The Value Of Skilled Defensemen

The last three games our team has greatly benefited from highly skilled play by our defensemen.

Often times people might mistakenly believe a skilled defensemen is one who rushes the puck up the ice, slaloms around oncoming forecheckers, and carries the puck deep into the offensive zone to create goal scoring chances.

While there are a rare few examples of exceptional defensemen like Paul Coffey and Bobby Orr who were effective playing this style of game, the reference to a skilled defensemen (power play ability excluded) most often refers to something much different.

A "Skilled Defensemen" is one who can:

(1) Turn and out-race a pursuing forechecker to a loose puck dumped in behind them that goes deep into their defensive zone.

(2) Keep their feet moving as they pick up the loose puck and then evade a hit or takeaway attempt of a pursuing forechecker by protecting the puck with their reach or body.

(3) Pull away from the pursuing forechecker and move with the puck into an area of open ice in order to create time, space, options, and passing lanes.

(4) Make a perfectly placed pass through an open passing lane right onto the tape of a forward who is in stride in the neutral zone in order to spring him into the offensive attack.

While any one of the above are regarded as a highly skilled play, when a defenseman is able to perform all four of them on the same play ... well that's a real thing of beauty.

While watching a game this evening between the Dallas Stars and San Jose Sharks the color commentator said the following about the importance of a team having highly skilled defensemen:

"If you look at teams that score alot of goals in this league (NHL), you don't look at the defensemen scoring alot of goals themselves but rather their ability to hit the forwards with passes while the forwards have speed in the neutral zone so your team can move the puck quickly into the offensive zone...and if you want a great example of this just flip on the television when the Detroit Red Wings are playing and you will see skilled defensemen play executed at its highest level."

At the time of this post the Detroit Red Wings are the NHL Western Conference's best team.