The Hockey PDOcast - David Pastrnak’s Evolution as Boston’s Offensive Engine

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Darryl Belfry to deep dive David Pastrnak's game, how he's able to create so many quality chances, and the way he's developed into being the player Boston's offense runs through.  If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filipovic. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Dimitri Filippovich and joining me is my good buddy for the first time in 2024. Daryl, what's going on, man? Excited to get into some pasta today. That's right. That's right. After a lot of unhealthy eating during the holidays, we're going to keep carb loading here with a heavy pasta dish. That's our little interesting. here for the David Pasternak episode. We'll workshop and I'm sure by the end of the show,

we'll come up with some better, better puns. But this is a player who you and I have been circling, I think, for a while now, similar to what we said when we, when we teed up the Kutraultev episode a couple weeks ago now, a player that embodies a lot of the sort of skills and qualities that we tend to latch onto and focus on and praise on these shows you and I do weekly.

And so he embodies all that. He displays it on a nightly basis. in very creative and unique ways. And so I think it's a good opportunity for us to do it. And Darrell, before we get into it, I've got to express my happiness that we're back at it because while the holiday break was great, got some nice quality time off, all that good stuff with the family, I was itching to get back doing these. I was grinding tape whenever I could get a couple minutes to myself.

So we are back at it and I'm looking forward to it. I think this is going to be a really fun one. So I'll give you the floor here. What sticks out to you most when you watch, Pasturneck, what do you think we should start off with your day? Like for me, like the obvious stuff that you want to focus on when you talk about Postradoc is his ability to shoot. I mean, he has an otherworldly ability to shoot.

But that's why for me, I like to go into layers deeper and less obvious. And so when I really study him, whether you're studying his shot or chance generation or or anything to do with the way in which he operates and his skill set and his habits, the thing that jumps out to me the most is that he is also an elite mover. His skating ability is underrated. A lot of what he does with his shooting and a lot of his chance generation comes from his ability to move. And he moves extremely well.

And when I say move, I mean like his ability to manage space. His ability to preserve space to shoot is an ability to move. His acceleration. He just has his ability to separate his upper body from his lower body effectively. He's also a world class passer. and which is underrated because his shooting is so good. Now, the last point I'll bring kind of as a, as a, you know, multiple talking points here that we can discuss is when he is when he's handling the puck in the offensive zone, he is one of the best, if not the best, at being able to load the puck in a shooting position and have a lot of his. options come off of that. So he has like an option tree that he has available to him that he uses

from the puck being loaded on his stick and in a shooting position. And then he can shoot it. A lot of his deception comes from there. A lot of movement that he has comes from that position because he's so coiled and separated from his upper body and his lower body. So for me, when I study Posterdog, I'm captivated by his ability to move. I think that's a great entry point there for us because despite not being, you know, in a league where it seems like there's so many guys now that can just move up and down the ice at a pace that would have been unthinkable years ago, right, from your McDavid's to McKinnons to Jack Hughes, they just move so effortlessly up and down the ice

and are almost one-man fast breaks, David Pasternak is actually the league leader this season in rush chances. Now, part of that is because Jack, Jackie, who certainly leads in a per game basis, he's missed some time. But despite being more crafty in his ways and kind of picking his spots and getting the timing down,

he finds a way to make up for whatever lack of foot speed he has relative to some of those best skaters in the league and still gets out and attacks on the rush more often than anyone else. And that movement is also reflected in the offensive zone as well, right? I think in what we're going to show a lot of these clips here in terms of how he moves around, despite the fact that I think every team goes into a game against the Bruins with number one on their to-do list, make sure you know where Pasternak is at all times on the ice, right, especially in the offensive zone. He's the biggest threat as a shooter.

We want to make sure we know where he is. We have guys on him in the lanes limiting his time and space. He's still able to craftily get open time and time again, right? He does little nudges where the defender's on him and he thinks he's probably going to. him in a good spot. He gives him a little push. All of a sudden, pops open and gets that timing down where now the pass hits him. And in a split second, you thought you had him. And all of a sudden, he's wide open for a shot. And with that quick release, he's able to get it off. And I think that's what really stands out to me watching him play is how he's able to consistently get open, despite

all the attention that's directed his way every single night. Yeah. And it's not like he's hard to find. I mean, he's a big, big guy, and he has very tight habits. He does the same things over and over and over again, which is reflective of all the top players. They do the same thing. So he's not, he's not difficult to find because he's doing the same things consistently on a nightly basis. But this is where his ability to move, his understanding of timing, and more importantly, is understanding of space. I think that Pastor Knox, along the lines of those like world-class shooters like Matthews, like on-stick shooters and even off the puck shooters like guys who shoot off the pass, the Matthews, the Kucherovs and guys along those lines, like they are masters of space. They understand space and they can manipulate and utilize space.

