The Hockey PDOcast - Film Club on Nico Hischier's Two-Way Play

Episode Date: November 22, 2024

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Jesse Marshall to break down the game tape on Nico Hischier this season, and all of the habits he has in all three zones that make him such an impactful player for the Devils. 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.

It's the Hockey PDOCast with your host, Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the Hockey Pee-Ocast. My name is Dmitri Filipovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Jesse Marshall. Jesse, it's Film Club Day. It's a great time here. What's going on? My favorite day of the week.

Mine too. And I think for the listeners as well, they've really enjoyed these. We've done Matt Boldie last time, which was incredibly exciting. And today we're going to do Nico Hish here, which I think people are going to really enjoy. So we've got a lot of clips here as a reminder. Whenever you and I get together and we do this every two weeks or so, you can watch us on the P.D.O.cast YouTube channel as well as listening to us the way you normally do. I actually get a lot of requests from people, especially recently asking us to put just every PDAO cast episode on YouTube. And maybe we'll do it one day. I generally find the idea of two people just sitting for 50 minutes talking and not really doing anything without any sort of crazy productions or fun studios in place to be not the most appealing content. So I'm not that interested in it myself. But we do put. these up because we've got clips rolling along the way. They highlight the stuff we're talking about and really show you what we're saying and what the player is doing. And so I think there's a

functionality and that's why we do it. All right. We're going to get into it right now today. We'll start with his year. 22 games, 10 goals, 10 assists is doing so much fun stuff and so much productive stuff and it's such a horse for this devil scene that's off to a great start this season. As you got into the tape for him and I know that you're writing about him for McKin's as well. So we're kind of double-dipping here and doing some brand synergy, bringing our two brains together for this project. What really stood out to you and where do you want to start this discussion about what we're seeing on tape from this season? Yeah, I think that there's a lot of innovation happening before our eyes, Dimitri, and how he uses his skating to his advantage

in creating time and space and scoring opportunities for himself and for his teammates. I think there's a noticeable difference year over year with his skating, but this year is the year where I feel like it's become a threat for him. The innovation I'm mentioning is stuff like pivoting into pressure, you know, toe picking your way to slowing yourself down, opening the door up, inviting defenders in to attack you, and then just executing every manner of move in your arsenal to get around them once they're in tight. There's a lot of tempo changing that's going on here. There's a lot of really tough skating. I think in the clips that you and I were kind of sitting back and forth to each other, there's a few clips where he's, people are strapping themselves to Nico. He's

here and he's taking them for a ride. And he's a big man, very strong base. I got a couple of videos. I know I sent you of him where he's just got a wide base. He's bent over. His arms are out. and he's driving in the middle and there's nothing that you know any of these defenders are really able to do to stop him but it's the innovation for me man like i there was a couple clips i caught to me where you know he's coming into the zone uh you know the devil's established their offensive possession um you find him in all these unorthodox positions right um he likes to uh take the puck on journeys uh when he can um and when he gets pressure or when people stepped him and they want to they want to dispossess him of the puck that's where you see this creativity and this innovation come in and again there's a lot of putting his legs that 10 and 2 position and peeling wide waiting for someone to come get him and then he sort of like steps into and spins out of that pressure so you know all of this stuff is happening with the puck on his stick right that's the important thing here is like from an entry perspective from an attacking perspective

he's the one that's got control of the reins here. The puck is on his stick. He's determining the tempo. He's determining the pace. And then when he crosses that blue line, it's anybody's guess as to what he's going to do next. If he bears down and drives to the net, good luck stopping him. Again, wide base really makes himself a really large human in possession of the puck,

drops that shoulder, keeps the puck away from his body, really tough to dispossess. But then there's other situations that are arising, where he's using edge work, he's pivoting. You know, he's shaving speed off as an invitation to attack him. And then from there, his creativity takes over. And all of a sudden he finds these opportunities where he can spring himself with really clear cut scoring opportunities. Yeah, that really stood out to me as well. There's a certain deceptiveness to his skating stride because obviously not necessarily a traditional blazer in terms of just like raw end-to-end speed.

Yet he gets to where he needs to be. and a lot of it is this sort of unpredictability he has in his game where as you said he can put his shoulder down and take the puck to the net but he can also kind of survey and probe and so it's doing a lot of sort of east-west weaving you can see the defenders are very uncomfortable because of that unpredictability right there's a number of instances you'll see in these clips where he just flat out drops a defender that's trying to like like breaks their ankles and one style and it's like all right he's got that in his bag the seals along the boards that are necessarily as sexy as those pure kind of crossovers, but I think are just as

functional where he can protect the puck so well with that footwork, where he's essentially able to plant, put his backside into you, seal you up against the boards, and then go the other way in open ice. There's all these little cutbacks where he's able to go east-west, like I said, and get to his spot and attack the middle of the ice in particular. And then if you shade that way, then he's very comfortable just taking it out wide and taking that route to the net. And he's got all of that in his arsenal. I think that's really an important part of what you're seeing here. And I think that stood out to me as well.

So I'm glad we're starting with that particular area. Yeah. And, you know, I think we have to acknowledge that, you know, we're talking about zone entries here in like transitional game and getting the puck across the blue line and carrying it into high-scoring areas. But then I think there's also this sort of subtle deceptiveness that's come in played to make sure he's understanding or has fully grasped what he has to do as a forward to get open as a legitimate scoring threat in this league.

