As we learned last season in a great Sportsnet feature (which you can see at the top of this post), Mark Scheifele lives and breathes hockey. He’s a student and a huge fan of the game who seemingly spends every waking moment practising or studying — staying up on everyone in the NHL and everything that’s going on.
As he wrote in a Players’ Tribune article on Wednesday: “I’m what you might call a full-on hockey nerd.”
With his natural skill and his dedication to learning and always getting better, Scheifele has emerged as one of the best young centres in the game. Over the past four seasons his point totals have jumped from 34 to 49 to 61 and finally 82 last season. He has three goals and five points in three games so far this season.
In his Player’s Tribune article, Scheifele elaborated on the five toughest players he’s faced as an NHLer and while none of the names are all that surprising, his analysis of each is an interesting look into an NHLers mind. As Scheifele said, he watches hockey as much as he can, looking for “why guys are playing a certain way, or taking chances in certain moments, or adding little tricks to their game. You watch any hockey game closely enough, and there’s going to be something you can pick up.”
Here are the five players Scheifele pointed out, with a highlight on each:
ERIK KARLSSON
Right away, Scheifele notes how amazed he was at Karlsson for being able to play with a fractured heel in the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season, leading his team to the Eastern Conference final. The Jet also mentions in the story that Karlsson played 18 holes of golf on his off-day in the playoffs an that he’s the only guy in the NHL who doesn’t have to practice.
“He’s almost like this urban legend,” Scheifele writes.
“The thing I appreciate is that he looks so calm doing everything. He never looks like he’s in a rush with the puck on his stick. I think their whole team gets so much confidence from his ability to make the perfect breakout pass.”
Karlsson hasn’t yet played this season as he recovers from that injury from last year’s playoffs, but I think we all remember this incredible pass:
CAREY PRICE
Scheifele recalls a play in his second season where he faced Price one-on-one in what he called a perfect scoring opportunity. Right after he shot the puck Scheifele was already getting ready to celebrate a beautiful bar-down shot, only to hit a calm, perfectly positioned Price squarely in the chest.
Scheifele says he’s always impressed by how Price reads the play and knows the tendencies of the shooters coming in on him. There are all kinds micro-decisions a goalie must make in a split-second, and Scheifele pointed out Price is the best at it.
“This is the kind of thinking that separates good goalies from great ones. There are a lot of unbelievable goalies in the NHL, but Price is the best because of his hockey intelligence. He reads plays unlike any goalie I’ve ever seen, and he does it night after night. I have such an appreciation for the elite goalies, because they can never turn their brains off.”
SIDNEY CROSBY
Scheifele says he’s always amazed at the highlights Crosby displays on a nightly basis and that his backhand goal against the Sabres last March says enough about the kind of unreal talent No. 87 holds.
But that’s not what Scheifele admires most about Crosby, who he says is the player he watches most often and most closely. He’s mostly blown away by his vision and mental consistency.
“Every time he’s rushing the puck and a defenceman jumps into the rush behind him, I say to myself, ‘Is he gonna see him? There’s no way he’s gonna see him.’
“And then of course he sees him, every single time. This is something that goes above and beyond stats. 99.9 per cent of the time, Sid makes the right decision with the puck. As a player, I can’t tell you how hard it is to have that kind of vision.”
ROMAN JOSI
The most unheralded player on this list, Scheifele gives a lot of love to the Nashville Predators’ top defenceman. He mentions that Josi has a similar kind of calm to his game that Karlsson does, but where Josi differs is that he’s much more physically demanding to play against. And that’s why Josi is so tough to face: he’ll cross-check you and “beat you senseless” for a shift, but has the well-rounded game to be able to also jump into the rush as an offensive threat.
Scheifele writes that Josi’s versatility makes any defenceman he plays with better because he complements anyone’s style.
“I think he’s still underrated. He doesn’t leap off the screen unless you’re watching Nashville all the time, because his game is to be positionally sound and just funnel you into a bad situation on the ice. To me, the defencemen who are the most frustrating to play against are the ones who are always in your face, keeping a really tight gap.
“When I’m playing against Josi, I’m seeing his yellow jersey in my face every single second — and if I’m in front of the net, then there’s a good chance he’s cross-checking me in the ribs.”
CONNOR MCDAVID
No surprise that McDavid makes this list, since just last season Scheifele said playing with McDavid for Team North America at the World Cup helped his game. The Winnipeg Jet cites the attributes you’d expect: McDavid’s speed is unlike any player in the NHL and he also brings incredible hands and hockey sense. Scheifele notes that anyone with speed can be stopped by a well-planned defence, but the hockey IQ McDavid brings to the table makes his game almost impossible to defend.
Scheifele sees McDavid on a similar path as Crosby, although the two play the game nothing alike.
“What’s so cool about hockey is that if you watch Sid play, and then you watch Connor, it’s like studying a totally different animal. Sid’s game is about leverage and vision and working down low with his back to the play. Connor’s game is about explosiveness and acceleration and getting you on your heels. The two best players in the world really don’t play anything alike. The common denominator is that they’re both animals.”
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