The Tampa Bay Lightning embarrassed the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 1 on Tuesday. The final score at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto: 7-3. Here are four areas the Leafs must address in Game 2 - which goes Thursday - and beyond.

Collective headspace

Let's get this out of the way off the top: The on-ice officials weren't kind to the Leafs in Game 1. They botched multiple calls, most notably the cross-checking and slashing penalties on Luke Schenn and David Kampf midway through the second period. Poor officiating undoubtedly affected the final score.

Still, Toronto did itself no favors in the discipline department. T.J. Brodie's holding infraction in the first and Michael Bunting's head hit in the second jump off the page as particularly unnecessary and, in the latter case, stupid.

Tampa made Toronto pay to the tune of four goals in just 10 power-play minutes. Plain and simple, if you give power-play dynamos Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov that much time to cook, you're going to surrender goals.

Of course, the mental lapses weren't limited to penalties. The Leafs were flat-out terrible in the opening 10 minutes Tuesday and then allowed goals in the dying seconds of both the first and second periods. It's drilled into hockey players from a young age to start games on time and finish periods strong, and the Leafs did neither to begin a series with so much on the line.

Hesitant, tentative, nervous, afraid, and uninspired are just some words to describe the Leafs at their worst moments in Game 1. That's ultimately what the fans and media will remember from that 60-minute debacle: the "demons" of playoffs past seemingly occupying the collective headspace of many Leafs.

"They've got demons in their head, in their car, under their f-----g beds, everywhere they turn there's a f-----g demon. The biggest obstacle this team has now is themselves," former Leafs assistant coach Paul MacLean memorably told head coach Sheldon Keefe during an episode of the "All or Nothing" documentary chronicling Toronto's 2020-21 season.

Whatever's going on mentally needs to be rectified ASAP.

The forecheck

Ryan McDonagh is long gone. Same goes for Jan Rutta and Cal Foote.

The Lightning blue line, a shell of its former self, was shaky at points during the regular season, with depth players occupying larger roles than they should. It's an area ripe for exposure over the course of a seven-game series.

Then Victor Hedman and Erik Cernak left Game 1 due to injury after skating for only seven and nine minutes, respectively. Tampa's four remaining defensemen thus logged tons of ice - 26 minutes for Mikhail Sergachev, 24 each for Ian Cole and Darren Raddysh, and 18 for Nick Perbix.

To put the depleted back end into perspective: In the third period, with Sergachev in the box, Cole - who's at best a third-pairing guy on any playoff squad - killed the entire two-minute penalty. It was out of necessity.

Somehow, the four-man Tampa blue line didn't just survive Game 1, it actually thrived. That's probably more of an insult to the Leafs' forwards than a compliment to the Lightning's defensemen. How do you not capitalize?

Even before Hedman and Cernak went down, it was crystal clear Toronto needed to apply constant pressure on the forecheck. Get sticks in passing lanes. Throw weight around. Force them to make mistakes - a smothering attack should expose the lack of experience and talent beyond Hedman and Sergachev. (Hedman, who hasn't been himself all year, is vulnerable too.)

In Game 1, Sergachev was the target of five hits, Raddysh absorbed four, Perbix and Cole took two each, Cernak one, and Hedman zero. (The hit on Cernak may lead to a suspension for Bunting.) As long as the checks are legal, those numbers need to climb. The Lightning need to be worn down.

Bottom-six defense

Corey Perry is one-third of a crusty, old Lightning forward line the Leafs can easily exploit in this series. After all, it's Toronto, not Tampa, that boasts the faster, more versatile, and overall objectively better bottom-six contingent.

At least that's how it looks on paper ...

Perry was arguably the best player on the ice in Game 1, bagging a goal and adding two primary assists in less than 14 minutes of action. The soon-to-be 38-year-old, who looked washed-up for stretches of his 18th NHL regular season, led Tampa with seven shots on goal and two drawn penalties. Perry's a clutch player, but nobody predicted this level of impact out of the gates.

Perry, Pat Maroon, and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare won the five-on-five matchup against Zach Aston-Reese, Sam Lafferty, and Kampf. The real Perry victim, however, was defenseman Justin Holl, who was on the ice each time Perry collected a point (two came on the power play). It gets worse: Holl finished the night with a minus-six goal differential - six against, zero for.

For Game 2, Keefe may go with Joseph Woll over Ilya Samsonov between the pipes. He also may be forced to replace a suspended Bunting up front. And he most definitely should replace Holl with Timothy Liljegren. Holl, who fumbled pucks and made poor reads in the defensive zone all night, can't be trusted after that lowly showing.

To that end, the Leafs can't afford to let Perry, a fourth-liner, dominate another game. They bulked up at forward before the trade deadline to overwhelm the opponent, not to be overwhelmed by a player ostensibly past his prime.

Top-six offense

In the regular season, the Leafs averaged 58 shot attempts per game - 32 shots on goal, 13 blocked shots, and 13 missed shots. In Game 1, Toronto recorded 64 attempts - 31 on goal, 20 blocked, and 13 missed.

The difference: clogged shooting lanes.

Auston Matthews for the most part looked dangerous Tuesday. He pitched in a pair of assists and more than held his own defensively. Yet the Leafs' best player managed to get only two of seven attempts on target. William Nylander contributed a tally, but half of his eight attempts didn't make it on goal. Mitch Marner, who racked up three assists, was otherwise ineffective on the attack while his flip-pass attempt in the first ultimately led to Tampa's second goal.

As a group, Toronto's big guns - Matthews, Nylander, Marner, John Tavares, Ryan O'Reilly - were fine in the opener. It was the others, from Holl, Brodie, and fellow defenseman Mark Giordano to Bunting and Samsonov, who cost the Leafs. That said, fine isn't good enough for world-class players - not at this time of year and certainly not within the context of the club's playoff history.

The Leafs were heavy favorites ahead of puck drop because the offensive pop keeps coming. They have multiple layers of game-breaking talent. Matthews and the other guns must find a way to break through the defensive shell.

Toronto beat Tampa 5-0 in last year's Game 1, then lost the series in seven games. Will another Game 1 become irrelevant by series end?

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

A slight smile formed on Pete DeBoer's face Saturday as he nodded along to a reporter's question about Jake Oettinger, the Dallas Stars' starting goalie.