And it's like when he's open, pass it to him when he's open. And even when he's not open, pass it to him because he's still open. Because he's open all the time. He has a great stick. He has so much in the way of subtlety in the way in which he understands spacing. So remember a couple episodes ago we spoke about Jack Eichel? If you study Eichol and then you also study Posternak, you would see the exact difference that I spoke about in terms of understanding of shot spacing.

Posternak is an expert at shot spacing. He puts himself in spots where he can maximize his ability to shoot. He doesn't put himself in spots where he gets too close or he just understands where that shot is and then all the trajectory advantages from that distance. and he stays pretty consistent to those spots. And this is where also his movement comes in because if he's not in that distance, he can move to put himself in those distances. And I think that when you start looking at the subtle differences between a guy who can score 50 or 60,

like a Posternak, and then a guy like Eichl, who has a capacity, like his shot is great. and he has a lot of offensive tools that you know he could leverage to put himself in that 40 to 50 range. What does what does that look like? What is the difference? And that difference for me is the understanding of space and the ability to consistently manage that space to create high volume chances. And you can see him like we're watching the clips as we're going. and he'll get himself in a spot where he's close to the net, but he doesn't go towards the net.

He goes laterally to preserve that space all the time. And I think he's obviously he's a genius in what he does. But when you're really watching him, to me, these are the things that stand out. Well, not only laterally, there's also a lot of like fading away purposefully in his movements as well, kind of in tight around the net where he's drifting into that soft open ice to, make himself available with the timing in place to pop open quickly. I think no team, I've talked about this a bunch of the show over the years, but I think no team utilizes the geometry of the offensive zone better than the Bruins do

in terms of just stretching it out when all their top players are out there and maximizing every single square inch of it, right? You'll constantly see them get the puck up to the point and the defender is almost in the furthest possible corner near the blue line. in the offensive zone and they're going to try to work that diagonal cross-ice pass to the opposite circle where Pastor Nac is available for the one-timer. And he's running all these set plays where he's moving off the puck, right? He's going behind the net and using that as a little distraction and screen to try to pop open.

There's a certain fluidity to his movement in the offensive zone that's almost mesmerizing, right? Like he's never really going to just stand there and wait for you to get him the puck. He's going to go to it. He's going to move off of it. He's going to keep caught. The motion is constantly. And so I think, I assume that makes him so much more difficult to keep track of, right? Because it's not like you can just expect him to be in one spot.

And if you stay there as a defender, all right, you've got pretty good coverage on him because he'll just gladly then move to another open area on the ice and sort of bring you along with him, I guess. And so it's the way the motion offense, I guess, that they run in the offensive zone is part of what makes him so dangerous in unison with that shot once he does get it. Plus, he gets a lot of pucks off the pass in the offense. zone, which is a huge advantage because he can then, like, he shoots it off the pass, but also he does a great job of being able to manage space and put people in bad spots. He attacks heels off the pass. Like, you'll see him catch a puck, and he uses the catch to then change the angle. So if he's catching a puck, say, straight across, he doesn't catch it or stop it there.

He goes with it. So you can't really pinpoint where the release is coming from. He's always slightly adjusting it with his movement. Plus, he's another one of those guys that you just don't realize how big he is. Like he is a big, big guy with a big, like massive range. And then you combine that with his skating ability, which I think to me, when you think of Posternak, the two things you don't hear a lot of, which I think are major drivers. One, he's an elite passer.

He can really pass a Pock. He's an excellent playmaker. And the second part is he has outstanding skating ability. And you never really talk about his skating ability. He's got like skating ability like on a, it's different than Jack Hughes, but similar in the sense that like it's an all direction, subtle movement that all of a sudden he's in a space that you didn't think he could get to.