So specifically going to his work on the power playing when he's not in possession of the puck, his feet are moving. You never see him standing still. He's mastered the art of settling into a two-foot space between defenders and that's enough time for him to get a shot off. So I started out with the skating in terms of like this powerful skating that he's using. the creative skating that he's using to create time and space for himself. But then just separate from that, you know, the devils have a power play,

the devils have the puck in the offensive zone, and he doesn't have possession. Those feet are still moving, right? I think it's, you know, you watch him nestle himself is the best word I could use, nestle himself among defenders and move with them. You know, like a, you know, the best analogy I could give is like a school of fish move around a predator fish, right? Like they're there in the space. and seemingly unaffected by all the chaos that's going on.

You know, he works himself in the middle of these chaotic situations, finds where the high danger scoring area is, and his release is so fast. I don't think, you know, we're, I'm sure we'll get into this later, Demetre.

We talk about, like, his skill. His shot is just good enough to me that all it takes is that half second for him to get it off. And more often than not, it's timing. It's the quickness of the release that makes all the difference in the world.

So I don't want to just, you know, I always started off talking about zone, entries, but it's away from the puck too. You know, he's not waiting for opportunities to present themselves. He's moving with that flow of traffic, going against the grain, looking where that open spaces and nestling himself in and among the defense to get these opportunities to get really quick shots off.

So that's a different kind of skating, right? I know it's not what we started out and what our focus is, but that leg movement and that constant being in motion, it's made him really hard to mark in the defensive zone for a guy of his size. I know we've talked a lot about like small forwards and how difficult and aloof they can be and how well they can position themselves in the offensive zone to create space. This is not an easy target. This is, you know, this is a big guy who's, who's exhibiting some of the same traits that small four is doing his ability to get open and find space. So, you know, whether he's got the puck or he doesn't, you know, his skating seems to be feeding all of his

offensive behaviors and creating all these chances for him. Well, you know what's interesting? That power play of the devils looks terrifying this season. And I think a lot of it is sort of the engine of it is clearly Jack Hughes because not only is he such a dual threat at this point of his career, having worked on his shot, but then obviously that cross-game past, the Esper Brack kind of opens it up. They let him sort of roam and work his way around the zone and a motion-based power play set up the way the Oilers do with Connor

McDavid, for example. So I'm not going to act like this is Nico Hissier's show. But I think one of the most important parts of any successful power play is that man in the middle bumper slot, bumper slot guy, right? Every time I had Daryl on last year, he would talk about it. He specifically spoke about the work of guy like Dylan Larkin put in

just mastering his technique there. I saw this very interesting thread on Twitter from former player Drew Shore who was talking about his experience there. And the importance of certain roles on the powerplay and how he essentially noted that like that bumper guy or the guy in the middle is really the hard and soul player of any great power play formation because of their list of responsibilities right it's such a tricky thing because you have to have so many different skill sets to be successful there but they're not necessarily all correlated or related

so the fact that one guy has to be able to do all these different things is pretty unique and hard to find. I think a guy like Brainpoint is one of, if not the best in the league at doing that. But his year has gotten so good at that as well, where he's got that quick release. He's got that comfort shooting and picking his spot with very little time to get that shot off in traffic. He's also able to then retrieve pucks and win battles and keep possessions alive. He's able to sort of rotate and sniff out. All right, if the puck's moved around, if Jack Hughes is working his way around the net, where do I need to go now? Where's the dead area and the soft spot in the ice that I can get open so he can actually get

the puck to me. He's kind of working his way through all of these different machinations every step of the way. And that's really stood out to me as well because I find that his work there this season, he's taken a massive leap and it's really fun to watch. And I think it's a big part of the success you're seeing. Obviously, the 10 goals he scored, especially early on, we're driven a lot by those exact things. Yeah, agreed. There's also a really distinct recognition from him this year of, I think, play reading. So, you know, you get into the these discussions sometimes, Dimitri, we talk about like forwards, quote-unquote, flying the zone, right? Or, you know, floating up ice, waiting for opportunity. I don't want to give the

impression that that's what's happening here. But I think it's, again, the distinct understanding and recognition of when his teammates, who he has a lot of trusted and believes that, you know, they can retrieve pucks at a high level, when they put themselves in opportunities to do that, you're seeing him deviate from where he is on the ice, make immediate it reads in support of them and play this sort of role of continuity forward, right? Where he, maybe all he's doing is coming over to make a one touch area pass or just to keep a stick on a puck. But there are these, these recognitions for me, and this is all a hockey, you know,

we talk about hockey IQ all the time, what is it, what is it, how do you define it, how do you show examples of it? To me, hockey IQ, having a strong hockey IQ, one of the things that you could draw on for that is, again, in-game recognition of where your opportunities lie. and the change within the flow of the game, right? So a lot of the clips that we're going to look at today that we've sort of assembled from a highlight perspective or a mixtape perspective are going to show Heshi are acting on anticipated one puck battles, right?