The veteran head coach was being asked if the 24-year-old Oettinger - a native of Lakeville, Minnesota, set to face off against the Minnesota Wild in an opening-round NHL playoff series - needed any help managing his emotions.

"I'm just trying to manage his bank account, make sure he's not buying a couple hundred tickets every game there," DeBoer replied with a chuckle. "I talked to him about that this morning: 'At some point, you can't buy everyone in Minnesota a ticket to come watch you play.'"

DeBoer didn't inject humor into his press conference to avoid answering the question directly. The bench boss simply knows Oettinger will be locked in for Game 1 on Monday night. The netminder's ascension, underlined by an epic 64-save performance against the Calgary Flames in Game 7 of last year's opening round, has been quick and convincing. He's left no doubt in Dallas.

"When you're drawing up what you want in your starting goalie, honestly, he checks all of those boxes," DeBoer told theScore in a recent interview.

"He's the backbone of our team," Stars forward Jason Robertson said.

In a toss-up of a Western Conference playoff bracket, there might not be a bigger X-factor than the gregarious goalie who's made a habit of rising to the occasion. Oettinger is fresh off a regular season worthy of down-ballot Vezina Trophy votes and holds a .956 save percentage in nine career playoff games.

"He absolutely loved every minute he played," Stars goalie coach Jeff Reese said of the Flames series, which ended in heartbreak for Dallas despite Oettinger's Herculean efforts. "He loved the hostile environment. He loved the pressure of the playoffs. And, guess what, he was smiling the whole time."

Dallas, the Central Division's No. 2 seed with a 47-21-14 record, is in this position today thanks to four slick moves at the draft table in Chicago six years ago.

The first move: selecting Miro Heiskanen with the third pick. The second: sending the 29th (acquired via trade a year earlier) and 70th picks to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for No. 26. Third: using that 26th pick to select Oettinger. Fourth: selecting Robertson at No. 39.

Those wide-eyed teenagers - one defenseman, one goalie, one forward - have since blossomed into foundational pieces of the Stars' present and future.

"You're just trying to get the best player at the time," general manager Jim Nill recalled of the 2017 draft. "We knew we had a cornerstone in Miro, and we were hoping the goalie would be something. After that, it's all about how they develop, and they've developed better than we ever thought they would."

Hitting home runs off three picks in the same draft is like strapping a jetpack onto a team's trajectory. Now in their early 20s, Oettinger, Heiskanen, and Robertson are surrounded by an over-30 cohort led by Jamie Benn, Joe Pavelski, and Tyler Seguin and an under-30 group headlined by Roope Hintz, Wyatt Johnston, and Nils Lundkvist. Meanwhile, blue-chip prospects Logan Stankoven and Mavrik Bourque could be on the roster as early as this fall.

Oettinger turned pro in 2019 after three years at Boston University. He then split three seasons between the AHL and NHL, sharing the big-club load with Anton Khudobin, Braden Holtby, and Scott Wedgewood after Ben Bishop's career-ending knee injury hastened a new era. But the No. 1 spot on the Stars' goaltending depth chart wasn't his out of training camp until this year.

He recorded a .919 save percentage (tied for sixth in the league) and five shutouts (tied for second) over 62 games this season. He also posted impressive underlying numbers despite playing behind a strong defensive group. For one, his 0.16 goals saved above expected per 60 minutes ranked seventh out of 66 goalies with 1,000 minutes played, per Sportlogiq.

"Where has he improved? I'd say just his consistency," Nill said. "He's got a level of play he can get to, and now he's learning to do that every game."

"We think we're set in net for the next eight, nine, 10 years," the GM added.

At 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, Oettinger is a presence between the pipes. He's also athletic, smart, and technically sound. His current scouting report lacks a glaring weakness, especially after he made a concerted effort over the past 12 months to narrow his stance and sharpen his puck-handling skills.

"It's helped with my reads, and I'm a lot more patient than when I first got to the NHL," Oettinger said of his narrowed stance. "I was always like, 'Oh, I've got to be way out because these guys are so good.' Now I know I can make saves from everywhere. I'm confident that I can stop anyone. If that means I have to be back in my net a bit more so I can get over to a pass, no problem."

Oettinger's mental makeup is, to circle back on DeBoer's comment, another box checked on the "what you want in your starting goalie" list. It begins with his daily interactions with Stars personnel.

"I'm pretty laid back, in general," Oettinger said. "I like to hang out with the guys and be amongst the group. I don't isolate myself on the road or on game days with superstitions. I have a couple of things I do, but it's nothing out of the ordinary that you wouldn't see from a forward or a defenseman."

Dante Fabbro, the Nashville Predators defenseman and Oettinger's teammate in college, found Oettinger to be a magnetic force in the BU dressing room. "Almost immediately, you gravitated towards him, with how likable a guy he is," said Fabbro, who remains close friends with Oettinger.

"Most normal goalie you'll ever find. Almost the opposite of what you would think of with a goalie," said Stars forward Ty Dellandrea.

Reese has been an NHL goalie or goalie coach nearly every season since 1988. He's worked with plenty of oddballs, including the legendarily eccentric Ilya Bryzgalov. "Jake's as normal as they get," Reese said.

Oettinger, who's in the first season of a three-year deal carrying a $4-million annual cap hit, tries not to take himself too seriously. "When I'm not at the rink," he said, "I try to not think about goaltending." Whether it's spent on the golf course, at a restaurant, or whatever, time with family and friends is sacred.

"It's in the goalie's job description to ride the highs and the lows," Oettinger noted. He later added, "It's a long season. Unplugging is how I stay sane."

Danton Cole, Oettinger's coach at the U.S. National Team Development Program from 2014-16, used a golf analogy to describe Oettinger's mindset.

"An elite goalie kind of has to be like a golfer. Hit one in the woods? You have to forget about it. You have to focus on the next shot or you'll lose your mind," Cole said. "Jake, in that sense, was outstanding when he was with us at the program. He was rarely fazed, and that carried over to the rest of the team."

Virtually every person interviewed for this story brought up Oettinger's demeanor around the team. It's some blend of composure and confidence.

"What is the difference between a backup and a No. 1?" Reese asked rhetorically. "Some of it is physical, of course, but so, so much of it is mental. And Jake's a special individual mentally. Very mentally tough. Very special in that department. And the bottom line is, he has a great perspective on life."

Being mentally tough doesn't mean Oettinger isn't hard on himself. Case in point: In late March, he pointed the finger inward following a disappointing 5-4 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken.

