Stecher’s strong season continues
Canucks’ solid defenceman has learned that playing smart means keeping things simple
When you look at the Vancouver Canucks’ shot map from the first 25 games of the 2018-19 season, one thing stands out: too many shots from the slot.
When you look at the same map, but for when Troy Stecher is on the ice, the picture changes, remarkably.
Shots from the slot are no longer a thing.
In fact, the data shows that when Stecher isn’t on the ice, the Canucks are giving up shots at a rate well-above average from the slot; when he’s on the ice, the rate becomes well-below average.
To say that the Richmond-raised defenceman is having a solid season is an understatement.
“Keep it simple stupid, that’s what I always learned from my old man,” he said about how he approaches the game. “Didn’t really understand it at a young age, but I definitely understand it now.”
Stecher’s simple game is obvious. He’s really good at breaking up rushes into the Canucks’ zone and he’s very good at preventing passes into the middle of the ice. Credit strong skating and smart hockey sense.
In November, just over a third of opponents’ entries into the Canucks’ zone were made with control of the puck while Stecher was defending, which is a very solid number. (As a comparison point, against Erik Gudbranson, about twice as many opposing-zone entries were made with control of the puck.)
Seven defencemen have filled most of the Canucks’ ice time this season, and at evenstrength, all are between a minute of ice time of each other, Chris Tanev leading at 16:18, Michael Del Zotto the lowest at 15:06.
Stecher’s 15:27 puts him right in the middle.
When he’s on the ice, the Canucks are getting 52 per cent of the shots, which lines up nicely with the aforementioned shot maps. (The attacking shot maps also show the Canucks are getting much better shots with him on the ice than not.)
Some of this strong shot-attempt percentage is the fact that his coaches have looked strongly toward Stecher when the team is down a goal — the Canucks have played about a quarter of their even-strength ice time while down a goal — a scenario that generally sees the trailing team get more shots than the leading squad.
And while he’s been a solid contributor at even-strength, he’s not been tasked with much short-handed ice time. But in the couple dozen minutes of penalty-killing ice time that he’s accumulated, he’s put in a strong performance, yielding either the fewest (or second-fewest after Alex Edler) shot attempts, unblocked shot attempts and shots from in close to the net.
Stecher’s sharp mind for the game comes through when asked about what things the Canucks have been needing to tighten up.
“It comes down to little things, like making sure the puck gets out two feet outside the blue-line, skating an extra three feet to make sure it’s not an icing,” he said. “When we break down film, that’s what always seems to come back to hurt us.”
The team was playing well to start the year — with a bit of luck thrown in — and, in the players’ estimation, they’ve gotten away from doing well at the things they can control.
“Being sharp on our details like when you’re coming back on the backcheck, stopping on a dime in front of the house, not taking a big swing, letting your momentum take you away from the area you want to protect,” Stecher said of what else they’ve seen in their post-game video review. “Just being more direct on our forecheck, understanding that we need one guy in right away, you might not always get the puck, but that’s not your job, it’s to separate the man from the puck, just trusting your teammates that the second guy is going to be there to help.”
Which brings it back to the lesson from his dad, about keeping their game simple.
“Everybody cares, everybody wants to win, I just think sometimes that means you grip your stick too tight, you make more mistakes than you’d expect,” Stecher said.