Today’s Daily Cup of Joe takes a try at identifying past Hurricanes players whose game/skill set remind of me of at least part of a current player’s skill set.
Brett Pesce
He reminds me of Glen Wesley in how few big mistakes he makes. In my mind, Wesley’s greatest strength was his ability to take bad situations and always find the play that minimized the potential for a ‘big oops.’ Defending a 2-on-1 rush, Wesley was incredibly good at taking away the passing lane and at least giving the goalie a chance. When forechecked into a difficult situation, Wesley always had a knack for knowing when the best option was to play the puck to a safe place such that even if the puck was turned over it was not the catastrophic variety of turnover. Pesce has that same decision-making ability that results in incredibly few ‘big oopses’.
Noah Hanifin
This one is not new, but for games when Noah Hanifin gets his skating legs going, he continues to remind me of Joni Pitkanen in his ability to carry the puck. The easy skating stride that gobbles up ice at breakneck speed is uncanny as is Hanifin’s increasing propensity to stubbornly keep the puck and buy time if needed such that he only gives it up when he has someone to pass it to. I do not think Hanifin has reached his ceiling in terms of generating offense yet, but I think he is heading in the right direction.
Sebastian Aho
He reminds me of Ray Whitney in two ways. First is that Aho has high-end ability to think the game as a playmaker. Second is that Aho, like Whitney, is deceptively strong one-on-one in puck battles. Whitney always won more than his fair share of puck battles considering his size. He did use some amount of smarts and craftiness to do so, but he also was just strong on his skates with good balance that enabled him to go shoulder to shoulder with bigger players quite often with surprising results. Aho similarly has high-end smarts as part of his skill set and like Whitney is stronger than height and weight measurements would indicate.
Joakim Nordstrom
Nordstrom does not have nearly the same level of offensive ability, but he actually reminds me of the 2005-06 version of Justin Williams. That version of Williams always played faster than his legitimate straight line speed on the forecheck. The reason is twofold. First is that Williams always seemed to have a half of a step head start on where he needed to go. Second is that he just skated harder than almost everyone else. The current iteration of Justin Williams still skates well and works hard, but he has shifted a bit in that he relies a bit more on positioning and smarts compared to 10+ years ago. But Nordstrom very much embodies that hardworking style that quickly takes away time and space when forechecking.
Teuvo Teravainen
He reminds me a bit of Jeff O’Neill in the sense that he at times looks like an elite NHL finisher, but at other times seems to be completely invisible. O’Neill was similarly streaky, but the goals eventually came. In his best seasons, Jeff O’Neill was an elite goal scorer despite still being streaky. Here is hoping that Teuvo Teravainen can reach the same level.
Trevor van Riemsdyk
Van Riemsdyk’s skill set is quite different, but his ability to just continually click off sound minutes in the third pairing regardless of situation or defense partner reminds me a bit of Niclas Wallin. Wallin is remembered more for his playoff heroics, but the core of his game was just playing steady defense that anchored the third pairing. Van Riemsdyk is similar in 2017-18 in his ability to consistently play sound even if unspectacular hockey.
What say you Canes fans?
1) Which of my comparisons above do you most agree and also disagree with?
2) Who has more current player comparisons back to former Canes players?
Go Canes!
Current comparison
Cam Ward of 2095-2006 and this year’s Cam Ward. IMO Cam never looked like the Vezina winner after the cup run. He seemed to press to hard to be that guy night in and night out for 60 games a year and made errors. This season, he doesn’t have that pressure, Darling does. Cam can just be Cam and all strong performances are a bonus to the team. It’s nice to see the Cam of Ole playing well.
Hopefully Cam can teach Darling to be Darling. Not to press too hard to be perfect, and just play his game.
The comparisons for Pesce, Hanifin, and Aho all make sense. Aho’s strength is impressive. He seldom seems to lose–sometimes ending in a draw with bigger players–battles for the puck. The thing that stands out is how he instinctively seems to know when to initiate contact with an opposing player such that he has more leverage.
For Teravainen, I don’t disagree. But for me he reminds me somewhat of a current player on a different team: Nicklas Backstrom. TT is not so much a streaky scorer as a distributor. I remember the few games last year when Staal was hurt and Teravainen played center–he senses where teammates are going. Because he doesn’t have the size of Backstrom or the strength of Aho, I don’t know he will ever be a center. Still, like Backstrom, I think he is a regular 20-goal scorer who gets to 65-70 points with helpers.
Nordstrom just never gets out-hustled. So Williams is apt. As an additional point–I think in the next year or two there will be a tough decision. Nordstrom is good at what he does. But with Foegele and a few others in the system with similar styles and more offensive potential, how does Nordstrom fit in?
I think Nordstrom should stay on the left side of Wallmark and Foegle. PDG becomes the 13th guy. Kruger becomes expendable. He is a good shutdown guy but he hasn’t been scoring as much as he is earning.
The Aho and TVR comparisons resonate strongly with me. Pesce is like Wesley on D but is much better passing the puck – at a given game my son and I used to bet whether Wesley would dump every time into the zone or actually make a pass. While he never made a bad mistake he was also not an offensive catalyst.
Nordstrom reminds me of Craig Adams, not sure if it is because of his play uniquely or that he and Kruger remind me of the “Adams Family” pairing. We haven’t had such a good fourth line since, well, the Adams Family.
One of my favorite memories of game 7 of the cup run (as memory serves) was on a PK in the third period. Brind’Amour took the first PK shift and a puck went out of play, leading to a faceoff in the neutral zone when a shift change was needed. Kevyn Adams took a shot puck to the lower arm on his previous shift, and was bent over on the bench holding the arm.
Roddy looked to the bench for a sub and Kevyn Adams just shook his head no. Rod looked up and down the bench and no other center moved. The linesman was ready to drop the puck, so Rod just shrugged and skated in for the face-off.
Watching Brind’Amour’s expression change from confusion to acceptance to desire was remarkable, maybe one second total. He won the face off and skated with the same energy as his first shift, he was all in.
Kevyn Adams broke both bones in his lower arm. That was the only shift he missed in the game – he went on to play well, one handed.
I don’t know if Kruger and Nordstrom are made of the same stuff, but I see a resemblance.
I really like the Nordstrom/Craig Adams comparison. It is even better than my Williams comparison because both Nordstrom and Adams are players who are somewhat limited in terms of raw skill but understood what it took for them to successfully play a role at the NHL level.
Craig Adams had a nice 15 year career and won two Stanley cups, while averaging 3-4 goals per year (probably mostly shorties and EN, although I haven’t checked the data).
So yes Nordstrom is more like Adams than Williams but that is not a bad thing!