The Dutch Gretzky with a quick strike.
[NHL]2013030217-58-h[/NHL]
Harrison Mooney @HarrisonMooney
Tracing Dale Weise’s incredible journey from reluctant goon to playoff hero. (With a pit stop in the Netherlands.)
From the Pass it to Bulis Blog.
Dale Weise is beyond good right now.
Three goals. That’s three times as many goals as Sidney Crosby had in this postseason. Is Dale Weise better than Sidney Crosby? I’m not saying it. The numbers, they speak for themselves.
Okay. While the NHL playoffs are a breeding ground for the sort of short-sighted thinking that leads to proclamations that Player X is the new best player in the world after a few good games, no one is suggesting that Weise is better than the Penguins’ captain.
But he is better than the Canucks gave him credit for. Weise is making that abundantly clear right now.
...
Weise joined the Canucks just prior to the 2011-12 season, claimed on waivers from the New York Rangers. He couldn’t have been happier about it. Weise spent three seasons in the AHL as a major contributor for the Rangers’ AHL affiliate Connecticut Whale nee Hartford Wolf Pack, and he had hoped that his work on the farm, combined with a strong training camp, would be enough for a roster spot on the Rangers proper.
It wasn’t. Fortunately, while the Rangers didn’t want him on their opening-day roster, the Canucks, who had inquired about his services the year prior and been rebuffed, did.
But things had changed for the Canucks since they first showed interest. In 2010-11, they were a speed and skill team, relatively uninterested in fisticuffs and goonery, mostly hoping to roll four lines that could play. At the 2011 trade deadline, they acquired Chris Higgins and Max Lapierre, two role players with sandpaper, but far more skill than punch, in an effort to bolster their fourth wave of attack. Regrettably, injuries forced the two much, much higher up the lineup. By the Stanley Cup Final, the Canucks were a three-line team.
They were beaten by a four-line team, the Boston Bruins, and the Canucks emerged from that Final with a different vision. After being pushed around, they deemed pushback much more important.
Had Weise arrived when they intended, he would have relished the way they wanted him to play. But by the time he got there, they mostly just wanted him to punch people. He would have preferred not to.
That’s not to say that he’s a pacifist. After all, Weise racked up 114 penalty minutes in his last full season in the AHL. But he did it while putting up big numbers. The winger didn’t fancy himself a fighter who could play. He fancied himself a player who could fight.