"Let in 10 goals in the last two games. Something's got to change," a frustrated Oettinger told reporters. "The guys have scored like crazy, so it's on me to keep the puck out of our net, and I haven't done that."

How Oettinger bounced back after the Kraken game didn't go unnoticed internally or around the league. He saved 180 of 191 shots for a .942 save percentage over his final eight regular-season contests, seven of them victories.

"If there's anything I know about him," Fabbro said, "he's never satisfied."

It can be easy to forget Oettinger's relative youth. He wears No. 29 because as a kid he idolized Marc-Andre Fleury, who at 38 may start for Minnesota on Monday. A Fleury Fathead cutout hung on Oettinger's bedroom wall until his mid-teens and last year he met the affable veteran before a head-to-head matchup, receiving a souvenir goalie stick from Fleury in the process.

Fleury, with 544 regular-season wins and three Stanley Cup rings, has earned a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Nothing's guaranteed in hockey, let alone goaltending, but Oettinger's ceiling is just as high.

"There's still parts of his game we want to improve. He wants to get better. (Tampa Bay Lightning superstar) Andrei Vasilevskiy is the ceiling," Reese said. "Winning championships is what's next. That's when you're at the pinnacle. He looks at a guy like Vasi and wants to get to where Vasi's at. We've got a long way to go. But, as far as upside, if he continues with this attitude and wants to get better every day, he will get better every day."

Stars assistant coach Steve Spott has joked about how easy Reese's job is these days. By all accounts, Oettinger is a goalie coach's dream.

"Spotter thinks it's a crime to get paid to do this," Reese said with a hearty laugh. "He's probably right. I probably shouldn't get paid to coach this kid."

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

In one way, Friday was a typical day for Luc Robitaille.

To start off, the Los Angeles Kings president embedded with the hockey operations staff, running through the playoff roster ahead of the 47-25-10 Kings' first-round date with the Edmonton Oilers. (The series starts Monday in Edmonton.) Robitaille had media responsibilities to close out the morning. Then, in the afternoon, his schedule featured "a lot of meetings" about the club's local TV future in the wake of Diamond Sports Group's bankruptcy.

In another way, Friday was atypical because Robitaille was hoping to cut it short. Usually booked seemingly all hours of the day, he instead wanted to be at home with family one last time. The grind of playoff travel was approaching.

"I won't be home for the next two months," said the affable Robitaille, letting out a short laugh. "That's the hope, anyway!"

Robitaille, 57, has overseen the hockey and business departments for the Kings since 2017. Undoubtedly, he and general manager Rob Blake - both iconic Kings players of previous eras - are the organization's most influential figures in trying to reconstruct a Stanley Cup-caliber roster.

The Kings, Cup winners in 2012 and 2014, are attempting to win a third championship with longtime cornerstones Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty. So far, so good in terms of making the postseason cut in consecutive years.

Robitaille - or "Lucky Luc," as he was nicknamed during a Hockey Hall of Fame career - spoke with theScore on Friday about retooling the roster, Kopitar's brilliance at center, shutting down Connor McDavid, and more.

(This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.)

theScore: Even at 35 years old, Anze Kopitar's in the conversation for best two-way center in the NHL. Why and how? What do you see day-to-day that's keeping him at such an elite level in his 17th season, all with the Kings?

Robitaille: It's incredible how he's still the same player he was 10 years ago. He seems to have not changed his pace, the way he plays. From his first day playing in the NHL, he's always been a 200-foot player.

You know how Patrice Bergeron is revered and viewed on the east coast? If you were to flip-flop those two, if they were to change places, I think Kopitar would get the same love as Bergeron.

If you talk to every player in the NHL, they'll tell you, 'He's a really hard player to play against. He's heavy. He plays both ends. He plays PK, PP.' He still plays 22 minutes a game most nights. His discipline to stay in shape - he's so committed to the game, with his offseason workouts seemingly getting better every year. It's pretty amazing those two guys are still doing it at their age.

You're right. Whether it's counting stats or advanced stats, Kopitar's right up there. One thing that jumped off the page for me: Kopitar's taken only two minor penalties in 2022-23. That's impressive, considering the strength of opponent he faces and, as you noted, his heavier style of play.

He leans on guys. He's heavy. It is amazing that he's basically had no penalties. It's kind of crazy … (laughs)

The other thing no one is talking about: The day we put Adrian Kempe with Kopi, Adrian Kempe became a 35- and 40-goal scorer. Then we put Quinton Byfield with Kopi and suddenly everybody's going, 'Ah, I can see Byfield's coming into his own now!' Kopi's our safety net to help the trend of our team.

A young player can gain confidence simply by lining up beside somebody like Kopitar, right? You attach the young player to the responsible veteran and life's easier. Pucks start going in and it all builds from there.

Yeah. You're right about that. But, also, I was talking to someone the other day about how lucky we feel. Let me explain: When you have Kopitar on your team, it's so easy to teach the young guys how to play responsibly. If they see one of the team's best players doing all of the little things day in and day out, no matter what, they can't come in and say, 'Well, that's just not the way I play.' No, they know Kopi's won, and they know he's won playing a certain way. Next thing you know, they're a little bit more responsible.

It's funny, there's some irony in it for us. Kevin Fiala's an incredible player. He's had a huge impact on our team. But early in the year, he'd make some risky passes we weren't used to seeing. We would be like, 'Whoa, what's up with that pass right up the middle?' And then, over time, Fiala has remained the same impactful player, but it sure seems like he got rid of 50% of those risky passes.

He's still producing, right, but I think the rest of it has a lot to do with guys like Kopitar playing the right way all the time. If you're a player and you're smart, you go, 'Oh, that's what makes him so special! If I can play like him a little bit, it'll help the team even more.'

The Drew Doughty-Mikey Anderson pairing - why is it so effective? And what was so appealing about Anderson to warrant an eight-year extension?

The biggest thing for us is trust. When you watch Mikey play, you never think about him. You just trust him. He gets the puck and makes the right play. He closes plays down low. And he's a great partner for Drew as somebody who gives Drew a little bit more freedom. Mikey will always, always back Drew up.

It's been such a great pairing for us, and that's why it was also so important for us to get another left-handed defenseman before the trade deadline. We wanted four guys who we can really trust. But it starts with Mikey and Drew playing the way they do together.

