Welcome to 10 Insights and Observations. Every week, I’ll use this space to highlight teams, players, storylines and general musings around the NHL.
This week we look at Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar outlasting the Kings’ mediocrity, the Oilers power play, a nice find in Vancouver, Nick Suzuki and the shootout king this year.
Kopitar and Doughty are still the lifeblood of the Kings
In the early 2010s, the LA Kings were a borderline dynasty. They won two Cups in three years, and went to the West finals in between those seasons. Then, over the next seven campaigns, they made the playoffs only twice, losing in four and five games, respectively. Some key players like Mike Richards, Justin Williams and Marian Gaborik retired.
Some notable ones, like Tyler Toffoli, Jeff Carter, Alec Martinez and Tanner Pearson, are still hanging around the league. Two players that have rode out going from the top, to the bottom, and then climbing back up to being a contender? Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar. Up until a month or so ago, Jonathan Quick was included in that, but half the time they were winning in spite of him. Kopitar and Doughty? Not so much.
Kopitar leads their forwards in ice time per game and is second on the team in scoring this season. Doughty leads their defensemen in ice time per game and scoring. In fact, only Cale Makar is playing more per game than Doughty in the entire league. How often do we see this? Two megastars win Cups with a franchise, then ride out the lean years in the aftermath, then hang around for the ascension and are still stars legitimately a decade later.
Sidney Crosby went seven years between Cups with Pittsburgh, but they never missed the playoffs between them. The Bruins have been up and down some since winning their Stanley Cup in 2011 but they have been to multiple Cup finals since then and have generally been strong. Earlier decades, franchises like the Red Wings and New Jersey Devils would have gaps between Cups but again, they were generally contenders between them.
I’m sure there are other examples that qualify, but this is generally unprecedented. They aren’t just still on the team, they are two of their best players. They are carrying the mail and leading them back up the standings. This is a franchise that just drafted in the top-10 three years in a row! Doughty and Kopitar have really seen it all at this point. But they are still here and thriving where they always have been, with the Kings.
Dorofeyev giving Golden Knights even more firepower
Sometimes you see players and they instantly go on your radar as X-factor types that can really add an element to a team. Right now in Vegas, Pavel Dorofeyev is that guy. He has only played 14 NHL games this season, and we don’t want to take it too far, but he has seven goals and nine points to date.
Most notably, he just came off his best game as a pro, scoring twice and adding a huge shootout goal in a win over the Minnesota Wild. Most impressive was the fact that he was even on the ice in the dying minutes as the Golden Knights were down a goal. With roughly 30 seconds left, he tied the game.
That is a confident shot against a goalie having a high-end season, on the road, with the game on the line. He has real skill and can rip the puck. He’s playing primarily with William Karlsson and Reilly Smith. Vegas is already a top team; adding another skill player and game-breaker that can give them even more options to roll lines and move players around just makes them all the more dangerous.
Joshua’s persistence finally paying off
We’ve talked about a few Vancouver Canucks positives over the season, despite the overall poor results. You need all sorts of gains throughout your lineup to build a winner though, and the Canucks have found a few bargain players that have started to turn into real players. Namely, Dakota Joshua. He’s a fascinating story.
Joshua was drafted in the fifth round all the way back in 2014 by the Toronto Maple Leafs. He then played four full seasons of NCAA hockey at The Ohio State University before the Leafs traded him to the St. Louis Blues for future considerations. In his first full season of pro hockey, he played 30 games in the AHL and 20 games in the ECHL. The following season, he played all of 18 games of hockey, but 12 were in the NHL. Last season, he played 30 games in the NHL and 35 games in the AHL.
In the spring, he played in his first ever NHL playoff game. Last summer, the Canucks signed him to a two-year, $1.65 million contract. He’s spent the whole season in the NHL and has rewarded them with an 11-goal, 22-point season. At 6-foot-3, he plays a simple north-south game that gets in on the forecheck, drives the net hard and has displayed some finish.
That is a bone-crunching hit. He has always had that frame and been able to throw it around, but now he has filled out in his mid-20s and shown real ability to finish some. This has been a really nice find for the Canucks.