So he sees an opportunity. His teammates are in maybe a 65, 35 situation where they have the distinct advantage in winning that lose puck race. You'll see him peel off of his assignment in the break. or leave where he is in the ice to go support that endeavor, right? Inside and outside of the offensive zone. Again, these are the smaller plays in the grand scheme of things, but they're unlocking future opportunity for the devils in a really large way.

They're extending shifts in the offensive zone. They're robbing other teams of clean zone exits and continuing shifts. It's just that it's a calculation. It's sure it's a risk, right? I think it's a calculated risk. I think it's one that he sheers exhibited a lot of really good judgment on. I think it's really clear that that staff there, Demetri, has given him a long leash to sort of play the brand of hockey that

enables him to create chances. This, to me, is one of those things, is that in-game recognition and that sort of, like, ability to check the pulse and the blood pressure of a game or even of a puck battle to say, like, yes, I am needed here, or yes, I am an asset to this situation. And my presence, by peeling off and going over there, is going to be felt, in how we can keep this possession alive. Yes, poor logic has them in the top 15 in the league in controlled entries. And part of it was that deceptive skating that we talked about right off the hop.

But I think that ties into exactly what you're saying here. And it's sort of this idea of managing responsibilities as a center, right? And part of a guy like Patrice Bergeron for years, his greatness was completely revolving around the fact that he just controlled the specific area of the ice. He had such a discipline staying between the two dots, always kind of work in that middle funnel, pretty much wherever he was in the ice, whether it was in defensive zone or the offensive zone. That's obviously hallowed ground, and I don't necessarily mean to compare the two players, but for the mark of any great center is exactly that, in my opinion. You see a lot of that in his year's game, and part of the reason why he's able to transition so effortlessly and

efficiently is because of exactly that, right? Like, as a center, he's such a safety blanket for his defenseman. And especially now with some of these younger blue liners that they have, they all have much improved puck moving skills. They're able to get the puck from point A to point B. But he provides kind of like a safety blanket for them, right? There's a certain level of timing or comfort involved in terms of like knowing that your center is going to be exactly where he needs to be at all times. And that's often in the middle of the ice in an area where he's working his way to a spot where you can pass the puck to him. And so if you have a four checker in your face, and you need to diffuse some of that pressure or relieve it,

you know that you can get the puck to him, and then he can carry it out or he can make the next play if it's a one touch or a quick bump to a winger. And so he just does that time and time again. It's not necessarily very glamorous, but it's those reps of just continuously doing it and then providing the comfort to his defensemen and his wingers that know that, all right, when I'm on the eyes with Nikolish here,

I know exactly where he's going to be, and now I can work off of that. And that sort of foundation or baseline he provides, I think, is huge. Yeah, I agree with you. And again, there's a lot of connect. There's a lot of connective plays that are happening here where he's the link between a bad situation becoming good or a low percentage opportunity becoming a high percentage opportunity.

I'm constantly impressed by the speed he can carry and operate the puck with. And again, I have to go back to this edgework thing to meet you, because whether he's operating in transition or making these reeds, his ability to shave speed quickly and not lose forward momentum is just unbelievable. It's that quick kickout, right? That quick turn of the ankle to just shave that little bit of speed off and have yourself be more controlled in your approach to whatever you're doing, right? You know, 100 miles an hour all the time is great when you're carrying the puck

and you're trying to break away from people. But these little subtle variations that he's throwing, they enable him to, I think one react to situations quicker and get from point A to B faster. But then when he's in possession, I mean, you talk about this whole being top 15 in zone entries right now. That, that to me is all driven by this ability to change the tempo at the snap of fingers, forced defensemen, you know, his ankles to break because you're making them react quickly to a change in tempo and a change in speed. I think we go through these highlights and we look through all this tape. there's just so much of him making quick, subtle adjustments that forced defensemen have to either

turn their hips or change their direction in some fashion to react to him. And he's able to do it so fast that he's making, I mean, this sounds funny to say this, but he's making a lot of people fall down. But he's making a lot of his opponents fall down by changing these tempos upper, using every part of his body, right? Like when you watch these highlights, when you watch these clips, it's not just his ankles that are doing all the work, right? He's dropping his shoulder, right?

Or maybe he's, you know, before he's toe dragging, he's giving the anticipation he's going to drive, right? He's going to drive around you, his shoulders dipped, and then the next thing, you know, he shaves off a little bit of speed, toe drags around you and heads to the net. It's the whole body fake, right? I mean, it's really, it's like playing poker for hockey players, right? I mean, there's just absolutely no way to internally, like, naturally know, based off his posture, his hands, or the way that he's skating in any given moment,

what's about to happen next? Again, the creativity level is just off the charts here. And I'm constantly watching these clips just blown away by the quick adjustments he's able to make in the amount of speed he's carrying or the direction he's heading or any number of sort of cursory elements to his skating as he's carrying the puck across the zone. And it's almost the perfect marriage of that exact concept you're talking about, that skating unpredictability and deceptiveness that's making defenders uncomfortable.