A few years ago, the Kings shifted toward a retool around Kopitar, Doughty, and goalie Jonathan Quick. There had been an emphasis on getting faster and younger. I'd say you've accomplished that. As far as a timeline on the retool, are you where you thought you'd be in 2023?

Internally, we always wanted to be pushing for the playoffs last year and this year, knowing that once you get in, you can beat anyone. We certainly feel like, because of the way we play, we can beat anyone. The playoffs are a hard road. You have to be locked and loaded and healthy to start. We feel that way.

That being said, we know if everything goes our way this year and we win, we really feel we're going to be better in two years. We have some young guys coming up, and we still have room for them, and it's only going to make our team better in the future.

I suppose that's the beauty of hitting on many of your draft picks. You don't have a bunch of prospects blossoming at once. It's a steady flow.

They trickle in over time. And, if there's anything we've learned, it's to be patient. With Adrian Kempe, it took him six years to start scoring goals. (laughs)

What do you attribute to Kempe's ascension? He isn't a flash in the pan.

He was always a really good player, but he wasn't shooting much. He wasn't creating much offensively. But the whole time he had the defensive skills, which can be very hard to get. We never worried about him defensively. And we knew he could skate. So, in our zone, the guy never hurt us.

He was playing center and some games we'd put him on the wing. Somehow, he found a way to get open more often and shoot more often. And his creativity with the puck got better.

We have a kid now who's similar to Kempe. He's not a shooter like Kempe, but with Rasmus Kupari, when we look at him, we remember Kempe in his first three or four years. They're great skaters, they never hurt you defensively, and you have to just wait for them to come into their own offensively.

You faced the Edmonton Oilers in Round 1 last year. Ditto this year, starting Monday. What needs to happen for L.A. to win this time around?

We know we can match up against anybody. We have to play our game. It's going to be really hard to do that when you have two of the best players in the world on the other team. They're hungry, too. So, it's about minimizing their scoring chances, and then when we get our chances, putting them in.

I really feel like the Oilers got better this year. But so did we, you know? So, I think it's going to be a really good series. There won't be a lot of room out there. You'll have to create room. We all know how good their power play is, so it almost goes without saying that you don't want to give them too many opportunities there. But we're certainly creating a big rivalry with them, and it's going to be a great series.

We've beaten them twice this year, and they've beaten us twice. We thought we outplayed them in one of those losses. So, it's going to be a show, I think. (laughs)

You played with and against Wayne Gretzky. With that in mind, how do you gameplan against a generational talent like Connor McDavid? Do you sink your teeth into the video, or is it more so about shadowing him or, at least, doing your best to keep up with him as far as skating speed?

If you're going to have a guy shadow Connor McDavid, he better skate faster than him, and I don't think anyone in the league can do that. (laughs)

So, I think it's more about playing the right way as a team. You're trying to minimize McDavid's scoring chances. He's going to create one or two chances a period on his own, but you certainly don't want to give him a free one. We went to Edmonton earlier this year, played a really good game, and then put it right on his stick for a breakaway. You can't do that. He has to earn every chance, and he will get some chances because of who he is.

You just have to keep playing, and it's the old cliche: Keep the puck in their zone as much as possible. But I do really believe they got better. So, we know it's going to be a lot of work for us to keep it in their zone. Mattias Ekholm was a great move for them. Even Nick Bjugstad, he's brought in a little size. Trust me, it's not going to be easy.

How have you felt about the Kings' two trade deadline additions - defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov and goalie Joonas Korpisalo - and how they've mixed into the group since March? Thoughts on the on-ice fit?

They both have fit in perfectly on our team. Korpisalo has come in and given us stability in the net. We've had Pheonix Copley play really well since December, and now Korpisalo's here, and he has this real calming attitude about him. He's been really, really good.

And then for Gavrikov, we always talked about getting that second-layer, left-shot D-man who can really stabilize our team. He's done that, and more. Him and Matt Roy give us an opportunity to cut down a couple of minutes with Doughty so that Drew is a little bit more rested. But that Gavrikov-Roy pairing has been a really hard pair to play against. Gavrikov has a long stick, long reach, and we couldn't be happier about what he's done for us so far.

One last one. Back to Gretzky. Beyond the obvious - all-time speed - what are the similarities and differences between Connor and Wayne?

Wayne was smaller and skinnier, so every team before every game would say, 'You have to run him. You have to hit him. You have to check him.' They did everything.

When you play against McDavid, you pay attention to him. It's incredible the speed he brings. And his vision is a lot like Wayne's. Still, I can't believe Wayne got 200 points! That's basically 50 more than McDavid! (laughs)

When you put that in perspective, you start thinking, man, how great was Gretzky? And Mario Lemieux, too. It's crazy. But here's another thing: I remember people saying Wayne's shot wasn't great, this and that. Then he scored 92 goals. And last year we've got people saying, 'Yeah, McDavid's good but he doesn't score as many goals as he should.' And then you see this year he gets 64.

It just shows how these guys want to get better every game, every year. McDavid's got a lot of the same drive as Wayne. Every shift, every shift. And you saw it last year in the playoffs, where McDavid really took his game to another level. You can tell the kid has a lot of personal drive.

You have to give him credit for what he's done so far in his career. He's a superstar, and he's fun to watch every night.

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Adam Francilia, an exercise physiologist for NHL players, has long believed goaltending is, at its very core, similar to a martial art like jiu-jitsu or judo.

Both the hockey goalie and martial artist begin in a static stance, he explains, then read and react to whatever unfolds in front of them. Both operate in a confined space - the crease or the mat. Both need to be flexible and nimble. Both must find a mental sweet spot, no matter the environment.

"You're putting on this special gear, and you're entering this other self. It's very Zen," Francilia said of goaltending. "In a sense, you play a different sport than the skaters on your team and the other team, yet you're on the ice at the same time. You have very difficult responsibilities, a very different oneness with the game than skaters. And it's a position of perfection - especially these days."

Francilia, currently working with 11 NHL goalies, most notably starters Connor Hellebuyck and Thatcher Demko, emphasizes the plight of the modern goalie for two main reasons. One, making saves is extremely hard in today's offense-first environment. Two, staying healthy is also challenging, with the most effective save-making techniques inflicting a heavy toll on the body.

As the 2022-23 regular season comes to a close and goalies switch into either offseason recovery mode or a deeper Zen mindset for the playoffs, let's unpack Francilia's second point. What exactly is the deal with this save-making conundrum facing today's goalies? And how can they counteract it?

