The Hockey PDOcast - Pavel Mintyukov’s Playing Style, and the Profound Impact He’s Already Had

Episode Date: November 7, 2023

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Darryl Belfry to marvel at Pavel Mintyukov's introduction to the NHL. They break down the details in his game, the habits he's shown on and off the puck, and how it's had a profound impact on the way the Ducks are playing this season.This podcast is produced by Dominic Sramaty.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. 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.

Since 2015, it's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Demetri Fulpovich, and joining me as my good buddy, Daryl, Belfry, Daryl. What's going on, man? Excited to be back here again. New topic, new player, but same two guys kicking it around. So we'll see how we do this time. There you go.

I guess the common denominator is we're picking very fun players with unique skill set to talk about, but it is also you and I having fun. And I think this is the fourth one we've done now this season. We did Jack Hughes, Miko Ranton, and Dylan Larkin for those scoring at home. So if you haven't listened to those yet, I highly recommend going back in the archives, checking those out. I think there's interesting nuggets of info in all of them that still apply. Today, we're going to talk about the Ducks.

An intriguing young team that's playing some fun hockey right now. They've won at the time of recording six straight games, many of them in dramatic fashion and overtimes come from behind. I think maybe the most impressive part of it has been the fact that they scored four goals. on both the Boston Bruins and Vegas Golden Knights in that time, which is increasingly hard to do for other teams. And I don't know, I'm not sure how much like these specific results, because I still think they're playing a long game here.

There's still many moves to be made and development to be had. So I'm not sure how much these specific results will last. I'm not going to focus on the six games or anything like that. But I think the most exciting part looking ahead and the most encouraging of it all is that these results are being driven by the youngest players on the Ross. right and no one better exemplifies that than pavlo minchikov their young defenseman who's burst onto the scene this season has captured everyone's attention and imagination and so we thought it'll be fun to really just deep dive him look at the tape see what he's doing see how he's getting there because

right out of the gate darrell i love what i see from him on tape and he's playing such a unique modern style of hockey that's so rare to see from from someone who's 19 and playing their first hand professional games. Yeah, you know, like one of the things that I've come to understand and it really applies with with Minchikoff is the early parts of a player's NHL career have often been like, well, it's early, like dismissed, you know, it's early, let's wait and see. And like even a player's like NHL debut, you'll hear a lot of narrative like, well, you know, just go play and don't worry about.

or anything else. And what I found with these young players is that that's all that's really the best time to study them. And the reason why is because they're playing on instinct. They're playing on instinct. They're just playing on what feels right and what feel and they're and they're so closely attached to their assets because they're just trying to, you know, they don't know what they don't know and they don't, you know, and they're just exploring. And so what you see is, a lot more of the purity of their of their game in terms of who they are before they've been coached or stuck in a role or figured out like what they should do or where the limits are or you know all of those pieces start to come in um you know so when you see this minchikov and that

ducks roster with a lot of the young players i think the a lot of it that i'm so drawn to is it's so early on, you have so many of them still playing in a very instinctual game. So you get that purity of them just playing to their best assets. And I love that. No, I do too. And his impact has been very profound and easy to trace. I'm going to rattle off a bunch of numbers here just to get them out of the way. And then we're going to dig into the tape because I want us to all be at least operating on the same wavelength in terms of like just understanding what he's already done so far.

11 games so far, 8 points. That's 11th amongst all defensemen on a permanent basis. His 8 points are tied for the rookie scoring lead with Logan Cooley and Bob McGrink. Now, here's where this is a good segue into this conversation about him and kind of his playing style and the impact he's had because with him on the ice at 515, the ducks, they are averaging 34.7 shots per 60, 17.4 high danger chances, 3.35 expected goals and 3.1 goals for. And the reason I bring those up is because when you compare it directly to what they look like without him on the ice and acknowledging that he plays a fair share of his minutes with the top line with Terry and Sigris and those guys are obviously better than their death players, all of those numbers plummet. The shots come down to 24.4. The high danger chances come all the way down to 7.6.

The expected goals to 1.98 and the goals 4 to 2.04. They go from one of the best offensive teams in the league to a team that's barely scraping by at the bottom of. the league in every one of those categories. And I brought this up on a show last week, Darrell, I think we tend to overstate the impact defensemen generally can have on a team's offense because we purely look at points, right? We go, okay, well, this guy has this many assists or this many points from the back end, so he must be driving the team's offense. And in reality, a lot of it is situational.