And if he thinks he can score, then obviously he's going to be able to get into some really interesting spaces. But those two things are aspects of his game that are under talked about, but are major drivers as to why I think he's so good. And then when you talk about the Bruins and the way in which they operate in the offensive zone, one of the things that I think, and Pasternak uses the whole zone, but he's because they're so strong on the puck. So like when you think of the guys that he's traditionally played with for most of his

career, he would be played a large amount of Bergeron and he would have played a lot with with Marchand. Both of those two guys are heavy, heavy, heavy players on a puck. So what the advantage of that is is they don't need the same level of support as people who are not as heavy. So when you can protect the puck and you can hang on to a puck or you can win a puck back, you can play one versus two, that allows Posternak to then instead of feeling. like he needs to pass support, like to go over and just give you an outlet, he can play in more prime situations and more prime spots on the ice because he's trusting that you're going to be able to hold on to the puck long enough

to then find you in those spots. So you'll see Posternak's not a player who oversupports the puck. He doesn't have to because the guys he plays with are so strong on the puck. It's a massive advantage for a guy like Posternock. who's so good off the pass. If you have to support the puck just to keep possession of it and you've got to move out of prime shooting spots or good shooting spots to go and support the puck,

then now, of course, you're leaving all these spots. So the longer, the more times he's leaving those spots, those are like, those are situations in which he could have had a shot chance. So one of the things I think that really is effective in Boston, Austin has been Posternak's ability to preserve great spots and hide where he wants to shoot because other guys are so effective. And now I think he's way beyond that. But I mean, early on in his career, I think it was a major advantage to have guys like that. I think Posternach can play with anybody now.

And you can tell with no, you know, without having Bergeron playing there, he's still doing what he's doing. And he's still, what is he fifth in the league and scoring? So obviously he's able to still do a lot of stuff on his own. But I think that that's an important distinction. No, it certainly is. And I think an interesting thing about Pasternak is he makes the NHL right after his draft season, his rap plus one, right? He's an 18-year-old.

They really carefully manage his usage and his minutes. They really sort of like progressively spoon feed him more and more and entrust him with more responsibility. He starts playing on that perfection line with Marsha and Bergeron. right and now at this point of his career he's what 27 28 years old they've essentially fully given him the car keys and entrusted the entirety of the offense to flow through him and i think that's what makes what he's doing this season in particular so impressive to me with that added context and circumstance because you know last year he's in this contract season right and he just explodes he scores 61 goals

he has 113 points he earns himself that mega payday of 90 million dollars or whatever and that's all well and good. But now David Creachie retires, Patrice Bergeron retires. He's playing with Pavel Zaka as his primary center. They're rotating the winger on his offside. Sometimes it's Marshawn, but they've also tried Morgan Geeky, JVR, you know, so on Jake Debrusk. They've moved a bunch of guys there. And he's had success with essentially anyone he's played with because of how much attention he commands. And I think that speaks to the growth of his game, right? Because certainly early in his career, he had the luxury of kind of learning from those two guys and being able to just play one certain way. And now all of a sudden, he can do everything and he is doing everything for them.

I mean, you look, he's on pace for 50 goals. He's on pace for even more points this season, actually. He's got 19 points more than anyone else on his team so far this season. And I just think that's like that that's so badass from him, Daryl, this season to just come back from that contract year, from that monster season he had where everyone was like, all right, this is a career year before him. It's as good as it gets. And he not only replicates, but I think add stuff to his game in a much more difficult environment

without Patrice Berger on there and Creachia as well. And so, you know, worthy of all the praise. And it's just so cool to watch the player he's become in 2024. I think the other thing that it speaks to. And I think that you provided great context to what it was that I was getting at with what he was doing with his linemates. And I think what I really wanted to convey is as part of that is that in the NHO, you have to get better every year.

You just have to. If you want to be a good player and then you want to be a great player, then you want to be a star and a superstar, there's levels to that. And every year you have to find new ways to get better in different ways. and it could be, you know, any number of things. But with a guy like Posternak, what I've noticed with him is he's just become a really complete player. Like I said, I never really appreciated his ability to pass the puck until watching him over the last few years a lot more closely. Like I just thought this guy was a shooter.

And I had actually studied him as part of the Matthews shooting rebuild. and one of the things that I would go back and forth with Austin about is Austin was always so consistent. He would literally score every game. There's one goal, every game, score every game. And Posternak was so frustrating because this guy's getting three. Like he would score and have big nights all the time. He would just have big nights. And Ovechkin was like that as well.

