But Shero didn’t mince words. He said that Hall’s season had been disappointing, that his on and off-ice work habits needed to change. He also asked him about the legacy that the No. 1 overall pick in 2010 was creating. But he also played cheerleader to a player who was starting to think of himself as the problem rather than the solution.
That meant changing his thought process regarding last year’s massive trade out of Edmonton. Try to remember, said Shero, the Oilers hadn’t shipped him out of town. Rather, the Devils had pursued him.
Shero had wanted Hall. He still does.
“It was very difficult for him,” Shero told Postmedia News in a phone interview. “Being in Edmonton for six years — and nothing happens when all those younger kids are there. And then he’s the one who gets traded — and he gets traded to a team that doesn’t do well last year — and all of a sudden Edmonton does real well, it’s human nature. How could it not sting?
“He had never lost anybody close to him — a parent or someone close to him — and I told him it’s a year of mourning. I’d been through that with my mom and dad and that is true. I told him, give it one (expletive) year here and you’re going to get over it. If you want to be a playoff player, you have to change things in your game and you have to change the way you practise.”
Today, Hall doesn’t look like the player who might as well have been skating around with a permanent scowl on his face and a black armband on his jersey. After having one of his worst seasons of his career (20 goals and 53 points), he is off to one of his best starts (eight goals and 26 points in 24 games).
Hall’s no longer thought of as the problem. Instead, he’s been the solution.
“I think just having a solid start to the season gives any player a lot of energy,” said Hall. “As a guy who plays a lot and is expected to contribute, when you do and your team is winning you can’t help but have good vibes and have fun coming to the rink every day. That’s where I’m at right now. It’s been a really great first part of the season for our group, and as you said for me mentally to be on a team that’s winning has been so much fun.”
Fun isn’t a word Hall would have used last season. After being traded to New Jersey for Adam Larsson — a deal that was about addressing Edmonton’s need for a top-two defenceman — he ended up missing the playoffs for the seventh straight year. Worse yet, the Oilers thrived without him and came within one win of reaching the conference final.
For the 26-year-old Hall, it was a reminder of what could have been. Shero’s message was to forget about all that. If Hall wanted to make the playoffs and enjoy the type of success that the Oilers were enjoying, then it was up to him to do something about it. And so, Hall packed up his things and moved to Toronto.
On the surface, leaving his summer home in Kingston, Ont., looked like a classic example of a player running away from his problems. Except in this case, Hall was running toward them.
“The biggest reason I moved to Toronto was so that I could skate with NHL players all summer long,” he said. “In the past, I hadn’t usually started skating until August or late July. This year I was on the ice working on stuff in late May. I’m not sure if that’s made a difference or not, but I definitely feel good this year. The reason I did that was because I could see a lot of the younger players coming up now they’re playing hockey all year round and they’re always working on stuff, so I figured I should do the same.”
Hall skated with Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Dallas’ Tyler Seguin and many of the top NHLers. He wanted to learn from them, figure out what they were doing that he wasn’t. It was an acknowledgment that whatever Hall had been doing was not good enough.
He was no longer considered one of the best players in the league anymore. He hadn’t been picked for Canada’s World Cup roster and was not among TSN’s top-50 poll (he was edged from the final spot by Toronto’s Mitch Marner).
Even in New Jersey, his ice time wasn’t a given — something that head coach John Hynes had told Hall and the other veterans after the Devils finished with the second-fewest wins (28) last season in the whole league.
“It hasn’t been good enough here for the last however many years and we’re looking for guys to come in and be able to step up,” Hynes said. “We can’t keep doing more of the same: playing the same guys in the same roles and situations. It hasn’t been good enough. We want players to come in and take people’s jobs. We want them to come in and push for ice time and push to be impact players. That’s the environment that we’ve created.”
Out of that environment, Hall took up the challenge and reinvented his game.
Hall didn’t surround himself with “yes” men, who would feed his ego and tell him how great of a player he was. He experimented with training methods that had steep learning curves, where his problem areas were exposed. Everything was new, difficult and challenging. Once a week, he worked with Joe Quinn’s Power Edge Pro, a small-areas skill training centre that McDavid has been using since he was in grade school. Hall struggled.
“When I started doing that I was pretty terrible to be honest,” said Hall, “and then you get better at the puck handling and what they want you to do. That was just another tool to use.”
It was humbling. But it was also refreshing.
“He’s a real smart kid,” said Shero. “Hey, anyone can say they want to run a Boston Marathon, but unless you prepare that way for it it’s not going to happen. I think he’s really come back and it really starts in practice. He’s been a tremendous practice player, which is really important.”
Hall isn’t sure the change in his off-season routine is the reason why he’s on pace for his best season. But in his mind, he’s at least made the effort. In life, you don’t regret failing. What you regret is not putting in the work to succeed.
“I can’t tell you quantitatively if it’s made me better or not, but I definitely feel better out there.”
“Certainly, it’s a step in the right direction for him,” said Shero. “He was on the ice with (Sidney) Crosby and amazed at how hard he works, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’ve seen it.’ It’s another level. He gets that now. It was a great thing for him to do.” The results suggest that. Hall, who is so far producing offence, is back to being the player who tied for sixth overall in scoring in 2013-14. He’s dangerous with the puck, using his speed to score goals. Playing with Nico Hischier, this year’s No. 1 overall pick, has re-energized him.
Of course, it helps that while everyone picked the Devils to finish near the bottom of the standings and the Oilers to contend for the Stanley Cup, the opposite is occurring. The Devils are proving people wrong. And Hall is a big reason for that.
“It can definitely motivate a team,” Hall said of the pre-season. “We all came into training camp with a bitter taste in our mouth from last season. From the first practice in training camp, we had a different mentality. Definitely, there’s something to be said for proving people wrong. With the group that we have, we take solace in the fact that we’re surprising teams and we’re doing a lot better than people thought.
“I don’t think we’re going to be surprising teams for too much longer. It’s only going to get harder.”
He was on the ice with (Sidney) Crosby and amazed at how hard he works, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’ve seen it.’ It’s another level. He gets that now.