Eh, we'll have to agree to disagree re: Phillips, but the point about differentiating between Hockey IQ and coaching intuitiveness is a good one.
The difference is important. A genius mathematician... Is going to have a hard time teaching math. He intuitively understands all the natural mathmatical rules. Can do all kinds of math in his head and only needs formulas for really advanced stuff. Versus a normal person who actually learned all the concepts and kept adding to his knowledge gradually and with work.
It is so different. Gretzky can't tell you why he did the stuff he did. Like.. When the linesman is screening the defencenan in front of you, you pass back to the point and hide the fact the puck has been given to the defenceman behind you. Go behind the net because the defenceman will fire it in the opposite corner... Then when you get the puck behind the net.... Bank it off the defenceman in front so it deflects left to the streaking winger... Who will have the side of the net empty to shoot at....
Vs. Play the man not the puck. Be on the right side of the puck at all times... Exagerating...
But Stone is not following some regimented routine to get all those takeaways... He just intuitively has the knack to know where to be to get the puck... And the hand eye co-ordination to steal it. Through natural instincts and thousands of hours of practice.
See I suck at sports really. I remember playing basketball and thinking as I faced a guy how to get by him. What to do. If you have truly High hockey IQ... You no longer think about things.... You just react. There is no concious thought really. Greening, Smith... They are thinking on the ice. To have to actually "think" and consider options is a huge disadvantage.
Take Karlsson... In flow, with the puck... He never thinks... Just does.
In one situation I find he is weak is when the other team cycles. The game is at a standstill. He is at the edge if the crease... Puck in the corner. Opposing team's player has the puck and Is approaching Karlsson standing still. Everything is a snail's pace now. Karlsson is forced and given time to think. Options appear in his mind... He pauses... Sometimes makes poor decisions. That weakness in his game... Isn't just from being undersized... The game is slowed down so much... He has to think. Phillips is used to that for example. That is his forte.
Or take Alfredsson. His move is to come over the blueline and do a slow button hook with the puck. At speed he takes away the speed and can wait until someone moves or does something and he sees the play that he wants to make.
Take Spezza... All those errant passes are because at speed... He really needs the Pizza line and Karlsson... He plays like all the rest of the players on the ice have elite hockey sense and can see the big opening that will happen in half a second and throws the puck where they should go. But if you have Greening on your line and not Heatley or Karlsson... He does not anticipate and go where a genius hockey player should be going and turnover... Pass to no one... Except it should have been a pass to a wide open guy.
Gretzky was brilliant because somehow he could play with anyone. He could feed Kudelski or Pat Hughes like they were Glenn Anderson or Jari Kurri. Gretzky did all the thinking and no matter who he played with he dealt sick passes to where everyone was going to be. It was uncanny.
When you have really smart guys... Like Pageau and Stone... Who also work hard to gain all the advantages of learning all the right things to do.. Like Phillips had to do... It is a perfect situation.
Watch Datsyuk, Alfredsson, Lidstrom Lots of really all-time elite hockey sense guys... That also work hard to improve their game... They get better every year. Even after 30, after 32 years old. Even as their skills and bodies decline some... They improve or at least maintain their games... Because they both have the huge intuition... But also the huge drive to work on their games... And maybe most importantly... Know exactly their abilities. Exactly what they are capable of doing... And what they aren't. So they keep learning... Even as they age out of their peak physical form.
That is why I am so high on Stone. Think he has the traits of a Hall of Fame caliber skill player in that way. He is like Tavares or Alfie. Dude is going to improve for a decade and he already is so freaking good!