And then his embrace of contact and living in high danger areas, that's a reason why you look up. And one of the most mind-blowing stats for me this season is he's drawn 13 penalties and he's taken none in nearly, what, 500-so minutes of Ice time, 4.50 to be exact. And that's incredibly valuable, especially because we just mentioned how good their power play's been and his availability, not taking penalties himself to stay on the ice. But on his own end of the ice, staying between the dots and making himself and presenting himself as an option for an outlet there is one thing. Then in the offensive zone, and it doesn't just necessarily restrict itself to the power play. You see it at 515 and even strength two.

Here's work on that middle funnel and the routes he takes in that home plate area, I think are really worth. hammering here, his ability to just get open, be in the right spot for whoever he's playing with to get him the puck to pick up rebounds. I've got some fun stats here from Sport Logic where he's tied fourth in the league this year in inner slot shots. He's tied sixth in rebound chances. And to our point earlier about puck battles, and I'm curious through your take on this, obviously it's a bit sort of a loose definition. What constitutes a puck battle? Generally, it's not necessarily one versus one, right? It's like you go into a pile. There's a bunch of guys who's that being attributed to the win and loss.

But Sport Logic has him tied for second in the league in puck battle wins as well this year, tied with Ryan O'Reilly, who's made a career of doing exactly that. And I think that's very impressive company for him to be keeping. And that just sort of speaks to exactly where he's playing on the ice and how he's competing, right? It's a combination of anticipation, but also motor, competitiveness, all of those things. And I think it certainly helps that because of the geometry, if he's just staying in the middle of the ice,

that also cuts his distance that he needs to travel, right? So regardless of where the puck goes, he's already kind of halfway there and he doesn't have to go all the way from one end of the boards to the other. He can quickly get there and be the first man on the puck. And so all those things together, I think are an important part of the package you're seeing here. Yeah.

Again, I know I mentioned this earlier in the show, but I mean, you're spot on about these high danger areas. And again, this is, it's becoming a real problem for defensemen to do anything about it. I think the low base that he keeps, Again, big guy, when he gets down in front of the net and bears down, you know, it's tough to move him. It's really difficult to move him. He's become really good at moving against the grain.

So if he's got a teammate that's driving in tight, you know, you could expect him to float up the opposite direction, right? He's constantly moving against the flow of which direction the defense is going to maximize the space that he has in that area. And again, you know, I've said this on the show before, you know, sometimes. the best way to get open is to remove yourself from the situation for a moment, right? And his transition down that funnel, as you said, I like that phrase, allows him to kind of move in and out of the play and also change the responsibility of who's supposed to be marking him at any given moment, right? So, you know, I was watching a game against Detroit earlier this year that he had where, you know, the puck's in the far corner. It's going low to high.

somebody's walking it up. He's in the high slot coming down. So there's this, he's sort of passing as two ships in the night with his teammates. When they're working up the ice, he's skating down the slot. When they're coming up the slot, he's, you know, it's, it's all a reverse motion. So it's again, I, I have to focus on that ability that he has to not only plant himself down in a space, dominate that space and be unmovable, but also to, to have the opposite effect and be elusive, you know, get away from contact and find himself enough time space in a foot or two to be able to get a quick shot off. It's it's one thing to be good at one or the other. You don't always see people have the

ability to be good at both. And I think that, you know, his ability also to just bear down against the wall on the bat, and we again, roughly defining battle areas here, but bear down on the wall is, it makes some really tough customer to handle. And when you look at him on these zone entries, Dimitri, again, I go back, you know, he's got the post. exterior out, right? I mean, he is bent over in the shape of the letter, a lowercase R, you know, protecting these pucks and has got that long reach. But he makes, it almost makes it so hard for defense and they have to cover double the distance to get to where the puck is, right? It's not just in how he's bent over making himself long. It's how he's got his arm out wide.

You know, he's making him the distance you have to get to stick check him all that much greater. So, yeah, in the zone, all of these things come together to make him really adaptable to basically any situation that he finds himself in. And if he needs to go bear down on the puck and, you know, be physical with it, he could do that. And then, you know, a couple seconds later, you'll find him sort of floating through the middle and between the dots down the trolley tracks, you know, trying to get open sort of in that elusive style. And both have worked out well for him this season. I'm finding the urge right now to refer to him as a Swiss Army knife because it's very easy to do so. But that's what I think of when I watch his game because of the diversity of skills you see and the utility it provides and how it all kind of coalesces into this bigger package. And another example of that, in addition to everything we just talked about so far already, is his work in the faceoff dot.

And I know that it's a controversial topic, right? It's like, all right, whatever, face-offs, who cares? We know that what matters just as much if not more as what happens afterwards. But I think we all agree that situationally, certain face-offs just matter more than others, particularly either when you're in a scoring position to start a power play in the offensive zone or whether you're trying to kill a penalty in the defensive zone for those first two minutes. And so on the power play, you look, and he's winning like 62% of his draws or whatever on his strong side, to start them off. That's right up there. I think the only guy is better than I'm in that category

right now are guys that you'd expect like Kopitar, Trojic, the aforementioned Larkin. He's right there with a guy like Tom Hersch Hirtle. And I've spoken about how that particular skill is a big reason why Vegas's power play has been so efficient this season as well. And so all of a sudden now, if you're the devils, you have pretty high confidence that it's not necessarily a 50-50 situation because you're going to start out the power play disproportionately with possession. And then it allows them to unlock all of these set plays. It allows them to immediately get into their formation as opposed to having to go back and retrieve the puck. And so I think that does just another sort of feather in his cap and another thing here he does,

especially with the volume he does it in where I believe no one's taking more draws than him this season. Like they lead on him so much. Sheldon Keefe already has to start his tenure as Devils coach. And he's rewarding him because he's just checking all those boxes. Yeah. And they use them in a lot of different situations, DeBri, from that set faceoff perspective. Right. Like there's situations where, you know, if he wins that puck to, to the near point, he sort of takes this wide peel off across the ice to become this winger, right?

