Sprong isn’t bad defensively. He just doesn’t want to do it.
Hockey sense is universal. Can't be smart offensively and not smart defensively...converse of each other. Can't be intelligent in the living room and dumb when you walk on to the porch...similarly, crossing painted lines does not reduce intelligence. Desire, as you note, is quite another thing.
See: Kessel's 2016 playoffs with us...Neal's first playoff with us. Both the best defensive efforts of their careers to date. Not yet duplicated.
Interesting. Not sure I am fully onboard with this. I think hockey sense can vary from zone to zone - hell, from situation to situation - so I think an offensive dynamo could be a dumbass on the D zone.
Quite impossible, my dear meow. Offensive strategy...that is, tactical offensive prowess (not to be confused with pure technical skill) is just a mirror of defensive prowess. The difference is desire and deployment. When they've been asked, some of the noteworthy one-way players in the game have always come up in defensive spots...Gretzky, Lemieux, Crosby is almost Selke caliber in most playoffs...Yzerman came around late in his career, Joe Thornton's fourth line roles with Team Canada, etc.
Evander Kane, Tyler Kennedy, Dion Phaneuf, etc. they had varying degrees of technical skill, and had 20+ goal seasons but their defense never changed...Kennedy just backchecked like his hair was on fire, regardless of the system...he didn't know where he was going or what he was doing...he just played the same game every night. Up my wing, down my wing, line change...up my wing, down my wing, line change...Phaneuf same mistakes as he had in Red Deer or where ever he played junior, I think Red Deer...still makes them. You know Kaner...
If you know how to manipulate the game to get offense out of it, you know how to stop your counterpart at defense. Because you know what he wants to do to get a scoring chance...
Stupidity doesn't know geographic coordinates...like I said, you can't know how to do calculus in the living room but can't figure out pre-calc on the front porch...it can't work like that. The brain doesn't lose processing power in that situation.
Are you saying that every player has the same aptitude for the defensive side of the game as he does for the offensive side of the game? And vice versa? Is that what I’m reading or do I need another cup of coffee?
Oh absolutely. Since you said "aptitude" I'm assuming that you're getting the difference between technical skill and mental ability already. These players that are "sticky" defensively...the best ones, they have that defensive viscosity as I like to call it...they would be terrific offensive players if they had the technical skills to back it up or the role...
Bob Gainey, Guy Carbonneau, Sean Couturier...next up Jesperi Kotkaniemi...these are mirror guys...they mirror offense so well and they stop it from happening. When posed with the converse situation, no doubt if they had the skill to pull it off, they could do it. They have the head for it...the game doesn't change in any zone or situation, still the same game...just different emphasis. I'm living example of this at my level...strong defensive game because I think the game well...offensively, I know where to go, but I'm a total plug. So I play the Hornqvist style and still score a bunch* of goal(s)...
If I ever play well below my level, my game changes to playmaking center and I rack up apples because I have the thinking part down...I get the seams, I get the movement...when the game slows down for me, I can execute it. I'm typically playing over my head, so I settle in to the role that should play there.
Guy Carbonneau had a higher point total in his best QMJHL season than Denis Savard.
Savard was given an offensive role in the NHL - had five 100+ point seasons. Over 1300 career points...no big deal.
Carbonneau used in a defensive role, offensive skills were left behind to focus on defense...put in defensive role. Never topped 60 points...sub 0.5 point per game player in the same amount of games. Steve Kasper - QMJHL grad at the same time as Carbs and Savard, same story as Carbs.
