Players who functioned as "Shadows"

ColdSteel2

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Aug 27, 2010
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Bolland vs. Sedins, Thornton etc. Definition of A+ shadowing and brings offense to boot.
 

LeBlondeDemon10

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Jul 10, 2010
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Don Marcotte was Lafleur's shadow for three seasons. The powerplay that resulted in Lafleur's famous goal was for too many men; Lafleur apparently went to the bench, but went back out right away. Marcotte followed as did another Bruin.
 

Normand Lacombe

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Jan 30, 2008
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Jan Erixson of the Rangers shadowed Mario Lemieux in the late 80's.

A more recent example is Sean Courtier shadowing Malkin.
 

Big Phil

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Nov 2, 2003
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Bob Bassen on Roenick in the 1993 playoffs, a real poor one for Roenick. I remember him saying something to the effect that he expected Bassen to follow him to the washroom.

I'm pretty sure the main reason the Pens traded for Kasparaitis was because of how he got under Lemieux's skin.

Ron Ellis did a wonderful job of shadowing Kharlamov after Game 1 of the Summit Series in 1972. Something that gets forgotten.

Wasn't it Lidstrom and Murphy that really did a number on Lindros in 1997?

Crosby got shadowed by Zetterberg and then Lidstrom and Rafalski if I remember correctly in 2009. They had to pick either Malkin or Crosby and they did. It almost worked too.

Who was doing it to the Sedins in 2011? Was it Marchand specifically? I know he got under their skin. But they just shut down completely those two.

For sure shadowing still exists, it is a tactic that is underrated and rarely talked about. How about Pahlsson against Spezza in 2007?
 

Crosbyfan

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Nov 27, 2003
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Bob Bassen on Roenick in the 1993 playoffs, a real poor one for Roenick. I remember him saying something to the effect that he expected Bassen to follow him to the washroom.

I'm pretty sure the main reason the Pens traded for Kasparaitis was because of how he got under Lemieux's skin.

Ron Ellis did a wonderful job of shadowing Kharlamov after Game 1 of the Summit Series in 1972. Something that gets forgotten.

Wasn't it Lidstrom and Murphy that really did a number on Lindros in 1997?

Crosby got shadowed by Zetterberg and then Lidstrom and Rafalski if I remember correctly in 2009. They had to pick either Malkin or Crosby and they did. It almost worked too.

Who was doing it to the Sedins in 2011? Was it Marchand specifically? I know he got under their skin. But they just shut down completely those two.

For sure shadowing still exists, it is a tactic that is underrated and rarely talked about. How about Pahlsson against Spezza in 2007?

Defenceman shadowing a forward? That would be a pretty loose use of the term "shadow" ...
 

Terry Yake

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Aug 5, 2013
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How about Pahlsson against everybody that season. He deserves the Selke that year IMO. And his postseason work was great as well obviously.

he deserved the selke and the conn smythe that year

he was nothing short of amazing playing on that 3rd line with moen and niedermayer
 

Big Phil

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Nov 2, 2003
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Defenceman shadowing a forward? That would be a pretty loose use of the term "shadow" ...

I've seen those assignments before. It has happened. Maybe the term "shadowing" is a little extreme but there is no doubt that I've seen defensemen out every single time another star player is out specifically.
 

mrhockey193195

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Nov 14, 2006
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One of the best ever 'shadow' stories ever is from either the '89 or '90 playoffs when the Oilers were playing LA.

Sather gave Tikkanen instructions not to let Gretzky leave his side - or something to that effect - so he took it to heart and on their first morning the teams were in LA together Gretzky woke up, went into his kitchen, and found Tikkanen eating cereal at his kitchen table with Janet.

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

Never heard that one before! I really hope that's true, because this is the kind of stuff that I come to HOH to learn. That's awesome, and I can totally see Tikkanen doing that.
 