The conundrum

All modern goalies rely on some variation of the butterfly technique, popularized by Hall of Famer Patrick Roy in the late 1980s. The up-and-down style helped elevate save percentages in the '90s, but an increased injury rate followed. In 2009, Sports Illustrated declared hip injuries an epidemic in a seminal article chronicling the struggles of goalies who grew up imitating Roy.

A few years later, Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings popularized the RVH, a goal-post-integration technique used by nearly every current NHL netminder. Short for reverse vertical horizontal, the RVH involves the goalie leaning toward the post with his short-side pad tilted horizontally and far-side pad vertical. The RVH wards off offense from below the hash marks, and, like the butterfly, misuse and overuse can agitate ankles, knees, groins, and hips.

"You look at the butterfly, and you go, 'Oh, that's not ideal,'" said Maria Mountain, an exercise physiologist in London, Ontario, who works closely with goalies of all ages and skill levels through her online training programs.

"And then you look at the RVH," she added, "and it's like, 'Oh my God …'"

The RVH, Francilia noted, is "more of a culprit" than the butterfly in contributing to injuries. It's a completely unnatural shape and movement for a human being to execute, with the ankle and knee exploding toward a steel beam to hold an awkward posture. This puts tremendous torsion on the joints.

"If the joint that's directly and most locally involved with the movement has a lack of mobility, if it isn't doing its job properly, the joints above or below have to pick up that slack," Francilia explained of, for example, a mobile right knee compensating for an immobile right ankle. All of that kinetic energy must travel somewhere.

In other words, the only tried and true way to consistently stop pucks in 2023 sends goalies down a path that frequently ends with a trip to the surgeon's table and months of rehab. While forwards and defensemen are by no means immune to joint overuse injuries - our ancestors weren't skaters, after all - suffering a major hip injury has almost become a rite of passage for goalies.

Six NHL-caliber netminders - Robin Lehner, Laurent Brossoit, Joonas Korpisalo, Anton Khudobin, Jonathan Bernier, and Daniil Tarasov - underwent hip surgery in 2022 alone, according to reports. Others, including Elvis Merzlikins and Tristan Jarry, missed time this season because of hip issues, and it's safe to assume at least a few of the vaguely labeled "lower-body" injuries were, in fact, hip-related. Prospect Ian Scott, a 2017 Toronto Maple Leafs draftee who had hip surgery in 2019, retired last July at 23 after failing to return to "full playable health."

"Everyone gets it now," Buffalo Sabres goalie Eric Comrie said recently before pointing out he and teammates Craig Anderson, 41, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, 24, have all gone under the knife to repair at least one ruined hip.

"I had no choice. I couldn't prolong it. I had to stop playing. It was a lot of pain," Comrie, 27, said of undergoing double hip surgery in 2013, his NHL draft year.

Linus Ullmark, the front-runner to win the Vezina Trophy this season, also opted to get both hips fixed prior to making the jump to the NHL. In recalling the thought process behind choosing double over single, the Boston Bruins goalie said: "Let's do both of them at the same time and be done with it."

Comrie and Ullmark sounded like baseball pitchers fresh off Tommy John surgery, a procedure that not only repairs wonky elbow ligaments but can also provide performance benefits. Both goalies reported increased mobility, flexibility, and strength. "It helped at the time, and it's helped in the long run," Comrie said.

Anatomy plays a considerable role in goalie health. Some, including Ullmark, develop femoroacetabular impingement, or FAI, a condition in which wear and tear causes the head of the femur to sit and move improperly within the socket of the pelvis. Others are blessed with a hip structure capable of absorbing the butterfly and RVH, ultimately delaying wear and tear.

"It seems to be genetics, a lot of it, with how shallow or how deep your hips are. So I've been really lucky," Washington Capitals starter Darcy Kuemper said prior to the season. "Knock on wood here and hope that continues."

"So far, thank God I didn't have any major issues," said Andrei Vasilevskiy, the Tampa Bay Lightning superstar known for his freakish flexibility.

The counteraction

Born in 1999, Capitals prospect Clay Stevenson has lived his entire life in the butterfly era. He first dropped to his knees at the ripe age of six, and he added the RVH to his repertoire at about 16 while playing midget in British Columbia.

The late bloomer signed with the Capitals as an undrafted free agent last spring following an excellent season at Dartmouth College. Stevenson, a 24-year-old rookie pro, has posted strong numbers in 38 games between Washington's AHL and ECHL affiliates. His development arrow is pointing up.

Above all else, Stevenson must stay healthy - and he's tapped Francilia to help. "The pro season is so taxing on your body, so you have to find ways to combat that," the netminder said. "I'm learning how to stack my body right."

Francilia, who originally trained athletes from a variety of sports, including powerlifting, football, gymnastics, and equestrian, zeroed in on goaltending as his niche about a decade ago. His sweeping objective: To optimize how goalies move physiologically in and out of various save techniques - or "stacks."

"As soon as a muscle turns off and you're in any sort of shape, compression, or bend, the load goes through the connective tissue. That's not good. If the muscles are on the tissues don't have to work as hard," Francilia said.

The longtime trainer, based in B.C.'s Okanagan Valley, interacts with his clients often during the season, calling, texting, or meeting in person. Most crucially, Francilia produces a weekly video featuring narrated clips of good and bad in-game postures and stances. A polished foundation is crucial.

The hope is that smooth biomechanics equal fewer injuries and more saves.

"One of my favorite terms is that I'm giving myself 'the most access to pucks,'" Stevenson said. "If I'm stacked the right way and making saves with clean mechanics, there's a performance benefit. You're giving yourself optimal percentages to make that second save or third save - whatever you need."

Francilia also wants his clients to hone a Zen-like mentality when it comes to maintenance. Devise a plan and trust the process. On game days, Stevenson starts by placing a heating pad on his groins, hips, hamstrings, and lower back. He then dives into active stretching to wake up specific muscles and tissues - leg raises, hip bridges, forward-facing wall squats, side lunges, and A-skips, to name a handful. The full warmup takes approximately an hour.

Postgame, Stevenson stretches and rolls out specific muscles to "unpretzel" his body as much as possible. He then hits the cold tub to recover further.

