Player Discussion: Mikhail Sergachev
- Thread starter Volodya Krutov
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We're talking about his next contract, still quite distant, and whether or not he'll be brought back at age (I believe) 33.
But yeah, the Leafs could use exactly a player like this.
Stormbreaker
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- Apr 2, 2012
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Netter
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Stormbreaker
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The Gongshow
Fire JBB
Reeeeeaaaaalllllyyyyyy wish I would have picked up Serg for my fantasy team.
Went undrafted and I could have picked him up last week...
Went undrafted and I could have picked him up last week...
The Macho King
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- Jun 22, 2011
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Best game of his (brief) career. He may have been our best D tonight.
TeslaCoilFan
Slightly Elite Fan
The Macho King
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I just love his awareness tonight - was where he needed to be and made great plays when he got there. Was calm against the forecheck and .. I mean damn that kid is just learning every game.
- Jan 23, 2017
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I was first critical about the trade because I thought it wouldn't benefit at all for this season.. guess I can forget about that.
Netter
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VoluntaryDom
Formerly DominicBoltsFan / Ⓐ / ✞
Vasilevskiy
The cat will be back
Maybe it is me finally watching complete periods of games, but he was really really good yesterday, didn't feel nervous at all when he was on the ice and aside from the good offensive plays he had some great defensive plays. If he keeps playing this way he will end up a top-4 in the team much sooner than we thought.
Best game of his young career. He's normally good for one bad play a game defensively
The Macho King
Back* to Back** World Champion
- Jun 22, 2011
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His TOI has been creeping up per game (which makes sense because he's playing so well).
In his 12 games, here are his TOI numbers in order:
16:03
16:54
5:22
12:40
10:27
8:37
13:38
12:49
16:56
14:23
15:51
16:16
Bolded are his lowest TOI games, but outside of that he has been getting T4 minutes (considering how we use our bottom pair + extra Dman).
In his 12 games, here are his TOI numbers in order:
16:03
16:54
5:22
12:40
10:27
8:37
13:38
12:49
16:56
14:23
15:51
16:16
Bolded are his lowest TOI games, but outside of that he has been getting T4 minutes (considering how we use our bottom pair + extra Dman).
The Macho King
Back* to Back** World Champion
- Jun 22, 2011
- 48,784
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The Macho King
Back* to Back** World Champion
- Jun 22, 2011
- 48,784
- 29,318
Also - want to point out an observation I made.
A big thing for rookies is learning from their mistakes. Sergachev - in either the first or second game - was lacksadaisical behind the net against a forechecker and got the puck stripped off his stick, leading to him taking a penalty to prevent a scoring chance.
So a big lesson here is "do not repeat this mistake". But just as interesting to me is how he doesn't repeat that mistake.
One option - and I think the most common one - would be to suddenly move the puck much more quickly when faced with a forechecker either to your partner or to one of the wings. At times - this is the right move, but ultimately it limits the options of the breakout because you're pressured into making a decision.
What Sergachev did - and what I think is the right move with his skillset - he's still carrying the puck out against the forechecker. He's doing a better job of protecting the puck in those situations, and he's moving with a little more jump (there was a play I think it was last game or maybe the one before where he just kind of threw the puck about five feet ahead of him against a speedy forechecker and skated to it instead of keeping it on his stick). This allows the rush to come from the center of the ice, which forces the D to cover all 80 feet of the blueline to prevent entry instead of starting to collapse on one side.
It's a small adjustment, but it's the right one. And it shows that not only is he aware of his mistakes, but he's taking the right lessons from them. It seems like such a minor thing, but after seeing Sustr shit his pants every time he sees another jersey coming toward him for almost four years, seeing that type of quick development makes it hard for me to not be excited about this kid.
A big thing for rookies is learning from their mistakes. Sergachev - in either the first or second game - was lacksadaisical behind the net against a forechecker and got the puck stripped off his stick, leading to him taking a penalty to prevent a scoring chance.
So a big lesson here is "do not repeat this mistake". But just as interesting to me is how he doesn't repeat that mistake.
One option - and I think the most common one - would be to suddenly move the puck much more quickly when faced with a forechecker either to your partner or to one of the wings. At times - this is the right move, but ultimately it limits the options of the breakout because you're pressured into making a decision.
What Sergachev did - and what I think is the right move with his skillset - he's still carrying the puck out against the forechecker. He's doing a better job of protecting the puck in those situations, and he's moving with a little more jump (there was a play I think it was last game or maybe the one before where he just kind of threw the puck about five feet ahead of him against a speedy forechecker and skated to it instead of keeping it on his stick). This allows the rush to come from the center of the ice, which forces the D to cover all 80 feet of the blueline to prevent entry instead of starting to collapse on one side.
It's a small adjustment, but it's the right one. And it shows that not only is he aware of his mistakes, but he's taking the right lessons from them. It seems like such a minor thing, but after seeing Sustr shit his pants every time he sees another jersey coming toward him for almost four years, seeing that type of quick development makes it hard for me to not be excited about this kid.
Sky04
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- Jan 8, 2009
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What's different about Sergachev and Drouin is that although both have big egos and are highly skilled, Sergachev is much smarter and willing to drop his ego momentarily. With Drouin if you put him in the dog house all he's going to do is pound on the door until you let him out. He wants to prove you wrong and once you let him out he's going to go for a statement play. Sergachev's gameplan is much more longterm oriented, if he's in the doghouse he'll calm himself - do what he's told for a bit then when he garners some trust he'll take more risks. He'll play into the coaches hand for a bit then slowly get back to his game. There's no coincidence Sergachev waited 8 games to pull off an end to end rush, cause if he did that in game 1 and failed he would've put his entire season at risk.
Bolt 45
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- Oct 19, 2015
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That rush was something of a mission statement. In a single play, he let us know how skilled, smart, and strategic a player we'd gotten. It was beautiful. Yzerman seems to know what he's doing, to put it mildly.
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