If you're playing on the top team's top power play unit, you're going to be out there with the team's best players in scoring situations. you're probably going to rack up points, doesn't necessarily mean you're the one directly responsible for it. And in watching Minchikov's tape so far, it really does feel like, with a caveat that it's only 11 games and things could change certainly, it looks like he's the one with his playing habits

that's driving a lot of this offensive success Anheim as having. He's not just the passenger. He's already doing things that are putting them in these situations to generate shots, chances, and goals. So when I watch Minchikov, the reason why I think he's a driver is because he is what I think is like the new like when we say like new or modern defenseman. He he has a lot of those attributes. And one of the most important attributes is his transition defending.

So you remember years ago Dave Tippett came out with a really famous quote where he was talking about he was studying defensemen. his defenseman. He was like, you know, this defenseman we have, you know, he's, he's a great defender. The problem is he's always defending. And so we need people that, you know, we have another guy who is never defending because he's good with the puck. And so the impression was that if you were really good with a puck, then you could transition your, like transition people out of the, transition your team out of the zone. We didn't really need to defend as much because you were so good with the puck.

puck. I think that's evolved now. I don't think you can in this league play in the league and contribute offensively if you cannot defend. What's most impressive about Minchikov for me is his transition defending. He defends to get the puck and get it moving the other way. And you see a lot of the plays that he makes. He gets, he has great feet. He's got an excellent stick. But when he is stick checking, he's not stick checking. to tick the puck to get it off your stick. He's stick checking so that he can get a personal takeaway and get it moving for a pass the other way,

or he's ticking it to his teammate, where he's able to make a play to his teammate. And that's transition defending. He also is defending skating forwards a lot. He skates in the neutral zone going forwards. In the offensive zone, you'll see him pinching, coming down the wall. One of my favorite parts of him,

and is my favorite part actually watching him is he is a discouraging defenseman. So what I mean by that is he will skate towards his check and he will attach himself early so that the puck carrier cannot pass to his guy. And then what will happen is that guy now has to make another decision. And it's in that decision that he creates a turnover. So he's indirectly creating a turnover by controlling. where the puck is going. Or he will lay slightly off the defender, or the puck receiver,

but he's laying in the weeds. He's abating the puck in there. Once the puck goes to his guy, he jumps it because he knows that the most vulnerable time that any puck carrier has where they have to be able to get a takeaway is when they first touch the puck. That first puck touch, it's really hard to protect the puck on first touch. Minchikov's timing in the way he defends in both discouragement and in baiting the puck in there to get a takeaway is unbelievable. When you say control the game and have a massive impact, it's the transition defending.

And it's these other skills that we now have to start talking about because whether it's, whether it's him or any of these other young defensemen, you cannot play in this league without being able to defend. And watching this guy, to me, it's some of the most impressive stuff in what he does. As much as what he's doing offensively, which is incredible, we'll get to that. I just wanted to start with that defense. Like his defending and the way in which he defends is it is modern. And it kind of takes that Dave Tippett quote and kind of moves it to another level, I think. No, I'm certainly glad you started us there.

and also provided that distinction of how he defends, right? Because I think everyone who follows hockey or has played at any level or is coached or whatever your connection to the sport is, I think you're generally familiar with the concept of taking away time and space, right? Like it's like you've heard that time and time again on broadcast from coaches, all that good stuff. But the way he does it is very proactive where if you see on these clips, a lot of it is either in the offensive zone where he's moving forward

and he's closing off the wall or he's jumping a lane to get ahead of it. it or he's immediately attaching through that surfing motion to puck carriers to kill the exit off the bat. And that's why the ducks have been able to stay in attacking positions and stay in the offensive zone with extended possessions

much more than they ever really did last year without him. And I think he's been a big reason for that. And so it's cool to see that. I mean, what do you attribute that to from like a skill set perspective the most? Is it purely like philosophy from a young age in terms of how you've been

trained to play or is it hockey sense in terms of like having a feel for where you need to go to defend because I think in theory everyone would want to play this way and you can see the benefits of it but for whatever reason a lot of defensemen generally revert to the most conservative form of defending right would just sag back preserve yourself and then try to kill time and space as close to your own net as possible because you've been pushed back that way a lot of defenders simply don't take the aggressive routes and trying to attack puck carriers this way. So one of the things that he,

that is a big part of his development, I don't know, I think he brought a lot of this with him when he first went to the OHL, but he played in Saginaw. I studied Saginaw because I find that their style of play is extremely, it's very interesting and very projectable

from a player development perspective and what they do with their D. I think is really impressive. And it is very much skating forwards. It's attaching. And I think that he fit what they were trying to do there. So I think he brought a lot of this stuff with him. I don't think you just pick this stuff up.

