The VICTORIOUS HOCKEY COMPANY’s Weekly Newsletter: HOW CONNOR MCDAVID TOOK THE NEXT STEP

Now what?

 

Okay, so the season has ended. You have probably participated in playoffs or a combine. Camps are starting up. Some are skating or skill specific, others are for teams trying to get a jump on sorting out prospects for this (and next) season (*Supposedly. Many of the early camps are really just an attempt to get your contact information just to try and continue to sell you something later on). Main camps are a while off and training camp seems forever away.

 

Do not be fooled. Now is the time to get yourself into review mode and analyse yourself and your game. Those bigger events that occur later in the summer, will be loaded with players just like yourself – trying to take the next step. After the chaos of this past season, the competition will be fierce. Remember that changes in eligibility status will result in more highly skilled players remaining in the system, from the top down. You owe it to yourself to prepare both mentally and physically for challenges that will come as a result.

 

It is no secret that Connor McDavid is an elite calibre player. He has worked his entire life to get where he is. Though at one point he was exactly where you are. He took command of his process and focused on improving his game and look where it got him. You too, need to do the same. Read through this article about McDavid that Coach Littler has shared. You will see what effort Connor puts into his game. He doesn’t just work on the stuff that he gets so much praise for but he doubles down on his weaknesses. Where the most work is needed.

 

It is easy to focus on your strengths but becoming exceptional requires the attention and focus necessary to master your weaknesses. Want to advance? Look at what McDavid does and do the same for yourself and your game.

 

‘THE BIGGEST TRANSFORMATION I’VE EVER SEEN IN AN ELITE PLAYER’: HOW CONNOR MCDAVID TOOK THE NEXT STEP

 

Daniel Nugent-Bowman, The Athletic, 05.18.2021

*Edited for print without video

 

 

Connor McDavid left the Edmonton playoff bubble last August frustrated and annoyed. The Oilers had been the top-seeded team in the Western Conference’s play-in series, skating on their home ice, and still were bounced by a Chicago Blackhawks team that really had no business being there.

 

McDavid hadn’t played terribly, by any means. He had nine points in four games, including one of the most dazzling goals of the postseason. But the result was a quick out that left him facing questions and feeling he had more to give.

 

So he also left the bubble with a chip on his shoulder the size of a hockey puck, determined to take the next step in his career for the benefit of the team he captains.

 

And, no, that didn’t mean adding offence on top of offence, even if that’s been what’s gotten the most attention in the historic season that’s followed.

 

Instead, defensive play was McDavid’s major focal point.

 

He watched hours of clips of his efforts in the defensive zone and then compared it to video of the NHL’s best defensive players, past and present – the types of players who regularly go on long playoff runs and hoist the Stanley Cup.

 

That’s what he wants. He knew he had to change.

 

“I had a conversation with him this summer that I wish I could have tape-recorded for every young player that’s ever going to play the game of hockey,” says assistant coach Glen Gulutzan, the former Stars and Flames bench boss who has overseen Edmonton forwards the past three seasons.

 

McDavid laid it all out for Gulutzan, how he would make himself better and how that would make Oilers more suited for postseason success – his primary concern. The NHL’s best player’s plan was to overhaul his game damn near entirely.

 

“All the top players in the league, they’re out there against tough matchups every night and you can’t be a liability,” McDavid says. “That was the next step for our group.”

 

McDavid wanted the Oilers coaching staff to pick apart his two-way game and show him where he wasn’t up to snuff.  He demanded it. And he took all constructive criticism head-on.

 

“In this league, there’s perception of what people do – and then there’s reality. This is reality,” Gulutzan says. “One hundred percent accountability. He didn’t try to squirm out of one thing. He took it all. He took the whole thing.”

 

Adds veteran winger Alex Chiasson: “When you’ve got the best player on your team — your captain— doing that stuff, it’s contagious.”

 

The work he put in on rounding out his game has been every bit as evident as his scoring, on the ice and in the stats. Whether watching from up close or afar, you can notice how much more dialled in McDavid is to the finer details. And the analytics show that he’s become a positive defensive player when it comes to both expected goals against and shot-attempt differential (Corsi against) per 60 minutes for the first time in his career, according to Evolving-Hockey.

 

McDavid has always been one to work on his game. This change, though, is different. For him to get to this point has taken time.

 

Plenty of coaches over the years have worked with McDavid on his defensive approach as they would for any player but the appetite for this offseason’s changes came from within. As Gulutzan explains: “That was Connor-driven.”

 

Ken Hitchcock, who had already coached 1,536 NHL games when he took over from Todd McLellan as the Oilers head coach in November 2018, says McDavid bought into what he was selling almost immediately. His biggest asks were that McDavid stay inside the dots and face the play.

 

Hitchcock was replaced by Dave Tippett in the 2019 offseason but has continued to watch McDavid’s evolution. He compares his transformation this season to how offensive stars Mike Modano and Steve Yzerman — star forwards Hitchcock coached and game-planned against — shifted to become better all-around players and subsequently won championships.

 

“That’s what happens when players decide they can get to another level by augmenting the game of checking (in the defensive zone) into their offensive opportunities,”

 

Hitchcock says. “And then I think what the players find out is that they even get more opportunities then than they had before.”

 

As Hitchcock suggests, McDavid’s offensive production has only increased with his stronger attention to defence. He just put the finishing touches on one of the greatest scoring regular seasons in NHL history.

 

That alone would be worth noting for any other player. The amplified defensive side has taken McDavid’s game to a whole new level. It may not put him in the Selke Trophy running, but it only adds to his air-tight case for the Hart Trophy as the most valuable player to his team.

 

The Modano and Yzerman comparisons might not be strong enough.

 

“It’s probably the biggest transformation I’ve ever seen in an elite player,” Gulutzan says.

 

And, to a connoisseur of the game like Gulutzan or Hitchcock, that has nothing to do with the stat sheet. Where do they see the payoff for the film study, shifting focus and offseason work?

 

Gulutzan provided five examples.