Wennberg adds soccer touch to game
As the puck zips around the end boards toward Alexander Wennberg’s side of the ice during a power play, the Blue Jackets’ most skilled player barely moves his stick to gather it.
Rather, Wennberg extends his right skate at just the proper angle, making the puck carom directly to his
stick blade while he is in a perfect position to make a play.
“When I first got here, I was blown away watching him do that kind of stuff,” rookie defenseman Zach Werenski said. “Now we’ve all seen it so many times that it’s just what he does. It’s skate to stick and he goes.”
Wennberg might play the puck with his feet more than any other player in the NHL, and it’s not just his powerplay work along the half-wall. If a pass is a half-stride behind him, he’ll kick it ahead to his stick without slowing. If a pass is in his skates, he doesn’t even attempt to “dig it out” with his stick.
“He does it even when he has a chance to use his stick,” coach John Tortorella said.
Most of the NHL’s top-skilled players make these plays. But few rely on them like Wennberg.
“I’ve never seen a guy who can use his skates like he does,” said Tortorella, who will coach his 1,080th NHL game tonight when the Blue Jackets play the Florida Panthers at Nationwide Arena. “It really stands out with him. He feels that’s part of his game, and 95 percent of the time he’s dead-on with it.”
To no surprise, Wennberg was an elite-level soccer player in Sweden, on pace to play for the national team before he was forced to make a decision between soccer and hockey just before his 17th birthday.
“Hockey was more fun, so I felt like that was the right way to go,” Wennberg said. “But soccer is in my heart. I love it and I loved playing it.”
In a sense, he has melded the two sports.
As his confidence has soared this season — he has 12 goals, 42 assists and 54 points, all career highs — Wennberg has used his boots more than ever. The assists place him in a tie for ninth in the NHL.
“You’re allowed to use your skates,” Wennberg said. “It’s always good to have some extra tools to work with, so if you can use that to your advantage, it’s a good thing. It’s easier for me to get the puck to lie down. The ice along the wall, you never know what kind of bounce you’re going to get. I feel like the skate gives me more surface, more control.”
Like with all NHL clubs, a group of Blue Jackets gathers about an hour or so before each game and kicks a soccer ball around in a circle, a game they’ve dubbed Sewerball. Consensus: Wennberg is the best Sewerballer on the team.
“You can tell he was an exceptional player,” rookie right wing Oliver Bjorkstrand said. “I, personally, would never use my skates when I could play the puck with my stick, but he’s really good at it. You have to get from point A to B as fast as you can. For him, it’s faster with his skates.”