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vadim sharifijanov

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Oct 10, 2007
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Who was doing it to the Sedins in 2011? Was it Marchand specifically? I know he got under their skin. But they just shut down completely those two.

chara and seidenberg were out there every single time they were on the ice. chara's 6'9 reach was like kryptonite to the sedins' short pass/cycle game, because he could essentially hit one sedin and then turn around and stick check the other. (well that and henrik had a separated shoulder.)

but if you're asking about forwards, they usually matched up against bergeron's line (marchand and recchi). no single guy shadowed them in the technical steve kasper sense, though. wouldn't really make sense, as there are two sedins, and their entire game is based on absorbing defensive contact to make the play.

the other factor that killed them was vigneault didn't believe in reacting to the other coach's line-matching. thought he was too smart for that, and mechanically would put the sedins on the ice whenever they had an offensive zone draw, and always take them off the ice when they had a defensive draw. which of course made it so that julien knew exactly when they were going to be on the ice and so chara/seidenberg plus the selke winner's line were always matched up against them. same thing happened in the nashville series, with weber/suter-- but in that series, it freed kesler to ventilate nashville's other d pairs. AV, so smart he coached away his home ice advantage.
 

thom

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Mar 6, 2012
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John Wesnsick shadowing Guy Lafleur and Guy Charbo on Wayne G Kasper on Wayne g
 

zidell*

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i think it's rarer to see shadows that hang on to a guy all game and tug at them, chirp at them, etc. the way tikkanen or kasper did to gretzky. but you do still see third liners "assigned" to star players. i'm sure if malhotra wasn't injured, he'd see a lot of time out there with joe thornton. i know the sedins have seen a lot of dave bolland the last couple of years.

Shadows stopped working when teams discovered the obvious counter tactic. The star player just stands next to another defensive players away from the play, bringing the shadow with him. That tied up two defensive players and created an odd man advantage for the other players on the offensive on the rest of the ice.

Factoid: shadows are the reason the Bruins made Bobby Orr a defenseman. He was primarily forward in junior, but they though that putting him back on defense would keep the shadows off him.
 

Psycho Papa Joe

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Shadows stopped working when teams discovered the obvious counter tactic. The star player just stands next to another defensive players away from the play, bringing the shadow with him. That tied up two defensive players and created an odd man advantage for the other players on the offensive on the rest of the ice.

Factoid: shadows are the reason the Bruins made Bobby Orr a defenseman. He was primarily forward in junior, but they though that putting him back on defense would keep the shadows off him.

Really? I thought the reasoning was that because defensemen tended to get the most ice time, and because he was their best player, it was best to maximize the amount of time he spent on the ice.
 

vadim sharifijanov

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Oct 10, 2007
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Really? I thought the reasoning was that because defensemen tended to get the most ice time, and because he was their best player, it was best to maximize the amount of time he spent on the ice.

and i'd always heard that it was because he had such incredible rushing ability and they wanted him to start skating with the puck with as much open ice in front of him as possible.
 

Johnny Engine

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Jul 29, 2009
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A couple of well known instances of players being "assigned" to a specific guy on the other team would be Joel Otto on Messier (lots of times) and Bobby Holik on Sundin (2000 and 2001 chiefly). The difference between these giant centres and a classic "shadow" is that they didn't so much need to follow their target anywhere - by giving them headaches on the faceoff, not letting them go to the net, etc, their job wasn't so much to agitate and knock them off their game, as it was to see that they never got their game going in the first place.
 

Killion

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Feb 19, 2010
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I was re-reading the Bobby Hull coffee table book and there was a pic of him bloodied, courtesy of John Ferguson. In the caption, Hull mentions some of the players assigned to "shadow" him; he respected Bob Nevin, Ed Westfall and Claude Provost, but not Ferguson or Bugsy Watson for their dirty play.

Im surprised Rejean Houle wasnt mentioned by Hull, 1971 Playoffs.
 

Crosbyfan

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Nov 27, 2003
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Didn't Subban shadow Crosby the year the Habs upset the Pens?

That is simply a matchup and defensive awareness.
I've never seen the term used that way before. Maybe it has but it would be an odd use of the term. Not that some sports writers never mix up their metaphors...
 

struckbyaparkedcar

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Mar 1, 2008
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the other factor that killed them was vigneault didn't believe in reacting to the other coach's line-matching. thought he was too smart for that, and mechanically would put the sedins on the ice whenever they had an offensive zone draw, and always take them off the ice when they had a defensive draw. which of course made it so that julien knew exactly when they were going to be on the ice and so chara/seidenberg plus the selke winner's line were always matched up against them. same thing happened in the nashville series, with weber/suter-- but in that series, it freed kesler to ventilate nashville's other d pairs. AV, so smart he coached away his home ice advantage.
They also lost their 3-0 lead against the Blackhawks once Bolland came back.
 

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