So in the time in which Matthews was evolving and trying to become, you know, the score heard that he is, one of the things you have to do is you have to get big nights. And that was the thing that Posternak was really good at was when he, when he was, when he knew it was his night, he was going to get three or he was scoring four. And I think that one of the things that really, really stands out when I started to watch him was one is passing. But also, when he felt like it was his night, the effort often. the puck winning puck's back like he is very good in the offensive zone with his stick

and takeaways he's extremely strong around the net with second chance opportunities to keep pucks alive he's underrated in his tracking ability um and just the way boston plays he has embodied that i mean like you say like for years it was kind of like the when you thought of the bruin's it was it was Bergeron. Then it kind of felt like it went to Marchand where he was like he was like the picture of that. And then now to me, when I think of the Bruins now, I think of Posternak. And I think of in the last several years, the number of things that he's added to his to his toolkit to just become more and more and more effective in more different areas of the ice. That's what's provided the platform for him to be able to play with multiple players.

It doesn't really matter. He's still going to be able to find his way. It's a real testament to his willingness and drive to be the best he could be. Well, and the consistency as well, I'm glad you mentioned that because, you know, sometimes it can be frustrated. I think most goals scorers are streaky in the sense that you're going to have games where you can get your opportunities and you just don't score. And that's all well and good.

will eventually score as long as you keep playing that well and that's something you keep coming back to. But as long as you're getting those opportunities, I think that's all that that really matters. Obviously, these guys are paid to actually put the puck into the net, but they're such good shooters and so consistent in that regard that as long as those getting those chances, I feel confident the goals will come. And you look at him last year, I think he had like 400 shots on goal, which is about five per game, right? He's on that pace again this season. And I was looking at this where 19 times so far this year, he's played 39 games, 19 times. He's had 10 or more shot attempts.

He's been held under five shot attempts just four times so far this season. And even last night in the most recent game, we're having this conversation on Tuesday afternoon. Monday night, they're in Colorado. They played an awesome game against the Avalanche, which they wound up losing in the shootout. But the Aves essentially through the kitchen sink at him defensively, right? When he was out there, they had the Taves McCar pairing against him. And Devon Taves, I think, played him about as humanly well, as humanly possible as you can. man like he was all over him he was sticking to him he was disrupting with the stickwork and the

poke checks and the positioning and all the stuff that we love that debaunt dave's does and yet still despite how frustrating it was i think he had about four or five at least quality chances set up a few more and had only the one assist but it was just a reminder to me of you can do everything you want defensively against this guy and he's because of his versatility and because of that consistency he has in his game now he's still going to be impossible to keep off the the score sheet and keep away from these high danger areas. And so in that game where he didn't even score, that was one of the more impressive performances to me,

just because it sort of reinforced that idea that you're kind of mentioning there in terms of that evolution in this game. One of the things also that's really jumped out at me about Posternak over the years is he has like a superstar swag to him, but it's understated. You know what I mean? Like he's not loud as a personality by any stretch. but he is very loud on the ice. Like you can see his presence.

When he steps on the ice, you know he's there. And he, the way he moves, where he moves, to your point, he's constantly generating scoring chances. But you just feel like you're accepting that at some point he's going to generate and there's not much you can do about it. If he decides that he's going to generate a chance, he's going to generate a chance. and that's so typical, I think, of players in that echelon of a player.

And that's where he's at. I mean, he just has, even though his personality to me is somewhat understated for the type of player that he is. But he's still like he carries himself so well as that superstar player. And I think that he's taken on the responsibility that's been left. and he's, I mean, I think it's so fitting that he's doing well. So it doesn't surprise me that he's going to walk into Colorado and he's going to perform that well. It's just those type of challenges just aren't a challenge. It's a responsibility.

And I think that's the difference when you get to that level. Yeah. I mean, there's like a, you mentioned you said swagger. There's like a confidence or a flare or even stylishness. I think to everything he does, right? Just the way he moves, the way he handles the puck. And I really want to talk a lot and highlight the passing that you've mentioned a couple times so far because I think that's an important part of this conversation. But I think we've got to talk at least a little bit about that shot, right?

Kind of mentioned the volume of the chances he creates. And I think in particular the versatility, I guess diversity of them where sport logic has them first in rush chances, second and chances off the cycle, 12th in four check chances, fifth in slot shots. So he's getting these looks from all over the ice in different ways. but I think his shot mechanics are just unfair. You especially watch when he's alone with the goalie, whether it's been in the shootout or whether it's been on breakaways or penalty shots this season. He's kind of uncork this new move where I don't even know what you can really do

other than hope the puck hits you as a goalie because you often hear how goalies are sort of trained to watch the blade and try to read the puck off of it to figure out where it's going to go what the shooter's doing. And now in this cat and mouse game between shooters and goalies, we know all about how shooters are trying to disguise their intentions, right? And until the last second, not really give a tell in terms of what they're going to do. And it feels like this guy has taken that to a whole other level on some of these plays