I think you got to learn. I don't think you just learn this like overnight. Like this is a, this is years of playing this way. It's it's skating forwards. It's attaching to checks early. It's understanding the timing and the spacing. It's leveraging his assets of his feet. Because the interesting part about closing space is the ability to close space is directly related to your length, reach, and your feet.

And so everybody's different. So he can play a certain distance away from someone and still get there when the puck arrives. And he knows where that sweet spot is because of his skating. where another guy would have to play much closer in order to do that because they don't have the footwork or they don't have the reach. So this is where the interesting part is like this is a real science in learning to defend this way. And it takes a long time. And he's probably leveraged the fact that he was really good at a young age and was offensively. He was very good.

So you get a lot of leash, right? You get a lot of rope with your coaches to be able to skate forwards when maybe everyone else. on your decor is playing is defending going backwards he starts intercepting passes and he creates transition and he gets in and he's generating points all of a sudden you know what it's probably okay and then now you get to the nchl and he is like arriving at a perfect time because this is how you have to defend now if you really want to be a defenseman who generates points and you want to be a guy who can control the game because that's what we're talking about here he could control the game and this is where it's very interesting.

Like he controls the game when he doesn't have the puck or the puck is not near him because he's taking it options away. He goes down. He attaches to his check. The guy realizes he can't move the puck there. He's got to make another play. Or he attaches to a check.

Then he comes off of him. And then as the guy tries to go back, he's already right there and he arrives at the right time. Like this is really, really interesting stuff. But it's not something that you just pick up like right away. So I think it's something that has been has been brought through from the time he was playing before he got to the OHL. Then he was very fortunate to go to Saginaw who was

playing that style anyways. And then now he comes into the NHL and he hits the Ducks at exactly the right time. Like could you come to the Anaheim Ducks at a better time than what he's coming into it right now. They have a change of coach, change of philosophy. He comes in and he's playing forward. He's got good skating defensemen around him. And now they're like, okay, let's go. And he's playing purely on instinct. No one's really had a chance to get their teeth into him yet. And why would you touch him now? Like, so now you've got to wait and see, like, can he play like this for another 30, 40 games? Because if he does, then you're going to keep your hands off of him. You're not going to touch him at all. He's just going to keep going. So it's a perfect storm, I think, as you watch

some of the stuff that he does. And what he also has a really good ability to play, he plays on a check and then he'll play off a check to be able to intercept a pass. So one of the key ten, one of the key tenants to transition defenders is one they attach early to their check. That's one. The second part is they're very good with stick to puck entries and contact. They get a lot of contact takeaways. But the third part is they get a lot of pass intercepts. And that's what you see with Minchikov in all three zones. He intercepts a lot of passes.

So it's not just reading. It's spacing. It's timing. And he understands those elements. And for him to walk in the NHL and do this at this level is truly phenomenal and be able to excel in all three of those ways or methods of the transition defending. To me, that's what makes, that's a big part of what makes him special. Now, once he gets the puck, well, that's a whole other, that's a whole other thing.

But you got to get it. And that's what I think is underappreciated in the NHL is how difficult it is to actually get the puck. Like what he's doing, the ability to make a contact, force a stop, force a stop, get a contact, get a takeaway and then transition the puck. Like that's not easy to do against NHL players. And he's able to do it on a nightly basis. It's phenomenal.

Yeah. There's a little bit in terms of defending. There's as we wrap it up and move to the fun stuff on the offensive end with the puck. There's a little something in there for everyone. Right. We mentioned the anticipation and the defending off the rush and the stick work and all that. I've also been, I mean, and the part of this is what makes him such a physical freak. I looked it up and the team's website has them listed at six.

one, 195. I'm not sure if I'm buying that. If it is, well, kudos to him because he's already displayed that he's

strong as an ox, right? Like you've seen times where he's just, he grown men are just bouncing off of them. He's able to dislodge you from the puck like he did with Matt Dunbaugh on that rush play

to let that highlight goal. Boxing out in front of the net, he's already shown. So it's one of those things where I think sometimes frustrations with young, kind of what we think of as offensive defenseman is, all right, well, yeah,

maybe they can defend off the, rush or they were lean on their skating but then in these kind of more traditional defending areas around their net or one-on-one battles whether it's in front of the net or along the wall that's where they can be exposed a little bit and you don't even really see that with him right like he's already shown an ability to acquit himself quite well there so it's uh all of it is just wildly impressive in terms of the defensive package yeah him and then like when you watch him in the way the way in which he defends and i'm with you i do think he's he's a kid that that has some physical maturity.