This left wing, a center of right wing essentially that is looking for a one-time opportunity off a low-high play that happens. There's opportunities. There's times where they drive him immediately to the corner and try to, you know, get a couple people sucked in front of the net, go high to low to him, and then he sets up cross-ice pass. So, you know, after he wins the draw, I think it's fun to watch what happens next because your guess is as good as anybody's. I mean, there's five, six ways they like to use him in that situation. And he's so good at reading the play himself that, you know, he has the tendency to find

his own opportunities that manifest after winning a draw too. So, yeah, the work on the power play especially, though, is really, really critical to me. And it's that ability, again, to not only to be a really good screening, presence, but to work off people with give and goes through his work in the middle. It's the ability to peel off and keep plays alive by going to weak side and pinching off pucks that they're trying to rim out. I like that, I mean, I know it's cheesy, but to call him a Swissarney knife, I mean, that's what makes them, one of the things that makes them so good defensively, again,

is that predictability and that ability to go pinch off something before it happens, before it actually takes place or to go find that outlet and shut it down or just to just do it through sheer will of back checking, right? I mean, the other thing is, you know, he's so good down that center lane and can catch such a good head of steam that you see him doggedly getting back in a place he has no business being a part of. And again, he can make himself so long and he's got such a good active stick that he's, you know, you're not, it's not uncommon to find him breaking up.

plays that are coming across his own defensive blue line, but from the backside, catching up as a forward. And then again, you know, being really annoying with that reach and that long stick. All right, Jesse, let's take a quick break here for those that are listening to us on the radio and on the podcast feed. And then when we come back, we'll jump right back going to it. You're listening to the HockeyPedio cast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. We're back here on the HockeyPedio cast, joined by Jesse Marshall. today we're doing our deep dive of Nico Hishier here on the PDOCIS Film Club. Jesse, we were talking about his face off work and kind of the collection of skills that he's put on tape this season.

I think you just look at his 5-on-5 impacts as well this year with him on the ice. They're up 13 to 7. They've got 55% of the shots, 57% of the high danger chances. And I was watching this game they played recently. It was an ESPN broadcast. They were playing in Florida, right? They had that back-to-back against the Panthers last week where they looked quite impressive. won both games pretty decisively. And one of those games, Ray Ferraro was on the call for it. And he made a point talking about how the devils, obviously it's great that there's this high flying transition team, but they made such a point this year of working on kind of

being a quote unquote half ice team, right? And sort of shoring up that area of the game as well. That's something that really did them in last year when they regressed and had a year from hell where they kind of took a big step back as a team. And I think that ties into this as well, right? it's kind of his role within the bigger picture and within the concept of this team and the role he plays and now, you know, playing with whether it's Tim O'Meier or Dawson Mercer or Stefan Aisand, whatever the rotating cast of Wingers is there, what they, what purpose they serve on this team

and how it allows them and Sheldon Keefe to then just completely unleash the Jack Hughes, Jasper Bradpair, and let them just eat offensively. I think that's an important thing here to note as well, because obviously he's not going to put up the same point totals at those guys. He's not going to be nearly as flashy as them or beyond as many highlight reels, but that's what made him such an intriguing film club candidate for us to give him his flowers, finally for the work he's done. And what a luxury it is for not only the coach,

but I think Jack Hughes in particular to have a one-two punch like this and how that frees him up. You look at whether it's Connor Bardard and kind of his documented struggles, this year in Chicago and just the supporting cast and the lack of supporting talent around him I think a big part of it is that where just having someone like this who can eat up some of these minutes

and win those battles and tilt the ice like that and then give you a situation that you can jump on the ice in an advantageous spot is just such a luxury and for Jack Hughes in particular I feel like it unlocks so many doors for him

and they don't even play that much together at 5-1-5 unless the situation calls for it yet I feel like he just has has such a big impact on his game and his production. Yeah, and he shares shifts, Dmitri, often end in the offensive zone somehow, right? Whether off the back of a frozen puck or off of the puck that hit a defenseman and went out of play,

you know, there's a lot of positive endings to his shifts that always aren't resulting in goals. They're resulting in, you know, changing a possession, tilting the ice in one direction, getting an offensive zone face off. and when you have another line in your top six that dynamically is a little bit different than this one, maybe a little bit more goal scoring oriented, a little bit more attack oriented. That's great, right?

It's great to have a line that can generate offensive zone face off opportunities for them, right? And keep pucks hemmed out of their defensive zone. You know, this he's sheer line is ultimately deployable in just about any situation, right? You can use them anywhere at any given time. They're trustworthy defensively. Their ability to play defense by proxy of playing outside of their own zone is really good, right? And not to diminish, we talked a lot about his defensive zone work and it is good. And I think he makes really good reads.