On top of those routines, the former Ivy Leaguer loosens up before bed four-to-five nights a week through full-body stretching sessions. Occasionally, a team trainer provides treatment on his lower back, ankles, glutes, groins, or hips.

"My first job," Mountain said of her approach, "is to keep the goalie healthy. The second is to help them perform better. So I'm mostly selling them on the performance side, yet in reality, giving them the injury prevention side too."

Kevin Woodley, who reports on goaltending trends for NHL.com and InGoal Magazine, has noticed modern goalies are better than previous generations at trying to find the "happy medium" between elite performance and longevity.

For instance, many goalies have experimented with a "shin lock" variation of the RVH, which is more forgiving on the body. Goalies are also welcoming with open arms the new Bauer Konekt skate, which offers additional ankle mobility and flexion and, thus, in theory, less stressful butterflies and RVHs.

"If your ankle is locked in, where does the energy go? It goes up the chain to the knees, then the hips," Woodley said. "What this Bauer skate has done is it's allowed the ankle and the lower shin to absorb some of that energy."

Francilia would love to see other equipment changes to help prolong careers.

The knee stack on the inside of the pads - or pad riser as it's called in the NHL rulebook - can't exceed 2.5 inches in thickness when uncompressed. Permitting an extra inch or two, Francilia said, "would alter, in a healthy manner, the angle of the knee joint to the ankle joint. It would take a lot of torsion off the goalie's lower leg, which is a significant factor in the increase in ankle, knee, groin, and hip injuries."

Meanwhile, despite the RVH's increasing popularity, goalie pants have lost some circumference. "In order to seal the post, the angle required from the knee joint to the hip joint is so extreme that it's creating a lot of soft tissue tension," Francilia said. "When the pants had a little more flare to them, the goalie was able to perform the same task but maintain a much healthier physiological shape."

"The sport's blurring the line between goal-scoring and the health, safety, and wellness of goalies," he said, summarizing his concerns. "It's not good enough. I strongly feel like this needs to be addressed for the sport to move forward."

As for workload, Francilia dreams of a friendlier future. Starters play fewer games in 2023 versus 2003, which counts as progress. However, the typical practice still caters to shooters, resulting in untold butterfly and RVH drops.

Well, what if hockey treated goalies the same way baseball treats pitchers?

"In MLB, everything is about pitch count. And not just total pitch count but how many curveballs, how many off-speed pitches, how many knuckleballs, and how many heaters are you throwing in a single session?" Francilia said. "This is where we have to do a way better job with goalies. We need to start emphasizing a qualitative approach versus a quantitative approach."

In the current climate, as Mountain knows well as a trainer of goalies competing in beer leagues, the pros, and everything in between, the position's physical drawbacks are severe though not wholly unique. To make saves, a goalie must pay the price. In a strange way, it's the cost of doing business.

"If you look at any sport, really, it's not good for your body," Mountain said. "You look at football: It's not good to get smashed into by another 200-pound human being. Baseball pitchers: Not good for your shoulder to rip a baseball. Rowing: Not good for your back. You decide as an individual - 'Well, this is how I'd like to spend my body currency' - and that's it. That's the cost."

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

It's around 11 a.m. in early March, moments after a morning skate, when Buffalo Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson starts scanning the home team's dressing room inside KeyBank Center. He cranes his neck to see past the reporter blocking his view of the semi-circle wall where the forwards sit.

He's compiling a list of the squad's biggest "hockey nerds."

"Mittsy, Coz, Skinny, Quinner, OP - oh man, there's a bunch of them. Joster, for sure. Okie is when he has some free time with the family," Samuelsson says, smile widening. "Sometimes he's just busy. But on the road, man, Okie's always watching hockey and always has something to say about it."

Mittsy is Casey Mittelstadt. Skinny is Jeff Skinner. Coz is Dylan Cozens. Quinner is Jack Quinn. OP is Owen Power. Joster is Tyson Jost. Okie is Kyle Okposo. All of them "know every detail about everything" to do with hockey and the NHL, Samuelsson explains. "All the stats, stick curves, tape jobs … "

Samuelsson, 23, signed a seven-year contract extension on the eve of the season. He committed to the Sabres through 2029-30 partly because he feels strongly about the core's abilities on the ice and its makeup off it.

"Nobody's ego is too sensitive. Everybody kind of gives it to everybody," Samuelsson says. Yes, that includes 41-year-old goalie Craig Anderson, respected captain Okposo, and star forward Tage Thompson. "I can chirp him just as much as I chirp anybody else," Samuelsson says of "Thommer."

"You can also tell someone to get their head out of their ass, and they're not going to get mad at you for it," the blue-liner adds. "They know you're just looking out for them, and you're trying to do what's best for the team."

This open environment is shaped by time spent away from the rink - team dinners, golf outings, Xbox battles, NFL and UFC watch parties, shopping trips, and card games - plus the fact the Sabres' roster is the youngest in the league. "Sometimes," Samuelsson says, "it honestly feels like a college team."

That's what a "good room" looks and feels like for the Sabres. What about elsewhere? What are the pillars of a "good room" in cities across the NHL?

'Honest but not too harsh'

Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar has described Nathan MacKinnon's leadership style as "feisty." To maintain the Avs' high standard, the 100-point center has been known to be abrasive on occasion.

MacKinnon isn't a tyrant, though. His ears perk up when others take charge.

"We encourage guys to speak before games and voice to the group what they really think, regardless of how long they've been in the NHL," MacKinnon tells theScore. "That's really big as far as establishing and keeping a good room. It's simple in a way: Just be good to each other. Be honest but not too harsh."

Case in point: Perhaps Cale Makar, a force of nature on the ice but relatively shy off it, wouldn't speak up as much as he does had he not been encouraged to do so by MacKinnon or team captain Gabriel Landeskog.

"He's the best defenseman in the world, so he should be able to express his opinion," MacKinnon says. "This year, he's honestly been great in that department. It's been a tougher year for us with so many injuries, right, but he's been there to take the edge off that by being a little bit more vocal."

Alex Kerfoot subscribes to the same school of thought. The Toronto Maple Leafs forward thinks it's important for a room to be filled with unique individuals, 23 guys of varying nationalities, birth years, and career journeys.

"If your ultimate goal is to win the Stanley Cup, you want to have different opinions in the room," says Kerfoot, traded from Colorado to Toronto in 2019. "You want to have different experiences in the mix, people who have been through different scenarios. That is probably more valuable than having a bunch of guys who have been in similar circumstances."