But I also think that he has outstanding skating ability inside a contact, which is very, he's used to making contacts as part of his takeaway. And you can tell by how he has a real pop to him when he makes contact. Like he's jarring you. He doesn't just push you into the wall. He's jarring. And I think that's part of his ability to dislodge the puck

and create separations and then get on to the next. And then also he's jarring you the puck carrier to kind of stand you up. And then he's able to move before you're able to move, which allows him to go get the puck. It's really, it's really quite impressive. But you also look at whether it's McCar or now Quinn Hughes, these guys are phenomenal offensive players. But watch them defend. Watch these guys defend. Watch how often they win the puck back.

That's what we're seeing here with Minchukub, why I think he has a chance to be. truly special is because of those attributes. Well, there's a chicken and egg relationship between offense and defense, of course, right? But last year's Ducks team, as I've talked about documented at length on this podcast over the past year, they were historically bad defensively by any measure, right? They just couldn't get out of their own zone. They were bleeding shots, chances, goals against. And part of that certainly is like you have a young team, you're kind of learning structure.

There's not a lot of continuity there or connectivity. and so there's a lot of open spaces and other teams took advantage of it. But the other thing was they were never able to actually sustain offensive zone possessions and keep the puck on the other end of the ice and make life easier for themselves and their goalie

by just being like, all right, the next two minutes we're just going to keep the other team hemmed in here and we're going to tilt the ice a little bit that was never really in their range of outcomes or the reality. And so all of a sudden now you see him, he's doing all this work in terms of defensive zone and transition. But as we segue here,

to his offensive impact. I think that's what's really caught my eye and impressed me so far is just how advanced his instincts already are on the offensive zone, right? Like the fluidity and the movement has been beautiful to watch and just seeing that develop and get nurtured with a lot of these young players is going to be really fun to watch not only for the rest of this season, but obviously into the years ahead as well. Yeah, like to me, when you watch him in the offensive zone, first off,

he's in motion. He's not standing still at the blue line. The second part of it is that he's constantly coming down on his check, whether it's pinch, strong side pinches, weak side pinches. He surfs across the top of the circle all the time. He's always skating. He also activates so well on the backside of the ice. I find that a lot of his best plays are times where he comes down

and he works the weak side dot a lot, which is really, I think, a fascinating place offensively for four defensemen is to be able to come down there. But you have to have a lot of trust in your skating to be playing a weak side dot position. That is pretty, that's pretty impressive. But that means one, that the ducks are also a little more committed to offensive zone defense, which is the best time to defend is when you're in the offensive zone. And when the other team tries to get the puck, when they start to break out, you kill that exit and keep the sustained offense going.

Well, that comes down to proximity of where you are and where your routes are. And the weak side defender is off, weak side defender and F3 are your two kind of most important people there. And then you have your F2 track from the net that's putting back pressure on the puck to pressure the puck carrier. Those three kind of elements are really important to get the puck back. And this guy, his ability to play on the weak side of the ice, is really a big part of why I think,

one, he contributes a lot to them keeping pucks alive that maybe they wouldn't, but also his offense. Like when you see a lot of his plays that, like particularly when, like, that lead to goals when you look at, he's on, he makes a lot of dot to dot passes where he's coming downhill on the,

on the weak side, on the weak side of the ice, and then he goes dot to dot or he puts a puck to the net or to the side of the net, as a cross-crease type of play. And those are, to me, those are real interesting aspects of generating offense in today's NHL because you can't do everything on the strong side because you're, you know, you're at a numerical disadvantage.

So much of your offense has to come from a side change. And so to have a kid so fluent in his ability to play on that backside, it really does lead you to believe that this is a sustainable thing that he'll be able to do it because he has great instincts of when to pull out of the dot. He gets above his check and he's not scared to put himself at a slight disadvantage defensively because he knows he can make it up with his speed. Certainly. And we've seen that already many times in these first 11 games.

I really appreciate those routes he takes. Particularly we've seen it a few times when they have that. five-man unit of the top line out there. And they have Sigris and Terry in particular who can kind of see and think the game at that elevated level with him where one of them is bringing the puck up as the puck carrier up the left circle, right? And they're kind of coming towards the point. And he, they almost execute like a pick and roll in basketball where he all of a sudden

takes that guy's place, goes behind him, goes down that side. And then as the puck moves to the right, as you mentioned, he's all of a sudden now kind of getting lost in coverage on that weak side dot. And there's a lot of backdoor opportunities there. And I think what should be exciting for Ducks fans is that as these guys get more time playing with him and are able to more frequently recognize those tendencies of his. And as there's an influx of talent, right, they've drafted really high in the draft for a number of years now. There's a lot of young, exciting players that are high-scale levels and high hockey IQ coming into this lineup.