I think he's really strong on the puck. But I think at the end of the day, too, the benefit here is that he's not playing in the defensive zone a lot. Right. I mean, that's what you get out of this line. and to be able to set the table like that for another really talented line. Sheldon Keefe's got something cooking there with that top six. They're generating a lot of opportunities for each other. Like you said, they're not even only ice at the same time.

Yeah, they made big strides there. They still got the rush game, certainly in their bag. I think last I checked Carolina, Washington, Dallas, and Colorado, were the only team generating more rush chances per game than them. But defensively, they're down, or I guess up, the fifth and expected goals against second in inner slot shots, allowed eighth in goals against themselves. And that's obviously going to be a big thing to track in terms of their viability is not

just a playoff team, but a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. Like they look like they are early this season. So I think that's a great point. And I know the broadcast for the devils themselves, I'm not sure if that carried over, but early in the season they were making a point of how like Sheldon Keith was specifically starting that line to begin in pretty much every period because he just felt confident that whether it was 30 seconds, 45 seconds, however long that chip lasts. the next group coming out was going to start off with a good spot on the ice.

And that's just such a massive boon for them where it's like, all right, we just know we're going to start every period with a winning shift. And so I think that's huge as well. I don't know if you saw this in the video as well. It's not necessarily specifically tied to his year. I think everyone in the team does it. That other Hughes Bratline does it as well. I think a lot of the most skilled teams in the league do this. But I wanted to also highlight how Hishier utilizes the boards so well.

for indirect passes. And I think that's kind of a bit of an underappreciated skill that you see a lot of the top teams utilize, just kind of maximizing the space using the geometry of the ice and the boards to your advantage. And it's not necessarily always about a clean tape to pass. Sometimes that's the best route you can take to avoid a defensive stick. And he does that so well, right? There's a number of plays, whether it's in his own zone kind of chipping out to a defender,

to a teammate streaking up the ice, or even in the offensive zone going behind the net, they utilize the board so well to get the puck to where it needs to go. It's just something to be said, Dmitri, about a team whose a common goal and system is to constantly be moving and advancing the puck north at every opportunity you have, right? Now, like, whether that be, you know, you pick it up from the dots of your own defensive zone

and you skate it in yourself, or you just make one play, you make one touch, bank off the wall, you know, a little touch pass to an area your teammate can get to. It's all that intention of continuing in the same direction as a group. The devils just do it so well. And they can piecemeal you to death through the neutral zone. You know, they do a lot of what I like to call the stretch tip dump where they'll throw a couple

forwards up by the red line and the offensive zone. and just throw a stretch pass at them with the knowledge they're looking to just get a tip. They just want to tip that puck at the red and get it to go behind the net to create a foot race, right? And they've got, you know, guys that are slingshotting from the other side of the ice towards the weak side to go get those pucks and creating these foot race situations inherently within their breakout. That's just, it's a tough thing to handle, you know, they work well in support of each other through the neutral zone.

You know, you see a lot of a side car to a pup carrier, even if as a defenseman, you keep a good gap and you get a stick on that puck, there's a teammate there within five feet to, you know, potentially come and pick up the garbage and keep things moving north. So, yeah, I mean, they are a team that keeps it going. They don't, their pace, you know, I think is always so fast because they're playing so well in support of each other. And, you know, individually from a skill set perspective, you know, you've got a lot of really good skaters and puck distributors that can make those little touch plays or those little steps around the defender to keep things moving.

It's hard to keep up with that. They're an exhausting team to watch other folks play against because you have your legs are moving all night long. Well, and when you play that way and you push the envelope like that, you're naturally going to make mistakes. There's going to be turnovers. But I thought it was really interesting watching. their most recent game on Thursday night against the hurricanes. Now the hurricanes are playing the second of a back-to-back on the road, right? So I think that context is important.

But they kind of turn the tables on them a little bit because there were a number of times in that game where they were willing to kind of utilize that lob pass out of their own zone into the neutral zone to kind of create havoc and then allow their skaters to skate into it, force turnovers, and create rush opportunities that way as well. And I thought it was interesting watching them sort of willingly and ably, manufacture opportunities to attack that way as well against the Hurricanes team that's been doing that to their opposition for years now. And so I thought that was interesting. The broadcast was noting how I think the stat was that they've only given up as a team to forecheck goals against

this year. And so part of that is just getting big saves when the opportunity arises, but also they're clearly much more efficient this year in transitioning the puck. Yeah, 100%. That's an amazing stat, by the way. I didn't know that. I'm not surprised to hear that either. And and looking at how they play and watching how they play. Yeah, that's not surprising. I think, you know, I go back to the puck support thing, and it really allows for a lot of creativity and how they work the puck out of their own zone.

The forwards are involved in the process from a very early point. I think is specific to that Carolina game. I think New Jersey had a clear expectation for their D to be under siege, right? I think they were prepared for that. I think they knew what Carolina was going to bring from a forecheck. perspective and there was just no risk. You didn't see any risk from the devils and coming out of their own end because there wasn't a lot of space being covered between the pucks they were releasing and the sticks to the fords

that they were going to, right? That head of steam gets built up from very deep within the zone. You give yourself two advantages. Your defensemen are making low risk plays to forwards who are very close in proximity to them. You're not crossing two blue lines with the puck through this mass of bodies in the noot zone. and you're allowing your forwards to gain a larger head of steam in working up the ice in tandem with each other.