The out-for-dinner test

It's fair to suggest Max Domi should be an expert in the study of hockey player dynamics. The Dallas Stars forward and son of longtime enforcer Tie Domi currently finds himself on his sixth NHL team in only eight pro seasons.

Insight No. 1 from Domi: He swears he's never been in a bad room, a toxic room, or one that's overly cliquey. "All of a sudden, you get a new guy coming in, and it's like butter," he says of the prevailing vibe. "He just fits right in."

(Side note: Domi's perspective isn't unique. All 16 of the players interviewed for this story were adamant they'd spent little to no time in a so-called bad room. If they have, they may prefer to forget those experiences or don't feel comfortable talking about them now.)

Insight No. 2: It helps to mingle. "We're all in the NHL for a reason. That's the easy part," Domi says. "But getting to know guys is key. Where are you from? Where did you play junior? What's your career been like? You get to know guys pretty quickly - it's not hard - and then it translates onto the ice."

Insight No. 3: There's a foolproof way to test the cohesiveness of a group, no matter the win-loss record. "If you can go out to dinner with anyone on the team, on any given night, you know you're in a good locker room," Domi says.

Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Calvin de Haan makes the point that "guys lead in different ways." Sure, fans and media know about the role of the rah-rah and lead-by-example types. But the other characters - the designated DJ, the collector of fines, the party planner - often lead too, just in covert ways.

Regardless of the talent level, de Haan says, hockey is a team-first sport.

"I go out and play with my friends in the summer, and no offense to them, but I'm better than all of them," de Haan says. "But we don't necessarily win every time, even though I play in the NHL. The teams who win have guys who use each other well and play like a team. That's a part of leadership, too."

Leaders lead (and read)

Mark Giordano's bona fides include captaining the Calgary Flames and Seattle Kraken and being the oldest skater in the NHL this season. He believes reading the room is a leader's most important job within the team setting.

Some teammates "need to get slapped," the Maple Leafs defenseman says, while others "need to get patted on the back and encouraged." Some are wired to beat themselves up too much; others are not self-reflective at all. And a bunch of guys fall between the two extremes.

"It's important to approach guys on a personal level and say, 'Hey man, I think you need to do this,'" Giordano explains. "That's for myself too. I like when guys come up and say, 'Hey, this is what I see about your game lately.' Sometimes you're caught off guard, and it gives you a different perspective."

"The biggest tell," the 39-year-old adds, "is when a group gets quiet. You know you're not in a good spot. But, when guys are chirping a lot, having fun but in a serious manner, I think that's when you know a team is rolling."

Alex Galchenyuk has bounced around the league enough to spend time in every kind of hockey market: big (Montreal, Toronto), mid-size (Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Colorado, Ottawa), and small (Arizona). The 2012 third overall pick finds standards are set by the captain and head coach, moods tend to rise and fall with wins and losses, and the "block out the noise" discussion can be useful.

Fan and media attention is so cranked up in Canadian markets - "more of a TMZ style," he puts it with a grin - that leaders need to do their best to downplay the hysterics.

"Especially the world we live in now, you try and not focus on social media and things like that. But everywhere you go, it's hockey, hockey, hockey," Galchenyuk says. "So it's, 'Hey, let's keep what we've got going on in the room and block out the noise.' That's definitely a thing in the huge markets."

Short and long memory

Through his various stops, Alex Chiasson has shared a room with five recent greats - Jaromir Jagr in Dallas, Erik Karlsson in Ottawa, Alex Ovechkin in Washington, and Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in Edmonton.

"They're just like me. They love the game, they want to work, they want to compete. When you really go to the basics of it, their skills are slightly higher - OK, probably a little bit more than slightly higher - but that's the only real difference," says Chiasson, who's competed in 646 NHL games for seven teams, including 15 contests this year as a member of the Detroit Red Wings.

Chiasson's 32, so he's at the age where he'll run into retired teammates and reminisce. The winger snapped his fingers three times to illustrate how quickly he and former Star Ray Whitney recently rekindled their bond.

Victor Hedman is also 32. The Norris Trophy-winning defenseman practically grew up in the Lightning room, arriving in Tampa at 18, just two weeks after getting his driver's license. He's now a father of two with a pair of Cup rings.

Over the years, Hedman has learned to separate hockey from the rest of his life. If he's having a bad day at home or the rink, he can park the negativity.

"You can have stuff going on in your life, but when you get into the locker room, it's like a different world," he says with a sense of wonder. "Everything else, yeah, you put that aside for those few hours. You go in there and be with the boys. It's a great feeling and probably the thing I'm going to miss the most about hockey: the camaraderie that you have every day."

Hedman, who isn't retiring anytime soon, says contributing to a good room is all about having both a short memory - you can't hold grudges against a teammate for making a few mistakes on the ice - and also a long one.

You want to remember the pranks, the mindless banter, the intermission speeches, the player-of-the-game presentations. The blood, sweat, and tears.

"That brotherhood," Hedman says, "you can't get it anywhere else."

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Like most superstars, Auston Matthews' game appeals to the masses in part because what you see from the stands or the couch mirrors his statistical profile.

For example, Matthews didn't ride some unsustainably hot shooting percentage to 60 goals last season. The gaudy goal total was accompanied by excellent underlying numbers and a highlight reel documenting how cleanly he was beating goalies. Matthews, in peak form, was an offensive tornado.

Why bring all of this up? Well, the Toronto Maple Leafs center has looked like his 2021-22 self of late. His one-time blast Wednesday against the Florida Panthers gave him five goals in four games, the best seven-day stretch in a season that's produced "only" 37 goals. (Matthews' per-game rate has dropped from 0.82 last year to 0.55 this year. He's on pace for 41 goals in 75 games.)

The visual cues that were absent for a significant portion of the season - No. 34 marching through the neutral zone, dangling defenders in tight spaces, deceiving goalies with that all-world shot - have returned. Now healthy, Matthews' name has been climbing the charts in the various statistical categories in which he tends to rank highly. The moments of dominance are adding up.

At a basic level, Matthews has simply been firing more pucks. Three of his six highest shot-attempt totals this season were recorded in March. He had a career-high 19 last week against the Carolina Hurricanes, 13 on March 11 against the Edmonton Oilers, and 11 on March 2 against the Calgary Flames. Plus, he recorded either eight or nine attempts in four other March games.