All of a sudden, if he's in those positions, you're going to have players who can actually maximize that and take advantage of it. and hit him with those passes or play off of that at a higher frequency, because there's been a few times already where I can see him just thinking the game at a higher level that maybe the people he's out there on the ice with. And so he's standing in a scoring position, but the person who has the puck, unfortunately, either doesn't have the ability or can't see him there and can't get him the puck. And that I can be frustrating,

but it's also exciting because I think that over time, they're going to be able to bridge that gap. Well, I think you hit the nail on the head, but I also think that there's the flip side of that where he is coming down that side and you have a guy in a perfect scoring position on the backside of the ice and you see him go dot to dot and hits the guy right on the tape and he's not ready for that puck. He's not, he doesn't realize that this guy has that kind of ability to get there.

And that's the, it's new yet and they don't realize the capacity. But it'll come where they're like, anytime that guy has a puck and he's going downhill, like he is a threat to pass this puck cross crease, cross seam, dot to dot. He might go weak side. He might go to load towards the goal line and then make a pass back up the ice, which he's done a few times. And so all of a sudden the readiness for those plays and eagerness for those plays,

all of a sudden comes and you'll see they'll start converting a lot more of those plays. But that's a real problem when you get a guy who can step by, his check the strong like the that the defensive forward he can step by his check he can get down into that kind of awkward space which is between the top of the circle and the dot

and he can start threading pucks to the other side of the ice through that space and he can shoot it coming down there so he's a shot threat he could go to the guy at the net could fall off the heels of the goalie and he can pass it to the crease

there he can go dot to dot He can also extend the play. You've seen him a few times take it down to the goal line. He doesn't like it. He goes behind the net. And then he starts looking for plays on the other side of the ice. And now what happens when he does that? Everyone starts moving now.

So now it's a whirling dervish, almost like what we were talking about with Colorado, where you have that top line that starts to move like this. It's because of talent like this type of guy that has this ability to do these things that that's where those things become more possible because the other players that he's playing with like you say like Zegreus and Terry they start going wait a minute this guy's got this ability to do this well that changes my routes now like why am i standing why would I stand at the net or stand in a high F3 when this guy can go dot to dot and i'm staring at an empty net so i'm not going to go there i'm going to go to the other dot so now you got Terry on the other

dot and this guy's going dot to dot to guy like that like those things are will start to come as they get more and more time together they'll start to figure out how to you best utilize his ability and they'll be those players that figure out the routes that they need and the assets that each one of them have that allow them to be able to play that way no different than what we were talking about in Colorado and hopefully that'll be something that happens here because it'll be I mean it would be super exciting to see the ducks take off. And this guy becomes that catalyst from the back end because he can do so much. Plus, it's not like he's taking all these risks either.

So he's not like he's a real defensive liability because he just goes wherever and he lands at the net. But he, you know, he's always never in his position. That's not the case at all. He's extremely responsible defensively. And he's able to get you pucks back in the offensive zone while he's still able to make this play these these types of plays is really fascinating well and even when he does take the risks they're not only calculated but they're in a very predictable manner for his teammates as well right it's not like

he's necessarily just totally taking the game into his own hands and just freelancing off script and going somewhere and his teammates are like why why did he do that all of a sudden it's like he's kind of this float chart of his is something that I think as you play more with him you'll be able to anticipate a bit better and I mean this like this play play right here against the coyotes is just, I mean, obviously it's remarkably exciting. And credit to Greg Conan, I guess, for allowing them to play this way, because if you look there, it is Ilya Lvushkin and Palominchikov, who are at the dots while Troy Terry and Trevor Zegris are up at the point. And they've got a net front guy, of course. But this read here where he gets the pass and it's

quickly fake shot one touch across and almost Trevor Zegro's was almost surprised, I think, honestly, that he was getting that pass because he's probably over the past year. or two, an Anaheim was not receiving that pass all that often, right? I imagine just that comfort level of actually being, everyone wants to be prepared for it. But if you've run that route enough times and haven't gone to puck in a scoring position, it's pretty easy for your brain to turn off a little bit and just be like, all right, I'm probably not going to get it here. And then all of a sudden now, wow, Palomanchikov's actually getting me the puck

in this position. I'm going to have a chance to score. So that's pretty exciting. Yeah, like, I think one of the misconceptions about offense is sometimes the best way to get offense is to simplify and simplify is just get pucks to the net and all of that stuff. And it, it, it, you, you, you have to play such a high volume game to be able to generate offense that way.