So they looked ultimately prepared for me for a high-tempo, intense game. And I think the most enriching thing about it from the Devils is how willing those forwards are to maybe take a couple footstep back into the defensive zone for their breakout in order to make the plays for their defensemen a little bit more low risk. And also, Dmitri helps when you have a defenseman. They could just skate the puck too, right? I mean, that's the other thing.

I think the devils aren't short on guys who feel comfortable with at least taking a few steps before they send the puck off the blade of somebody else's stick. But, you know, that's what Carolina is about, right? Is that pressure and causing you to make unforced errors and mistakes in their sort of heavy presence in your breakout? But, you know, the devils were not having that. And their forwards weren't having that and just making life easier on their own defensemen by coming back and helping out a little bit more. Yeah, it's ultimately just one regular season game.

I did think it was notable, though, especially as kind of like a bit of a happy learn-how-to-put moment because that Hurricanes team was one they've struggled against in the past. Obviously, that playoff series a couple years ago, but even in regular season games, I think generally Carolina's just insanely chaotic puck pressure environment where they're just willing to just have the puck bounce around and do whatever. They thrive in that.

And I think against the devil's team, they could force them into some mistakes, and then they'd become a little bit flustered. And so for them to show that they're capable of kind of handling themselves in that environment, I think it's huge. And obviously, that's a team they're going to have to go through in the metro and in the playoffs if they want to go on a long run. With his year, I will note as well, you look early in the year, and there were a couple games that come to mind. There was the game.

We're watching the clips of now where they started at home against Washington. And he had those two goals in whatever 15 seconds apart to kind of put the team on his back. There was the game in Detroit, the game in Vancouver. There was a few that really stick in my mind as just absolutely monster performances where he kind of put the team on his back and carry them to either victory or to getting points out of it or having a really good game. Then there was a bit of a dry stretch in between. I'm not willing to hold that against him because I think it's just a byproduct of

the Devils played so many games early in the year. They got to 20 games faster than anyone. Their schedule was so condensed early on because they started the year. in Europe before anyone else. And in particular for his year, I noted how he's playing so much and Keith is relying on him in all these situations. The volume is so high. The degree of difficulty is so high.

I think he's playing 20, 25 per game this year, which is about a minute more than he's ever played in his career. And so it makes sense that there would be a bit of a sort of lull or dip in terms of his efficiency. But he was right back to it in those recent couple games in Florida and then against Carolina where they were huge games on the schedule for them. and he delivered the way that he does. And so I think that was really good to see and kind of reinforced that, man,

he's just having just such a phenomenal season. Yeah. And I think, too, you know, a critical element to both those games was him, I think, really reengaging a lot physically, you know, getting in and being the first guy on a loose puck, making a hit that's stuff that forces a defenseman into a bad play or, you know, just generally being a bear down low and in the score of the tight scoring areas in front of the net. I know, I said that a couple people this season that I think Nish U. Niko Hussure has become one of the better, more physical forwards in the league,

and I always get a weird look when I say that. But I mean, you watch him play. And it's not, you know, a punishing, devastating style of physicality, but it's an effective style of physicality, right? It's using his body to create separation on the puck to, to, just to drive to the net. And a lot of the time, it's just, you know, it's become really difficult for defensemen to do anything about him when he gets a really big head of steam.

And these are defensemen that are big, long, they have their long reach, they have long sticks themselves. You know, to me, there's a level of engagement from him this year where he's almost seeking that out, right? And he's seeking out that physicality within his offensive game in a couple different ways. And I think that's opened up a lot of new doors for him. I think it helped, I think it helped him work his way out of that drought that you were mentioning a minute ago as well and help that sort of well to fill back up with some water again.

Yeah, it was nice to see. I can score a bunch of goals early on as well as that trigger man in the power play because I think that his value to this team is so immense regardless of how much he's scoring. But I think if it's the Selke conversation or just his stature as a top center in the league, that's something people are going to point to. And I think ultimately at the end of the day, similar to Bergeron or even Barkov, who he's neck and neck with in the Selki race right now, he probably could score more on a different environment if he wanted to. but he's not the way he's wired as a player.

And I think that's okay. And I think that's actually a net positive for the devils because it allows some of their other players to play more freely. Like there's so many examples in these clips where the devils are pushing up ice, they're engaging their defenders. And he's the last guy back. And he's essentially playing the role, even though he's the F3 as the actual defenseman against the rush and holding his own and making a defensive play to kind of thwart a potential opportunity for the opposition.