where the puck's away from his body, he looks like he's off balance. And then all of a sudden he whips it and it goes top corner. And if you're a goalie, it's got to be the most unfair thing I think to deal with. it feels like an I'm better than you like type of play you know it's it's it just reeks of I'm I'm better than you and this is going in and you just watch how he holds the puck back behind him which I think is one of his best attributes he's very similar to um to a lot of the best best shooters, but in particular, he has a lot of that kuturoff where he'll put the puck right behind him and he hides it back there. And then that gives him so many different possibilities

as it relates to his release. And he can release it in different aspects and parts of his blade. One of the things also, though, that's really interesting with Posternak that I think is a little different and is that he he has almost like that one inch punch to him in his release where he can hold the puck like I said in that shooting position and all of a sudden it's gone like he doesn't have any tell and he doesn't do a tremendous amount with his feet at different times but he's so strong and his release is so fast that he's able to generate a lot of power in a very short amount of space. And so what I think really stands out as it relates to Posternak

and his shot is the versatility of the types of shots that he shoots. And so like, for example, if you took the shot that you're talking about where he holds the puck behind him, like behind his inside foot. And it's fully loaded in that position. when you look at all the goals or shots that he takes from that actual position, he can shoot off of either foot.

He can pull it in towards his feet at any range. So he can pull it right into his feet. He can pull it maybe just an inch in a little closer. He can just pull it from the toe, from the toe to where the heel of the stick would be. So he has all that range. That's coming from the edge of the stick blade in towards his feet. But he can also go the other way.

He can have the puck relatively close to his feet. And then all of a sudden he pushes it out. And now it's going out. And then he can do this all while he's in stride. He can do it while he's holding it. He can do it while he's threatening a pass. The versatility of the release points, he doesn't seem to have a favorite,

which is one of the things when I'm studying these, these players, these shooters, is I'm always trying to figure out, like, what's their go-to, their favorite shot? And for every player, there's always one. With Posternak, when you really watch his favorite shot, there's a lot of layers to it. And I think one of the things that's really interesting with him is I think he's got one of the best decision trees in terms of release of anybody in the sport. And what I mean by that is, is like he has like a start to a shot.

And then there's all types of different types of finishes that he could utilize. And it's all situational and it's all based on feel. And, you know, he's making decisions as it goes. And his decision tree, the number of branches he has at the end of that shot of where he could go, I think is the most diverse in the sport. Would you add like the outcome being a pass as well to that? Absolutely. Yeah, no. So he has the, when he has the puck in a spot in which he might shoot it.

Okay. You have all the different shots that I just described. Plus he can pass it. Plus he can use that position to step by you. There's a lot of times we have, he has a really cool hesitation move where he puts the puck in the shooting position. Of course, you have to respect that. He gets the defenseman in a shot blocking spot. And the next thing, you know, he's pulling the puck to his backhand to step by the guy to then make the next play as he steps around. That's what I mean about the diversity of his decision

tree. Like, he can really do a lot of different things. And he does all of them. And it doesn't seem to have as much of a favorite as other players, which is, I think, what makes him so consistently difficult to deal with and why he scores. The other thing, too, is like, for a lot of players, the game, of course, slows down at times. They all talk about it that, you know, they have a real clarity about what's going on in the moment. And I think that he also has that.

But I think he uses that time to then do different things. Like it's one thing for it to kind of slow down and you let the, you let the defender kind of his stick go out of the shot range. Or you let the guy slide by and then you make a play. But this guy will go into that space. And while he's in that space, he's able to do different things. And when you really watch the diversity of the types of ways in which he beats people and creates the shots.

I think that, like I said, I think he's the most diverse of all the shooters. Well, and you can see that concept when he's coming in off the rush as well, because I think you can almost visibly see how nervous defenders are at the possibilities of what he can do next, right? We mentioned that kind of like that flare to his game.

And we haven't really even talked necessarily about the puck skills yet in terms of like the dangling and the ability to put it between his legs, drag it, do all this sort of. It's crazy stuff with it, which he does more and more once he's feeling it in those games when he's scoring two, three, four goals, as you mentioned. But I think that sort of speeds him up as well, right? Because all of a sudden, the defender is very nervous.