This is totally different. This is, there's nothing simple about elite offense. There's nothing simple about it. It, it, it, it, it's a lot of moving parts. It's a lot of people seeing things similarly. it's a lot of habit, recreation over and over and over again with timing to be able to hit the right spot at the right time.

It takes a while to kind of figure these things out. But once you get it, it can be like a real, it can be a real juggernaut, which is what we're starting to see. Some evidence that that could come here. Like you say, like you don't,

when you have players playing instinctually, like you don't have a choice. It's not like, well, let them do this or let them do that. They're just doing it. They're doing it and they're going to let the results play for themselves. And this is what I mean like you get like the, it's a results based league. So if Minchikov can prove that he can generate better results playing the way in which he's playing

and the people around him can produce better results, then they will change to accommodate that. If he can't produce better results this way, then they will take items in his game off the table and reduce him to a place to where he can function amongst the commonality of the rest of the group. That's just how it works. So he has a window of time. And he's not unlike any other player in the league. You come in the league and you light the world on fire like he's doing right now. he's got a window of time to produce a higher rate of result where they're like, not only is he better and he makes us better, but he makes Zeggris better.

He makes Troy Terry better. He makes everyone he's on the ice with, they become more instinctual themselves. And we don't have to take pieces off their asset base. We don't have to reduce them to generate. We can allow them to go. and because he's producing those results. And that's what's awesome to watch. What we're seeing is that process where he kind of elevates himself to a point where

you're now coaching to find solutions for him rather than coaching to reduce to find solutions for others, if that makes sense. No, it does. And I'm sure there's probably countless other examples that have littered hockey history where young, similarly talented players probably stepped in the situations where, they either weren't as, I guess, forgiving or lenient as this one, right? Because I think the Ducks understand that they're not going to win a Stanley Cup this season, even though they have won these six straight games.

This is all about developing these young players, changing the way they play and embracing that. They have a relatively new GM, a brand new head coach. I think there's a lot of runway here, right? I think there's been times where young players either step into a situation or, and I'm glad you brought this up, they step in, they play the way that they've played previously at lower levels and they don't get those immediate results and then they're either because of their own internal pressure

or because of outside pressure forced to change and we never truly get to see what could have been if the start had gone differently the way it has for Minchikov here. It's exactly that. That's why I said at the outset, could Minchikov arrive at the ducks at a better time? No, this is the best time for a kid like this.

They are ready for him, Now, two or three years ago, what would this look like in the Anaheim ducks? It would be a trouble. It would be hard. It would be hard for him to do it. They're ready for him to do this. He's arrived at the right time. And so much of this league, as we've talked about many times, is situational.

And the team has to be ready where you're at. Or what if the ducks, how we're playing a specific style of play that was leading them down to a high level of success, that had none of these properties with it. They were just a very, you know, work it below the goal line. It was like the old L.A. Kings. Below the goal line, low to high, shots to the net, and big, strong people finishing goals. You can arrive at the wrong situation at the wrong time for your ability,

and then it gets reduced because we don't need that right now. That's a little too much for where we're at. We're trying to win, and our players are playing a certain way. and we're not comfortable with you coming in and just upsetting the whole apple cart here and bending the game into your assets, which is what we're seeing. And there's just very few players who can overcome that. Very few players who can just get you to be able to do that. He's put himself in a spot where he's at the right place at the right time with an organization

who, like you said, like they have no expectations. They're just like, listen, let's just look. let them go. We're going to coach them. We're going to try to find ways to keep this ball moving, see if we can get more out of other people. What's the chemistry here of how these young players can start to grow together and find ways in which they can reinvent how they're going to play?

And we're going to give them the runway to do that. And it's exciting in hell because you can see the results are coming. So they're very encouraged to continue to allow this to go on. And that's exciting. but a few years from now when they get it all kind of figured out and they start thinking, well, wait a minute, like this is a time for us to win, then it becomes a lot more, there's two, then it becomes a lot more conservative. So there's like two times when you're really conservative.

One, when you're really bad and you're like, okay, we can't do anything here. And one when you're like just ready to win, like when you think you're ready to win, those two times you're like, yeah, I don't know if we're really ready for this. So he's, to me, he's arriving. And a lot of these players are arriving. These young players are arriving with the ducks at the right time. And that's, it creates the conditions for these types of things to go on where this kid can just play instinctual. People start reading off of them.