And so I'm always fascinated by for some of these top. two-way centers, that kind of real-time calculation that goes on of like assessing risk versus reward and potentially bailing from potential plays to put yourself in a position where it makes the team better for it. But maybe you could have scored if you kind of hung around and cherry picked a little bit more. He doesn't really do that that much. He certainly situationally off the breakout as you, as you highlighted, can put himself

in those spots. But whatever in the offensive zone, you can see that he's always thinking about and assessing and gravitating like, back. to the middle of the ice and a bit higher in the zone just to protect themselves in case the play goes south yeah 100% um yeah i love that real time calculation that's that's exactly what it is i mean he's got a um you know you can see him making these these um these be lines right is what it is you know into certain areas or or towards certain areas um as the alarm bells sort of ring for him or as the opportunity presents itself um i know we haven't talked a lot about um about about

shot yet. But I do, I do think that they're, especially in tight this year, Demetri, I think one thing that surprised me is how much elevation he's able to get from in tight spaces this season and sort of the extreme angle that he's able to make the puck come off of his stick. But I'm in a lot of these clips and you kind of go back and look, he's got a, he's choking up a lot on the stick, right? and it's sort of like making this just sort of scooping lifting motion with some of these shots in tight. And he's fooling a lot of goalies who are down in their posture because of the posture he has, shoulder dip, like driving to the net, you would expect, you know, I think in a lot of those situations to him try to keep it low to the ice or just, you know,

make a quick move to get the shot off and not pay too much attention to where it's going. But the way that he sort of holds his stick in those situations lends itself to him sort of like making all this high like almost like a high lie scooping motion with the puck that just sends it off of the blade of his stick at these really extreme angles. And I think there's a little bit more willingness to use that level of deception now as he's sort of refined his offensive game and become more patient over time. You see him sort of, I think, outweighing people a lot now or when he's driving down the slot, you know, you expect the shot to come at this moment and he's waiting and waiting and

getting closer and closer and closer to the net. And then the angle with which he's able to jettison the puck in those tight spaces, you know, I think has been another added bonus for him. He's not, you know, this isn't it, you know, I don't put him in the class of like elite shooters in the National Hockey League, but I do put him in a class of shooters who know, who have more of than one route to success and are sort of cognizant of what the situation calls for in that moment, you know, to sort of dig into their bag of tricks and use whatever's appropriate for that time. So I don't think from a lethality perspective, right, you put him in like this, this, this upper upper echelon of like shooters. But like, I think of them, you know, again, like, the, the bag of

tricks here is just really deep. And there's, there's not anything he's really bad at with regards to his offensive skill set. I mean, he's sort of like, you know, a B plus student across all categories when you add up the sum of all those parts, like it creates this, this player that, you know, is eminently deployable in just about any situation you could put him in. Yeah, it's perfect. It's so fittingly true to form because I agree on balance. He's not up there, but he's a situational shooter, much like the rest of his game, and it just works for him based on what they ask him to do and what he does for them as a team. I will also note on the way out here, I'd be remiss if I didn't. in watching all this tape on his year, and there was 20 plus games worth, as we said, I think 22, to be exact, of tape, there was so much film to sift through.

As I was watching it, I was like, man, is this a Dawson Mercer film club? Because there were so many plays that he makes in tandem with him that just make the team tick and that line tick. And I'm continuously just so impressed with Mercer, even if the point totals aren't necessarily there this year. And on the final note, on the Selke battle, it's interesting if you look at the betting market, it's like, like Hishir and Barkaw. Barkow is still a slight favorite, but they're essentially neck and neck and they're almost even. And then third place is Jordan Stahl,

and he's like 15 to 1, and has zero chance of actually winning that award. And so I think that's going to be a really fun thing to track the rest of the season as well. Do you have any final notes here on his year, or do you want to get out of here? No, it works for me. What a nice career munch for Jordan Stahl, though, too,

you know, at the end of his line to get a little third place vote every once in a while. You know, that's nice. I'll perk them up a little bit. Amazing. I mean, what phenomenal player for his role, but I think if you took anything from this conversation, it's like the list of responsibilities that are on his year's played and what he has to do is just, you can't compare it to the two, right? It's like Jordan Stalls is so defined, whereas his year has to do everything for the Devils. Well, this was a fun one. I know that the Devils fans are really going to enjoy this one. They're absolute sickos. And I'd say that they're probably the most vocally supportive fan base of the PDO cast. So we gave them the goods here and hopefully they enjoyed it. Jesse, what do you want to plug?

Yeah, so this piece here, we're going to have a real long discussion of some of the finer points we discussed here with a lot of video examples where I do a lot of stopping the play and slowing it down. I don't normally do that, Dimitri, but I think what makes this such an interesting player is you can freeze these moments where defense. are saying, oh, no, I'm in deep trouble now. And then you kind of have to slow it down after that because Hesier's doing so many things in manipulation of the puck that, you know, it begets its own sort of higher level of analysis. So that'll be coming out soon and we'll have more discussion about this player. Awesome, buddy.

Well, looking forward to it. If you dig these shows, Jesse and I do, obviously subscribe to the PDOCAS YouTube channel and give us those five-star reviews. We're going to check back in with Jesse in a couple weeks here. I'm curious to see what our next film club candidate is going to be. There's a countless number of options for us. Maybe we'll even get a defenseman one day, although we'll see. It'll be a good running bit.

We just always mentioned that we're going to highlight a defenseman and then never do because the forwards, I think, are a bit more fun to break down. Looking forward to that, Jesse, keep up the great work. That's all for us today. We'll be back with one more episode here to close out the week on the PDO cast. Thank you for listening to us on the SportsNet Radio. network.