They're kind of on their back heels because they don't really know what to expect or what he's going to do next. And that freezes them up. And then he's able to go by them or execute his move. Right. So in a sense, he's much faster in terms of his operational speed than he might be in a pure skating competition without the puck because of what he does to defend. vendors and how nervous he makes them.

And that's why I actually brought up the game last night against Colorado because Duvantez was one of the few guys who's equipped and actually able that I watched go at him in terms of trying to actually disrupt him and take the puck off of his stick because most guys sag back as a sort of preventative measure just to prevent themselves from getting embarrassed in a way and then he picks them apart. And in that game, you saw that kind of more head-to-head competition between those two and it was really fun to watch. Well, that's what I mean about the skating.

Like what you're talking about is his as part of that decision tree is that he has outstanding skating ability in those in the ways in which he can make you uncomfortable. He could like you say all the things that you just mentioned. That's all part of that all comes from his his feet. He leverages his shot threat that you're worried about. but it gets executed inside of his feet. His feet do a lot of the heavy lifting and that's what I think that he doesn't get a lot of credit for

because he's such a good skater and he can do a variety of different things. And when you really also take a look at his ability to shoot off the pass, his skating really jumps out there as well because he is truly a guy that it's difficult to miss him. Like you just got to throw it over there

and he seems to be able to one time anything. It can be well ahead of him. It can be close to his, you know, in his wheelhouse, of course, but then it can also be behind him. And he's able to adjust his body. His body control is phenomenal inside that shooting. But again, your body control and the leveraging that you have of your body control comes from your skating ability.

It's very difficult to have outstanding body control terms of separating your upper body and your lower body without having outstanding skating ability. And what I mean by skating ability is ability to transfer his weight from one foot to the next and be able to just be on one foot or the other and toggle from one foot to the other quickly and use that as little adjustments. And then his upper body is, of course, moving separately underneath that. It just allows him to be able to be so diverse and be able to handle any type of puck that comes his way. I think that's one of the other real secrets to his success, I think, is that he has so much range of what he can do with a puck that's passed to him.

Even just his catch and shoot also, like his one-timer is one thing, but his ability to catch and shoot a puck. Pucks that are close to his feet, pucks that are way far ahead of him, you know, all different types of passes he's able to, he's able to handle. and I think that that's one of the thing. One of the more impressive skills that he has to me is his one timer, one knee one timer, full speed off the rush is one of the more impressive skills, I think that he has in his arsenal. That's the level of difficulty in that skill and the type of skating ability and ability to separate upper body lower.

Like literally all of his gifts come into that one skill where you're like, okay, there's not very many people in the planet who can do that. Well, you mentioned how he probably doesn't have a favorite type of shop because he's got all in his bag and he can beat you any number of ways. I do still think the good old fashion just cocking the stick back and ripping it as hard

as he can off the one timer seems to be the one he relishes the most certainly. And I think that that's a perfect segue to talk about his passing because part of what's played into this development in terms of him as a point getter and the strides he's made as an all-around player offensively the past two years has been him leveraging that attribute into becoming a dangerous

passer as well. And you'll see it on the power play where he'll use that gravity and respect he's kind of earned from the opposition because of all the goals he scored to all of a sudden now set the table for his teammates as well. And I think one of the sort of shames of Petruz Bergeron retiring this past off season was last year the two of them developed this real chemistry on the power play of Pastor Nack selling that one-time shot and then kind of doing that shot pass into the slot for Bergeron to tip it. And they scored a number of goals that way. And that chemistry was really beautiful to watch less so this year with guys like Morgan

Geeky or Pavilzaka occupying that kind of man in the middle spot, unfortunately. But they've still been very effective in different ways on the power play regardless. And I think all of it flows through Pasternak, whether it's him as a shooter or whether it's him setting the table for others, pretty much everything they're trying to do. trying to accomplish is done through him. And you look, like, they're scoring 13 goals an hour with him on the ice on the man advantage. And for reference, for those at home, the Rangers right now are the number one power play.

And as a team, they're scoring under 12 goals per hour. So, like, when Pastor Nax out there with a man advantage, it's an impossible conundrum for you to deal with because he can just pick you apart now in a way that he wasn't really as either capable or willing to do so a couple years ago. But certainly since the start of last season, he's been just doing. doing it more and more often. Yeah. And again, it speaks to his evolution as a player.

And he would sit on that backside. And I remember actually one of the, one of the big studies I did was a power play study. And Tori Krug was manning the top. And I was trying to figure out, I was actually not studying Pasternak. I was studying Krug because he had, the Bruins had the number one power play in the league. And I felt like Krug was a major reason for it. And he would do this thing where he would get the puck up on Posternak's side. Then he'd walk over towards the opposite side.

