Makarov vs McDavid: Skating, Stickhandling

The Panther

Registered User
Mar 25, 2014
19,110
15,573
Tokyo, Japan



Think again

Well, the first example is really just his speed making the difference, and the puck gets through with some luck.

The second one is great, but I'm thinking more of situations where the puck-carrier stickhandles through a bunch of players in tight, not necessarily while moving fast.

Obviously, McDavid is well above average at all offensive skills, but I'm just thinking his style is a bit distinct from Makarov's.
 

BadgerBruce

Registered User
Aug 8, 2013
1,552
2,174
Interesting topic .....

The very “best of the best” skaters spend most of the game gliding. Even when they stride, they glide. I think nearly every tv viewer sees and intuitively recognizes this, but what most of us miss is that truly elite skaters usually glide on one edge because there’s less friction. Less friction = more speed.

Though it’s a bit too complicated to break down in this single post, the simplified end point is this: one’s ability to glide in all movements (stationary, striding, transition tricks, inside edge, outside edge) determines one’s mastery of skating.

If you watch the Makarov tribute video, what you’ll notice is how seldom he uses linear crossovers to change speeds. The early clip where he turns Big Bird Robinson into a training circuit pylon is an easy to dissect example of breathtakingly beautiful, world-class “lean and glide.” Textbook heel-to-toe use of the skate rocker (creates the “C”) combined with “skier’s lean,” which allows Makarov to create speed changes when he switches edges. It really is beautiful if you’re into this kind of thing, as I am. His stride is a glide, right? Power and grace, centripetal force so perfectly controlled as he leans and shifts from edge to edge. He powers by Robinson without striding.

This is straight out of the Dr. Smuskin school and it is really lovely. A little bit Henri Richard glide and a little bit Gilbert Perreault edge shift. I can tell everyone based on extensive personal experience that maybe 1 out of 1000 skating students can master this technique anywhere close to Makarov. In today’s NHL, the one who comes to mind is Matthew Barzal.

Now, look at the McDavid “Gotta See It” highlight video previously posted. Focus on the first clip, the one against Columbus where he goes end to end.

Linear crossovers. Over and over again. Extraordinary pull-away speed generated by rapidly crossing his feet and using edge cuts. Look just at his feet as he absolutely rips through the neutral zone, blue line to blue line. I count SIX linear crossovers to travel 50 feet. That’s extraordinary.

Now, look at everyone else between the blue lines: NOBODY else is using linear crossovers. I count 7 other skaters between the two teams in that single sequence, and only McDavid generates speed and changes speed using this technique.

It’s straight out of the philosophies of new-age skating gurus like Boris Dorozhenko (Austen Matthews’ live-in trainer during his youth) and Darryl Belfry, who began teaching the technique to a very young Patrick Kane more than 20 years ago. My best guess is that McDavid learned the technique from Jari Byrski, the legendary founder of the Vaughn, Ontario, based SK8ON training school, which McDavid regularly attended as a youth and still visits during the off-season.

Why doesn’t Makarov use the McDavid technique? Besides the fact that it wasn’t taught, the other obvious answer is the skates he wore. There’s just no way those skates could withstand the rapid-fire crossover technique. If you thought Zion Williams shredding his Nikes was bad, just imagine what Makarov would have done to his pre-new-age materials skates.

Which technique is better? It’s situational. If the puck is turned over and hard, lane hockey back checking is required, give me McDavid’s technique every day. But if the puck is turned over on the breakout and defensive zone coverage is required, I’ll take Makarov’s technique every day.

Stickhandling? Best handled in another post.
 

DannyGallivan

Your world frightens and confuses me
Aug 25, 2017
7,560
10,104
Melonville
Who would you pick as a better skater and stickhandler?
The thing about McDavid is that he's so fast he really doesn't have to dangle that much... he just blows past everyone.

So, I'd give skating to McDavid by a landslide, and stickhandling to Mak out of necessity.
 