Kakko emerging as a reliable depth scorer
Since being drafted second overall in 2019, it has not been the smoothest of transitions to the NHL for Kaapo Kakko. The player drafted right in front of him, Jack Hughes, has become a superstar already, only a point away from breaking the New Jersey Devils’ single-season scoring record. The player selected right after him, Kirby Dach, is finally putting things together with the Canadiens, but others in the top-10, including Moritz Seider, Dylan Cozens and Trevor Zegras, have all put in very good seasons too.
While going to a good team has its benefits, it also means that players have to fight harder for ice time and when they make mistakes, they don’t have as long a leash to work through them as easily. If you are on Anaheim right now, for example, it’s a place of pure development and opportunity. The Rangers fancy themselves as Cup contenders and are led by veteran stars.
Mistakes get you sat. So, for skilled players, their games shift and Kakko has certainly played down the lineup, been scratched and battled through mistakes. This season, though, he has suited up for every game and has a career-high 17 goals and 39 points. In his last eight games, he has five goals, one of the hotter runs of his career thus far. He is flashing the types of skill that make you pause and appreciate a promising young player finally finding his footing
That is Andrei Vasilevskiy that he beat off the rush, with no screen, and he beats him cleanly far post. That is a big-time goal. While it’s the nicest one he scored in this little run he’s on, the other ones are possibly more encouraging, as they all centre around driving the net and going to the rough areas. It’s not a big boom this season, but it’s a step in the right direction and finishing strong heading into the playoffs is even more encouraging for Kakko and the Rangers.
Oilers being carried by historic power play
Since March 1, the Oilers have the best power play in the league, clicking at a whopping 35.7 percent. They have had the best power play in the league for most of the season, so why is that relevant? Because the day before, they traded defenseman Tyson Barrie, who still ranks fifth among all Oilers skaters in total power play time on ice. In 61 games with the Oilers, he had 28 power-play points. Not including his production since joining the Nashville Predators, his 28 power-play points strictly with Edmonton would still rank top-10 among all defensemen in the NHL.
Barrie is crafty and a good facilitator, able to walk the line and open up space on the half-wall for his teammates, which is going to get you points when your teammates are Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. His replacement on the power play, Evan Bouchard, brings a different element. Most notably, he has a bomb of a shot. Last season, his first in the league, he had 12 goals, and while he hasn’t played at that pace this season, he can still make you pay if you give him space. Here, Vegas does just that and he walks in and scores with relative ease.
There isn’t a single Vegas player that goes above the top of the circle on that goal. Later in the period, you can see the Vegas penalty killers inching up and respecting the shot presence. The Oilers recognize it, see the space open up a tad in the middle of the ice with the forwards pulled high, and make them pay.
The Oilers need very little to make you pay. All five guys are serious problems and three of them have over 100 points this season. Zach Hyman has 35 goals. It’s a nightmare at the best of times. Bouchard’s shot adds a different element and implausibly, the most dangerous power play of all-time is just getting more dangerous as the season goes along.
The NHL has a new shootout specialist
There is so much talent in the league right now, and scoring is through the roof. The number of stars in the league is astonishing, which is why I always find it amusing when a glorified skilled contest — the shootout — is led by a player like the current leader: Frederick Gaudreau. He has 97 career points in 256 games, had a career-high 44 points last season and a career-high 16 goals this season. He is a solid contributor who somehow leads the league in shootout goals this season.
Now part of that is the Wild have played in a league-leading 13 shootouts. The next highest are the Kings with nine. For reference, only 11 teams in the league have appeared in at least seven shootouts. So we acknowledge the general volume, especially when Gaudreau is tied for the lead in shootout attempts with teammate Mats Zuccarello. But 8-for-13 is really good. That means goalies will have the book on you when you shoot that much, and he’s still scoring.
He usually opts for move where he goes wide on his forehand side, slowly moves to the middle of the ice, and depending on if the goalie comes with him, he picks his spot and snipes it. Here is his attempt against Vegas, and the goalie freezes to protect the short side, so he rips it far blocker.
This attempt against New Jersey is almost a carbon copy of the angle he takes, except he rips it short-side, high glove.
You can’t just rely on one move, though; you need variations. Here is the same angle he takes yet again, but this time he pulls it backhand.
This is like a pitcher with the same windup releasing different pitches. He has so many tricks in his bag and just reads where the goalie cheats and punishes him accordingly.