And on his way, he would then send the puck back to Posternak to shoot. One of the hardest one-timers to hit is from the top to like a defenseman at the top. Passing it down to the guy on the dot is a very difficult shot. It's hard to shoot that puck consistently well. And Posternak was scoring an insane amount of goals from that play, which I know is extremely difficult to do. And just watching how well he was able to handle that puck, that was where my first kind of frame of reference of watching and admiring how well he can shoot.

And then you fast forward that to what you're talking about like the last couple of years. And then you see him with all these different shot. pass wrinkles, his ability to pass to, like, Marshawn on the back door, they have that little backdoor tip-in play with Marshawn as he stacks on the on the backside. His use of the, all sides, he can make a place, cross-ice, cross-seam. And you start to see the different creativities that he has

with his passing. And he can use all the hook passes and he can saucer the puck and all the little touch passes and all those things. It's just been a really cool thing to watch him evolve over the last little bit. And it's necessary. If you want to be great and you want to, you know, he reached a certain level in order to get to the next level, you have to evolve. You've got to add different pieces. And he's certainly made great choices as to where he's dedicated his time and energy to

become much more diverse in how he can create chances. Yeah, I think this is what ties into that decision making sure you're talking about as well, right? Where I still, he's become much more a dual threat. He's not necessarily the Kutrov level where I still think Kutrov, despite the fact that he's shooting so much more this season, I think, in an ideal world, he wants to set up his teammates on that play. I pass or not clearly still wants to ideally score. But just the fact that he's leveraging the threat of that shot now in,

to hitting those passing lanes when they're available if they overplay them. He'll take that attention and make it an easier, you know, four on three or three on two down low for his teammates. And the fact that there's still, you know, part of why they keep befuddling us every year despite the fact that guys keep retiring and the team keeps changing, yet they still keep winning games. Part of it is the special teams is off the charts. And he doesn't tie into the penalty kill part of that equation.

but the power play still is at its absolute apex. And so for me, you look at the personnel, and it probably shouldn't be as lethal as it's been, but it's pretty much entirely, in my opinion, because of what past track represents now and that evolution he's made. And so I really wanted to shout out the passing part of this, because obviously when you score 61 goals,

the way he did last year and you have the shot mechanics, which we've highlighted, that's going to be sort of the headline piece of his repertoire. but the passing that he's added has just taken him to an entirely different stratosphere as a player. And if you're a goal scorer in today's game, that's really good. You're going to get paid well for that. But if you want to become an all-around player, he'd be a very interesting player

to study in terms of the choices he's made in his game over the past couple seasons. Yeah, that's kind of, it really typifies the kind of the things that I wrestle with a year-to-year basis is trying to study guys and what their path is and what type of of things and the choices that they make based on the player that they were and then they've evolved in some way and what choices that they've made. And I think he's one of the best in terms of his evolution from, you know, what you would have anticipated of being a, just a straight, you know, this guy is just a lethal shooter. And then now he's added all these layers to his game. But I think it also speaks to, it's not just necessary for you to. get better individually as a as a player you know and just because you want to become the best

player you can be that's all fine and good but it's also that the league demands that the league is so well scouted and so well like everyone's watching video everyone there's everyone knows everything about everybody like there's just there's not a lot of secrets and to still be so you you're kind of always having to evolve because the league is going to force you to evolve. And the second that you're not, you're not evolving or you're not taking your game to the next level, the league will catch up and it'll, it'll become a problem for you. But I also think that it's not only just the league evolving and you trying to, you trying to evolve, but every player now has to be more every year. So you used to be like, okay, if I was doing a line construction

back in the day, I would have a guy that I knew was going to go hunt pucks. I would put that guy with a guy who was a good passer. And then I put the passer, and the passer would also have a guy who was a shooter. And so you have the guy go get the puck. He gives it to the passer. The passer gives it to the shooter, shooter, shooter score. Well, now you have to be, you're going to need to be, even though you're the shooter per se, you're going to be in situations where you have to go get the puck.

