Hockeyville USA
Registered User
There's also a major difference between regular season hockey where defense is optional, physicality is not apparent much of the time, game is more like a track meet versus the playoffs, which is a bit slower, grind it out, defensive, physical, attention to detail, and everyone on the ice obviously cares more. It feels more like Iowa football; gritty in the playoffs.I think size isn’t an issue anymore but skating and speed are very important factors to be successful in modern NHL. Short players can find success with good speed and skating. But they need to adapt their style to the NHL. For example, Michkov plays a lot around the net in the KHL and does it successfully there, but he simply couldn’t do the same in the NHL, guys like Trouba, Zadorov and many others will destroy him.
So while a bigger grinding style player like Ivan Barbashev doesn't have as much of an impact in the regular season and doesn't get the Twitter/HFBoards style points from the new age fans, he's extremely important in the playoffs where the game favors an old school football mentality that lines up with how he plays. It isn't usually sexy, but it tends to win in the playoffs.
The exception has been Pittsburgh (top end stars followed by fast puck possession depth and overachieving defense/goaltending) and Colorado (elite stars, puck possession monsters, deep throughout the lineup) who didn't have to be extremely physical. But everyone has to buy into playing with more bite & edge if you want to win a Cup, even if you are a bit more of a softer, skill player.
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