Kshahdoo

Registered User
Mar 23, 2008
19,138
8,443
Moscow, Russia
The thing about McDavid is that he's so fast he really doesn't have to dangle that much... he just blows past everyone.

So, I'd give skating to McDavid by a landslide, and stickhandling to Mak out of necessity.

If you watch the video above, you'll see, that Makarov didn't stickhandle a lot to beat all those Canadian HoFers. He skated different, than McDavid, but result was the same.
 

DannyGallivan

Your world frightens and confuses me
Aug 25, 2017
7,560
10,104
Melonville
If you watch the video above, you'll see, that Makarov didn't stickhandle a lot to beat all those Canadian HoFers. He skated different, than McDavid, but result was the same.
Anecdotal example. Both could dangle. McDavid is an otherworldly skater... perhaps the best skating forward I've ever seen (don't know if he ranks with Orr and Coffey as the greatest skaters ever... but he's at least as fast or faster than those two).
 

psycat

Registered User
Oct 25, 2016
3,239
1,149
If you watch the video above, you'll see, that Makarov didn't stickhandle a lot to beat all those Canadian HoFers. He skated different, than McDavid, but result was the same.

This, almost impossible to say who's better at it given the differences in equipment.
 

RorschachWJK

Registered User
Dec 28, 2004
4,941
1,299
Interesting topic .....

The very “best of the best” skaters spend most of the game gliding. Even when they stride, they glide. I think nearly every tv viewer sees and intuitively recognizes this, but what most of us miss is that truly elite skaters usually glide on one edge because there’s less friction. Less friction = more speed.

Though it’s a bit too complicated to break down in this single post, the simplified end point is this: one’s ability to glide in all movements (stationary, striding, transition tricks, inside edge, outside edge) determines one’s mastery of skating.

If you watch the Makarov tribute video, what you’ll notice is how seldom he uses linear crossovers to change speeds. The early clip where he turns Big Bird Robinson into a training circuit pylon is an easy to dissect example of breathtakingly beautiful, world-class “lean and glide.” Textbook heel-to-toe use of the skate rocker (creates the “C”) combined with “skier’s lean,” which allows Makarov to create speed changes when he switches edges. It really is beautiful if you’re into this kind of thing, as I am. His stride is a glide, right? Power and grace, centripetal force so perfectly controlled as he leans and shifts from edge to edge. He powers by Robinson without striding.

This is straight out of the Dr. Smuskin school and it is really lovely. A little bit Henri Richard glide and a little bit Gilbert Perreault edge shift. I can tell everyone based on extensive personal experience that maybe 1 out of 1000 skating students can master this technique anywhere close to Makarov. In today’s NHL, the one who comes to mind is Matthew Barzal.

Now, look at the McDavid “Gotta See It” highlight video previously posted. Focus on the first clip, the one against Columbus where he goes end to end.

Linear crossovers. Over and over again. Extraordinary pull-away speed generated by rapidly crossing his feet and using edge cuts. Look just at his feet as he absolutely rips through the neutral zone, blue line to blue line. I count SIX linear crossovers to travel 50 feet. That’s extraordinary.

Now, look at everyone else between the blue lines: NOBODY else is using linear crossovers. I count 7 other skaters between the two teams in that single sequence, and only McDavid generates speed and changes speed using this technique.

It’s straight out of the philosophies of new-age skating gurus like Boris Dorozhenko (Austen Matthews’ live-in trainer during his youth) and Darryl Belfry, who began teaching the technique to a very young Patrick Kane more than 20 years ago. My best guess is that McDavid learned the technique from Jari Byrski, the legendary founder of the Vaughn, Ontario, based SK8ON training school, which McDavid regularly attended as a youth and still visits during the off-season.

Why doesn’t Makarov use the McDavid technique? Besides the fact that it wasn’t taught, the other obvious answer is the skates he wore. There’s just no way those skates could withstand the rapid-fire crossover technique. If you thought Zion Williams shredding his Nikes was bad, just imagine what Makarov would have done to his pre-new-age materials skates.