You can't not. Everybody has to contribute in those ways. Now, to the degree in which you are going to be effective at chance generation and creating quality chances, et cetera, of course, that those things will still skew towards your individual strengths. But the better you can make your other areas of influence, that's what's going to create greater volume, obviously. And then also if you've really made good choices and you've become a lot better, then

And of course, now you're going to be in a situation where you're going to become more effective in your actual production. And I think that that's what you start to see with all these top players. It doesn't matter. All the guys that we've talked about, they've all had to evolve and become better in takeaways, better in passing, better in being able to be effective off the rush. Many of them started off the rush, and then now they have to become way better on the back wall and learn how to play off the back wall. You look, weeks ago, we talked about Dylan Larkin. What's one of the most important things that he did with his game over the last two years?

Well, he's Dylan Larkin years ago. All he was, rush, rush, rush, rush. Now he's one of the best guys on the back wall that you'll see. And this is the type of things that happen. Every guy that we've studied, there's all these layers to them. And every year you have to continue to find an aspect of your game and continue to get it better. Otherwise, you're not going to generate 10 shots a game. If all he was was a shooter, he's not getting 10 shot attempts a game.

It's because he has all these other things. One of the key stats that you gave that I thought was really cool as it relates to Pastor Knoch was, I think you said he's like 10th or 12th in the league and four check chances. Did you? Yeah. Does anybody think that posture, when you think Posternach, do you think four, four check guy?

No, but this is the type of thing. Like he, he is generating a high number. Like how many guys would you have ahead of him as in four check chances? If you didn't know that that was the number. That's what I mean. There's no different thing,

guys, you know, in the last few years of different things that they've added. And so what happens. is that in order to score 60 goals, it's a really, it's a math equation. We've talked about this before where you just need so many scoring change because you're, I mean, what, what's his shooting percentage now? 12%, 13%? Yeah. It's been, it's been between 12 and 14 pretty much every year. Yeah. Exactly. So it's 12 to 14. That's a lot of pucks that he's shooting

on net that don't go in. And we haven't even talked about the ones that miss. So you need so much volume even when you're as world class a shooter as he is. So in order to do that, that's where the diversity of your skill set comes in to get more chances so that you'll be able to sustain or improve your production. Yeah, that's a good point. We've seen just the evolution of the game in that regard and sort of the diversity of skills, right? Because I think there was probably a time where if you did one thing really, really well,

and it was at least a relatively important part of the game, you could just lean on that and have a successful season. And now, regardless of how good you are, that one skill, it's going to limit you so much unless you're at least functional in so many different areas, right? And so I think that's a cool part of what's going on in the league and also ties into why we're doing these shows because I think that skill acquisition and integration into these players' games

is a big part of why we're having these conversations. So I really enjoyed this, Daryl. I'll let you quickly plug some stuff here on the way out. What do you want the listeners to know? Or do you have any other sort of parting thoughts on Pastor Nack before we get out of here? Yeah, no, the only other thing I was going to say just on the heels of the, in the evolution part of it is that it's, it's, it's, now it's required in player development. So for me, for example, years ago, people would ask me, Daryl, like, what's your specialty? like are you a skating coach like are you shooting coach like what what kind of guy are you and i'll be

like well listen like i'm i can teach anything like and that was that was back then right and now it that's what it has to be because each player is at a different stage and they are going to need the next thing whatever that next thing is and in player development i find that the pressure to become more well-versed in being able to teach and add value to players in different areas is now critical. You cannot just be a one guy. Like you can't have this like,

well, I'm a skating coach or I'm a, those days are pretty much like they're, if they're not done, they're right near the end because so much goes into it. So for example, like if you, if you think you're a shooting coach,

great but if you don't understand movement and skating you're going to have hard time teaching shooting because so much of shooting with the world class guys is all about their feet that's what i mean so that's the last thing i want to mention about that and maybe it's a half-ass plug no well it's it's the same thing for analysts i feel the same way right where i initially started kind of looking at analytics and look at the numbers and trying to figure out what was happening in the game. Now you've got to incorporate grinding tape and watching all this stuff in terms of individual level, but also on a team level, figuring out what works in today's game and

what doesn't, but also trying to get ahead of figuring out what things are going to look like next year, right, as people go back into the lab in the offseason and try to get better at their game. So it kind of applies to, I think, any field, and that's what makes this cool. Next week when we come back, I'm going to lock us in right now and put it out there. I really want to do that Jets top line because that team's been playing so well, and I've been really fascinated by them. So we're going to look at Gabriel Valardi, Nikolai Eilers, and Mark Schifley.

And so looking forward to that, Daryl, this was a blast, as always. I'm going to let you go here. We'll check back in with you again next week for that show. And don't worry, listeners. We'll be back later this week with plenty more of the PDO cast, as always streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.