Hossa great just by being Hossa
Hawks’ winger does more than just score
The question to Brent Seabrook came, as they often do, with a preamble.
Marian Hossa hadn’t scored a goal yet in these Stanley Cup playoffs, the Blackhawks defenceman was told. How was he helping the team in other ways?
“T hat ’s news to me,” Seabrook responded, appearing genuinely surprised. “It seems like he’s scoring every night.”
Well, no. But you could see why Seabrook might feel that way. Hossa, the 36-year-old Slovak with more than 480 NHL goals to his credit, is not the sniper he once was. But his game has evolved to the point where he is one of the key forces driving the Chicago offence, even if his stick isn’t the one that puts the puck in the net. He forces turnovers, he chases down opponents, he sets up teammates. He’s been a factor in so many Blackhawks goals, in other words, that one could excuse Seabrook for assuming he had scored one of them.
Hossa himself would agree. “I can’t believe I haven’t scored yet,” he said on Sunday, before Game 2 against the Minnesota Wild. “I’ve had opportunities.”
It only took a minute or so of action in Game 1 against the Wild for Hossa to demonstrate his value, even amid a goal-scoring drought. Minnesota’s Jason Pominville had the puck below the net in the Chicago zone, and he passed it to Mikael Granlund in the left circle. Brandon Saad, who is like a younger, less Slovakian version of Hossa, broke up the pass, and as Granlund wheeled around to try to re- claim the puck, Hossa was there to grab it. He skated it out of the zone, passed it to Saad, and drew the Minnesota defence toward him, allowing his linemate a clear path to the net, which he used to snap the puck over Devan Dubnyk’s shoulder. Just like that it was 1-0 Chicago. That was a particularly obvious example of the way Hossa helps generate offence — he had the only assist on the goal — but he demonstrates it in other ways, too. To watch Hossa on the ice is to wonder if he isn’t wearing some sort of hard-to-see harness attached to the opposing puck carrier. He always seems to be just behind that guy, either lifting his stick, or swooping to one side or the other to intercept a pass that he has anticipated. It must drive his opponents mental.
“He’s one of the fastest in the game on the defensive side of the puck because he’s always around it,” said Black- hawks coach Joel Quenneville on Sunday. “Those instincts are always there. Always there. He just plays the right way.” Then he listed some Hossa attributes: “How well he checks, puck possession, puck protection, denying those guys rush opportunities — his positioning is just A-1, as far as perfect.”
Coaches won’t often say that they expect a certain player to score to have value — goals being fairly hard to predict — but they also know that certain players don’t offer much else if they aren’t finishing. With Quenneville, you really do get the sense that he doesn’t give a sweet damn if Hossa scores as long as he keeps being Marian Hossa.
“Everybody would like to score goals, everybody would like to see more production there, but you play the team game and eventually they are going to go in for you,” the coach said.
He’s one of the fastest in the game on the defensive side
It is no coincidence that Hossa, Saad and their centre, Jonathan Toews, have three of the top eight shot-attempt-differential ratings in the NHL so far in these playoffs. In Game 1, even though their line started more than three-quarters of their shifts in the defensive zone, the forwards all posted puck-possession numbers above 60 per cent, which is excellent.
The interesting thing about the praise Hossa’s teammates and coach have for his game is how it is at odds with how he is perceived by a lot of fans. They remember the kid who could score when he entered the league with the Ottawa Senators, but who disappeared in the post-season. Beginning with the 1999 playoffs, Hossa scored all of one goal, total, in three first-round exits. Once the reputation as a one-way floater is entrenched, it can be hard to shake.
Stan Bowman, the Blackhawks’ GM, obviously figured out that Hossa was more than a goal scorer, signing him before the 2009 season after he had gone to the Cup finals with Pittsburgh and then Detroit in consecutive years. Hossa, somewhat hilariously, was signed to a 12-year, $63-million contract, of the sort that has since been outlawed, that keeps his annual salary-cap hit under $6 million and pays him $1 million in each of the final four seasons. It ends in 2021, at which point he will be 42. And probably still valuable. “We’d like to see him score,” said Quenneville, “but we know he’s going to play the game the right way.”