Suzuki continues ascent amidst down season in Montreal
It’s been a frustratingly long season in Montreal. There have been a few positives, like Kirby Dach’s emergence and Samuel Montembeault showing his chops as a reliable NHL goalie. There are some depth players that have flashed as well. At the top of the lineup, Cole Caufield was taking off as goalscorer and producer before going down with a season-ending shoulder injury. But all of this shouldn’t take away from Nick Suzuki and his career season.
With two points in a 6-2 thrashing of the Washington Capitals on Thursday, the Habs captain has eclipsed his career-high in points with 63, as well as a career-high 24 goals. Most notably, he has shown he can hold up against top players. It is difficult to sort through numbers on a team as bad — and badly depleted — as the 2022-23 Canadiens. Suzuki is as crafty as it comes though. Not the biggest or fastest, his game has always centered around his hockey sense and his ability to read the play. He rarely gets fooled by opponents or takes poor angles pursuing the puck. Suzuki uses his 5-foot-11 frame to his advantage, getting low and winning battles with a low centre of gravity. He’s playing a monster 21:12 per game.
His 63 points is head and shoulders above everyone else on the team, with Dach way behind in second with 38 points. If we tracked missed scoring chances that would have led to an assist for the creator, I’d bet he leads the league. The way he can rip and saucer pucks through traffic is a treat to watch. At 23 years old we’re going to see it for a longtime, especially as the Canadiens get better.
Compher stepping up for the Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche went all-in to win the Stanley Cup last season and successfully clinched their first championship since 2001. Then in the summer, they lost a number of key contributors, most notably in forwards Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky. Gabriel Landeskog hasn’t played a game all season after undergoing offseason knee surgery. Players needed to step up to fill the void and one guy that has is J.T. Compher.
Acquired all the way back in 2015 as part of the trade that sent Ryan O’Reilly to Buffalo, Compher is the only player among the six pieces moved that day that is still on either Buffalo or Colorado. He has been a decent middle-six tweener over the years that has been a double-digit goalscorer that puts up roughly 30 points per season, averaging just over 16 minutes per game. This season, though, he is playing huge minutes. His 20:28 of ice time per game is a career-high and fourth among all Avalanche forwards. He leads all Avalanche forwards in shorthanded time on ice per game and with all their injuries, he has top power play minutes as well.
With the Avs at full health, he likely isn’t going to play on the power play, but he has taken advantage of his opportunity so far. Compher has a career-high 50 points, including 14 on the power play. His speed has always been his calling card. He is feisty and aggressive, and it has lended well to going to the net on the power play, causing chaos and chipping in some offense. He can place shots in the corners and score if he has some time and space. He can also check and handle defensive responsibilities at centre. He isn’t a Kadri replacement, but he has been a Mr. Everything for an Avs team that is stringing together wins down the stretch, climbing back up the standings and looking like a real problem for the postseason. The most glaring similarity with Kadri from last season, however? He’s also in a contract year.
Reichel leading Blackhawks into the future
The Chicago Blackhawks are going through a full rebuild and it’s going to take time to ascend back up the standings. It’s likely going to take multiple drafts and high picks to establish a new core, but one such pick is already starting to pay dividends. Lukas Reichel, drafted 17th overall in 2020 and still just 20 years old, is so young and the Blackhawks are so bad that they have let him develop in the AHL in a much easier situation to navigate. He has not disappointed in that league, putting up 57 points in 56 games in the AHL last season, followed by 46 points in 51 games this season.
He had a cup of coffee in the NHL last season, notching one assist in 11 games. This season, though, he is starting to put it together in the show with six goals and 13 points in 21 games. On a Blackhawks team whose current leading scorer is Taylor Raddysh with 20 goals and 37 points (Max Domi had 49 points there, for whatever that’s worth).
At times, the game already looks slow for him. He had two assists against Calgary on Tuesday, the first of which he gets the puck in the slot and taps it to a teammate who walks in and scores. He doesn’t rush the play in a high traffic area. The second assist comes on a 2-on-1 and gets a bad pass in his skates, but he calmly controls it and slides the puck back to his teammate for a tap-in. He is the type of player you’d love to see with highly skilled linemates, which the Blackhawks simply don’t have right now. The ceiling is still unclear here, but Chicago seems to have found a piece of their future core.