And it's like, well, wait a minute. We might have something here. And now he's controlling the game. He's impacting results. It's getting, it creates opportunity for everyone on the roster now. And it read, like the coach will have to determine. he will have to change. Whatever insight he might have on how he wants to play,

it gets determined by the assets that you have, the players that you have. So he's impacting the way they're going to play. No, it's all coming together. It's super cool. And as you mentioned, it's very promising as well that this type of success all of a sudden

when you introduce other guys like a Nolan Zellweger who I'm really excited to see at this level as well, all of a sudden, like you have this proof of concept here already. So it's a lot easier to add to that and be more lenient if he does happen to struggle that you know that this can work right and so i'm i'm really encouraged about that i could watch this passing there all day honestly i mean oh yeah just one just one more thought on that if you compare this to the colorado situation and you you just mentioned the zelweger which i think is a great segue to just talk briefly of like

colorado with byron and and and the way that he's developed there because of what mccar and those guys that have done, the conditions are much more that Byron could come in and he can, in a different situation, playing with different players, find his way into some of these other things. That could be similar as to what happens with a Zellweger here in Anaheim that Minchikov kind of paves the way, creates more opportunity for a player like that to be able to step in. So I just wanted to kind of paint that because there's a real parallel there as you look, at kind of where at how these things can start to develop on their own sorry go ahead i know you want

to get to the next piece no no i mean i that i'm glad you brought that up and i'm just yeah i'm just i'm just i'm just sitting here marveling at the passing i mean the the one touch is the dot to dot as you mentioned his his ability to take a good chance that he probably could have himself but is probably not that efficient because we know most defensemen typically aren't high level shooters and turn it into a very high danger opportunity for a teammate that's probably more likely to score is awesome. I mean, his high danger passing is off the charts as is the, like, they've transitioned to having him a quarterback that top unit power play and the results are necessarily there yet. But I'm seeing a lot of things I like in terms of like his incorporating of this like diagonal

passes you see here, like he's just working the ice in such a strategic way where he's stretching out the defense and then attacking like available pressure points. And so yeah, it's just opening the door for everyone. And honestly, like, Bidarre is obviously phenomenal and he's got less to work with himself. Cooley has been really fun to watch. This rookie class is awesome. But honestly, at least through these first 10-ish games or so, I really don't think any first year player has had a more profound impact on the way their team play and the way everyone around them is operating than what we've seen from Mitchikov in the early going here. Don, there's no question about that.

And going to his passing, he's a player that plays with forethought. So what I mean by that is, but he knows what he's going to do before the puck arrives. He's just waiting for the puck. And so so many of these one touch plays that he makes, he activates so cleanly and so decisively because he's just waiting for the puck to arrive. already knows how he's going to attack. And that's just, that's where you start to see these danger chances just expand. The other thing, so one, you see two kind of elements with him.

One, this quick touch passing where he does a lot of movement off the puck. He'll get it, move it, then you'll move to another spot to get it back. And then he makes the next play that becomes the most dangerous chance. So he has that. That's a lot of forethought that goes into that. He can see a play develop and then he just creates. it, he's just waiting for the puck to do it, and he works very quickly so he can elevate pace. So that's one part.

The other piece that he does is he can extend a passing lane for someone. So what I mean by that is he can get a puck and he can skate it downhill. And he, as he's moving, he's changing and expanding the passing lane for the guy who wants to get it. this guy now has an extra second, half a second, to move into the next best position. And by doing that, he is creating conditions for a higher danger chance because if he moved it quickly to that guy, he's not in the best position at that moment. He needs him to extend the play slightly, like another second or so, move it to expand the lane. and as he expands the lane, the player without the puck,

who's going to be the next puck, the receiver, he's able to move now off the puck into that space. So he looks at him and goes, oh, he's going down there. That's where that space is. So that's where I need to go. Boom, he takes it two steps. He's in that spot. Now the danger of the chance goes higher

because that guy was able to move. He was able to use the time created by Minchikov to move into the next best spot, which elevated the danger of the chance. And that's what I mean. Like this whole, like the whole idea of like, simplifying offense, it's a dangerous path to go down

because there's nothing simple about offense, like elite offense. You want to really do it and break it down. A lead offense, it's these types of things that we're just talking about, expanding a passing lane so a guy can move off the puck to get it in a better spot. There's nothing simple about that.

this is a prime example of why we're so magic together, Daryl, and why this works. I see these plays and I know in the back of my head, I'm like, this is special. All I can, all I can say is Minchikov pass good. And then all of a sudden, you're talking about elongating the passing lane and extending the window and everything and why it increases the high danger opportunity. And it's like, yeah, that's exactly what I meant. So it worked out well that way. Any other notes here on Mentchikov? look, I had a whole video lined up here about his rushability and how he's been sprinting up the middle of the ice.

