There’s a need for speed in today’s NHL
The emphasis is on skating and quickness in everything players do during a game
There was a time that if a player had but a single skill, it had to do with his fists. The age of the fighter is over. Now, if a player has one single skill, it’s his speed.
“Every guy can skate,” Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby says. “Every young guy teams bring in has a lot of speed. They use those young legs. It’s such a skating game. It doesn’t necessarily mean more offence. It’s just a faster game.”
Goals are up, but not necessarily because everyone is faster. There are more power plays, and greater power-play efficiencies. Defencemen are doing a better job of getting pucks deep — not necessarily at the net, but close. Wingers stand to the side and try to deflect shots that are aimed wide to avoid the shot-blockers.
“Teams are looking to have four lines that can all score, whereas before you might have had a third and fourth line that were looking to shut down (opponents),” Crosby says. “They’re relied upon a little more heavily to produce.
“You’re getting scoring all through the lineup. But as far as the game itself, it doesn’t feel any more open.”
But it is faster. Not just the puck carrier, but the checker.
Checkers these days are as fast as the stars.
“That’s what the league is going to,” Leafs coach Mike Babcock says. “We think speed is straight ahead speed. It’s not. It’s in edges. It’s in small spaces. Can you make plays in small spaces? Can you turn and protect (the puck) in small spaces?
“You’ve got to be able to play in that environment, going 100 miles an hour, because they’re chasing you. There’s no time and no space. So you have to have a certain skill, and a certain amount of speed.”
It’s also meant the game has opened up for smaller players. Fighters used to be big. So did hulking stay-athome defencemen. Big defencemen who are fast are in short supply. That’s opened a window for shorter defencemen who can move the puck quickly. Speed matters more than size.
“It’s puck-moving ability, defensive-zone transition, the defence to get up to the forwards,” Carolina coach Bill Peters says. “Not so much skating. Maybe you beat the first guy with your feet, but you beat the next guy with the pass. It’s real fast. You’ll see the shot totals around the league and the goal totals are up. It’s because of the transition game.
“It’s hard to establish a forecheck on guys that are good skaters. When you have a (defensive) corps that’s mobile, it’s hard to get them pinned. To me, that’s the modern game. You see all these sub-six-foot guys going in the first round that are puck-moving (defencemen). There are more of them coming in the league as we go.”