Which technique is better? It’s situational. If the puck is turned over and hard, lane hockey back checking is required, give me McDavid’s technique every day. But if the puck is turned over on the breakout and defensive zone coverage is required, I’ll take Makarov’s technique every day.

Stickhandling? Best handled in another post.

Thanks, I learned a lot of new things from this single post!

Great not just because of the information content but is dealing with two of my favourite players. Makarov was a beauty.
 

Filthy Dangles

Registered User*
Oct 23, 2014
28,355
39,716
Interesting topic .....

The very “best of the best” skaters spend most of the game gliding. Even when they stride, they glide. I think nearly every tv viewer sees and intuitively recognizes this, but what most of us miss is that truly elite skaters usually glide on one edge because there’s less friction. Less friction = more speed.

Though it’s a bit too complicated to break down in this single post, the simplified end point is this: one’s ability to glide in all movements (stationary, striding, transition tricks, inside edge, outside edge) determines one’s mastery of skating.

If you watch the Makarov tribute video, what you’ll notice is how seldom he uses linear crossovers to change speeds. The early clip where he turns Big Bird Robinson into a training circuit pylon is an easy to dissect example of breathtakingly beautiful, world-class “lean and glide.” Textbook heel-to-toe use of the skate rocker (creates the “C”) combined with “skier’s lean,” which allows Makarov to create speed changes when he switches edges. It really is beautiful if you’re into this kind of thing, as I am. His stride is a glide, right? Power and grace, centripetal force so perfectly controlled as he leans and shifts from edge to edge. He powers by Robinson without striding.

This is straight out of the Dr. Smuskin school and it is really lovely. A little bit Henri Richard glide and a little bit Gilbert Perreault edge shift. I can tell everyone based on extensive personal experience that maybe 1 out of 1000 skating students can master this technique anywhere close to Makarov. In today’s NHL, the one who comes to mind is Matthew Barzal.

Now, look at the McDavid “Gotta See It” highlight video previously posted. Focus on the first clip, the one against Columbus where he goes end to end.

Linear crossovers. Over and over again. Extraordinary pull-away speed generated by rapidly crossing his feet and using edge cuts. Look just at his feet as he absolutely rips through the neutral zone, blue line to blue line. I count SIX linear crossovers to travel 50 feet. That’s extraordinary.

Now, look at everyone else between the blue lines: NOBODY else is using linear crossovers. I count 7 other skaters between the two teams in that single sequence, and only McDavid generates speed and changes speed using this technique.

It’s straight out of the philosophies of new-age skating gurus like Boris Dorozhenko (Austen Matthews’ live-in trainer during his youth) and Darryl Belfry, who began teaching the technique to a very young Patrick Kane more than 20 years ago. My best guess is that McDavid learned the technique from Jari Byrski, the legendary founder of the Vaughn, Ontario, based SK8ON training school, which McDavid regularly attended as a youth and still visits during the off-season.

Why doesn’t Makarov use the McDavid technique? Besides the fact that it wasn’t taught, the other obvious answer is the skates he wore. There’s just no way those skates could withstand the rapid-fire crossover technique. If you thought Zion Williams shredding his Nikes was bad, just imagine what Makarov would have done to his pre-new-age materials skates.

Which technique is better? It’s situational. If the puck is turned over and hard, lane hockey back checking is required, give me McDavid’s technique every day. But if the puck is turned over on the breakout and defensive zone coverage is required, I’ll take Makarov’s technique every day.

Stickhandling? Best handled in another post.

Good post. When you watch Makarov skate you can still see that he used the linear crossover technique in addition to the others you mention, just not to the extent McDavid and the other elite skaters do today. All the elite skaters from his era, still used the technique to some extent, as it's one of those things that separates the truly elite skaters.

And I think part of that is skate technology like you mention. The skates today are so light and stiff that it's easy to quickly crossover step, the stiffness of the boot really helps to ''propel' you out of the steps.


Crossovers set Crosby, McDavid apart from peers
https://www.tsn.ca/crossovers-set-crosby-mcdavid-apart-from-peers-1.602173

 

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