And that's obviously created other opportunities for them to attack and given them some quick offense. Because when you're a young team like this, you don't necessarily, you want to incorporate one of your biggest, best attributes, which is you have young players who skate well. You want to play fast. You can catch some of these older teams off guard a little bit and quick attack them that way. And he's been either carrying the puck up himself or a jumping. in and providing a passing outlet for someone. So we've seen all of that from him. I probably should have ran this one earlier when we talked kind of about the transition

game. But I just wanted to throw that in here before then. Is there any other stuff either on this or just what you've seen from him so far that you wanted to add here before we put a ball on it? No, I think this topic is the best one to finish with. So there's two things, two things with this. One, when you watch him skate the middle of the ice, watch the skating pattern he uses. He uses a lot of crossovers. And crossover acceleration going forwards to change speeds is a real

tenant of offensively gifted players. They understand the timing that's afforded and the separation that's afforded through his crossover acceleration. When you watch him come up the ice, he won't take any more than two, maybe three straight strides and he's already into the next crossover. His crossover allows him to build speed. So that's number one. And it allows him to catch up to place that he might be originally behind. The other thing to watch with him is the pass interceptions. That feeds this type of rush offense and allows him to get a pass interceptions, loose pucks. He's a master of being able to jump on these things. He accelerates quickly. He can transit. He moves the puck and that he oftentimes

will move it and join. The last part that I think is really interesting with his with his rush game is the fact that he does a lot through the middle of the ice. And that is a major piece. Players who are comfortable. So if you want to control the game, it's best controlled through the control of the middle of the ice. So often we talk about centermen. The centermen are such a key and having a strong centerman group is so important in the

NHL because they control, especially when they want to play in the middle of the ice. and then this kid, he does the same thing from the back. So he can join, but he joins in the middle, and then he can distribute and he makes excellent decisions through the middle of the ice. The other guy to watch here is the Carlson kid, because when you watch him, he is that big center that everyone wants

who skates and controls the middle of the ice. So as he develops and the control of not only him controlling the middle of the ice, but now Minchikov doing it from the back, I mean, that's a lot of control of the game. And I think that that's going to be a special piece to watch. But watch this kid's skating pattern when he moves up the ice. That's what allows him the ability to be able to get into some of these spaces. Awesome stuff.

Well, this was delightful. I really enjoyed this. And I think people that have been able to tune in a Ducks games and watch him have come away, wowed by it. And so hopefully this will encourage them to watch even more of it and enjoy it and pick up some of these intricacies. Darrell, on the way out, plug some stuff, let the listeners know where they can check out. Yeah, there's two places really. You can see all my social media is basically at Belfreyhockey and Belfryhockey. If you want to check out our book or anything, Belfry Offense or anything like that, we have a few products,

player development type stuff. So if you want to check us out, that's the best way to find us. Awesome. Well, keep up doing the videos. I've been enjoying them. and I've been really enjoying these longer form formats as well. Michikov was such a fun study for us. I want to pitch you here on the air.

Do you want to do Quinton Byfield next? I don't want to, we keep talking about doing Nikita Kutrov, and I know he just had like nine points in a four-period stretch or something. It's become one of those things where we keep referencing them, but unfortunately running out of time and hopefully we'll get to it next time. We'll certainly get to them at some point. I think people generally sort of know part of the charm or the magic behind it.

we can shed some more light on it and get into the details certainly. But I just like doing these younger players because all of a sudden, I think for people who haven't gone to watch them as much, it gives them sort of a platform to all of a sudden apply the next time they watched them. And so we did that with Mitchikov, I think what we've seen from Byfield so far in the steps he's taken as part of that, King's offensive juggernaut has been fun as well. So maybe we could do him next if you're into that.

I like Byfield. I think that's good. I'm with you. I think the younger guys or players that are like, crazy breakout seasons, I think, are really interesting. But Kuturoff, I mean, he's so alluring because he's just so good in so many different areas. Like you could talk all day on just one topic. That's the alluring part about him.

But let's do Byfield. I think that's a good idea. Okay. I'm excited about it. Wow. It's California hockey. Southern California hockey here is glowing up here in the PEDAOcast. Thank you to the listeners for checking us out.

If you enjoyed this, please leave us a five-star rating. And especially if you're watching this along with us on the YouTube channel and looking at some of these clips, subscribe, like, comment. I've heard that all that stuff helps with the algorithm to get more eyeballs on these videos. And as long as people keep watching us, break these shifts down, Daryl and I are going to keep doing it. So thank you to everyone for listening to us. Thank you to Daryl for coming on.

Looking forward to doing the Byfield one. And we'll be back with plenty more of the HockeyPedio guests, as always streaming on the SportsNay Radio Network. Thank you.