At a granular level, Matthews has been terrorizing defenses.

According to Sportlogiq's Jan. 30 leaderboards, Matthews ranked first in the NHL in scoring chances generated off the cycle per game, fifth in slot shots per game, 10th in inner-slot shots per game, and 10th in chances off rebounds per game. He'd appeared in 47 games at that point in the season.

Obviously, impressive rankings. But not quite up to Matthews' lofty standards.

As of Thursday morning, exactly two months and 20 games later, the 25-year-old was still leading in chances off the cycle. Notably, he'd jumped to second in slot shots, fourth in inner-slot shots, and eighth in chances off rebounds while wiggling into the top 10 in chances off the forecheck (ninth).

Matthews has found good health and his version of beast mode. As a leader on a team desperate for a playoff series win, the timing couldn't be better.

Suter's penalty-killing clinic

The Detroit Red Wings are 17th in penalty-kill percentage. Yet they may have the NHL's best shorthanded forward in the versatile Pius Suter.

Suter, who at even strength can fill a top-six winger spot or center the fourth line, is among the league leaders in Evolving-Hockey's catch-all metric for shorthanded defense. Yanni Gourde (2.2 rating), Suter (2.1), Jake Evans (2.1), Ty Dellandrea (2.1), and Brandon Hagel (2.0) pace the 100 forwards who've logged at least 100 shorthanded minutes this season. (Dylan Larkin is the next Wing on the list. He ranks 49th out of 100 with a minus-0.2 rating.)

Detroit coach Derek Lalonde lauds Suter for his hockey IQ and hockey sense. His anticipation and positioning - both his body and his stick - are exemplary.

As for strategy, Suter tries to straddle the line between being passive and aggressive.

"You have to focus on the (other team's first zone) entry. You want to put pressure on them as soon as you get a chance," the Switzerland native told theScore. "Guys are so skilled, so good on the power play now that you want to at least make them go all the way down the ice and skate up again. Then they get a higher pulse, and, hopefully, more mistakes happen."

Cheating for offense is a deadly sin for NHL penalty killers, Suter added. It's a selfless - not selfish - role. "You can't blow the zone," he said. He's found that simply pressuring the puck carrier shift after shift leads to favorable bounces.

Like on Feb. 21 against the Washington Capitals, for example:

A shorthanded goal against can deflate one bench and fire up the other. "It gives you different momentum. You're trying to fend a goal off, and then you score. The crowd just loves it," said Suter, who's potted three in his career.

Suter, a pending unrestricted free agent who turns 27 in May, has 13 goals and 10 assists in 72 games. It's his third NHL season and second in Detroit.

"He likes it a lot in Detroit, but we will see after the season where things will go," Suter's agent, Georges Muller, said when asked about the forward's future.

New union boss introduced

The NHL Players' Association held a press conference in Toronto on Thursday to officially introduce Marty Walsh, the union's new executive director. While the gathering produced little news, it certainly set the tone for Walsh's tenure.

The 55-year-old Bostonian said all the right things: He pledged to represent not only the union's members but their families too. He vowed to help market players better. He promised to work with the league office to expand the sport's presence globally. He detailed how he's long been a strong supporter of the LGBTQ community but also believes every NHLer has the right to make a personal decision with respect to wearing a Pride Night warm-up jersey.

He touched on a few more topics, but you get the point.

"I bring a different perspective than probably every single one of my predecessors," said Walsh, a lifelong union guy who was the mayor of Boston for seven years and recently served as the U.S. Secretary of Labor.

The collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players doesn't expire until Sept. 15, 2026, so Walsh and commissioner Gary Bettman aren't starting their relationship with a stretch of contentious negotiations.

In this honeymoon period, Walsh needs to hammer home the importance of international hockey to Bettman and the 32 owners. It can't be just another agenda item during meetings. He spoke only in generalities Thursday, but Walsh did say that it's a high-priority issue for him.

I'm of the belief that it's absolutely essential for the NHL and the players' association to stage a World Cup tournament in 2025 (the ship has sailed on 2024). If it makes sense to ban Russia for geopolitical reasons, then do it. That's a separate matter. You can hold a World Cup without Russia. It won't be perfect - heck, the 2016 version certainly wasn't with Team North America and Team Europe - but the point is to not let the 2026 Olympics be the next opportunity for a big event.

Star players, including Connor McDavid, have been clamoring for best-on-best hockey - or something close to it - for years. Hockey fans across the world are equally annoyed by the wait. Enough excuses. Make it happen.

Point always 'knows where to be'

Brayden Point has a one-track mind - and that's a compliment, not an insult.

If the Tampa Bay Lightning gain possession and Point's on the ice, you can almost guarantee the 27-year-old center will be making a beeline to the inner slot. You'd be hard-pressed to find an NHLer - let alone one with a relatively small stature - more obsessed with wheeling to the net-front area at all costs.

Seriously, check out Point's five-on-five shot chart at Evolving-Hockey (goals are the yellow dots, shots on goal are green, and missed shots are orange).

Heavy action below the hash marks. Virtually nothing outside the middle lane.

"Undercover, one of the best players in the world," Lightning teammate Victor Hedman told theScore last week. The veteran blue-liner later added, "I don't think Pointer gets talked about enough. His edge work, his speed - it's out of this world, and he can really put the puck in the back of the net. I swear, 95% of the goals in his career have been from the slot. He knows where to be."

Point, who's tied for fourth in the NHL in goals, scored his 47th of the season Tuesday in a 4-0 victory over the Hurricanes. Hedman's bang-on: What a weirdly quiet march to 50 goals for a notable player who's never reached the milestone. This fast-break tally was a perfect example of his one-track mind:

Parting shots

Kent Johnson: The Columbus Blue Jackets rookie hit the proverbial rookie wall about three-quarters of the way through the regular season but is working on a strong finish (nine points in his last 11 games). Around the dressing room, Johnson has become known for being very coachable. He's a sponge. The 20-year-old's developed an on-ice reputation for being a "dangerous player who is very tough to read as an opposing player," Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner said. "He's very shifty and elusive, and he creates a lot by just having the puck on his stick and drawing guys towards him and finding that open guy." Confident kid, too, as evidenced by last week's viral dangle and snipe:

2017 draft: Nico Hischier, Miro Heiskanen, Cale Makar, and Elias Pettersson were all top-five selections in 2017. None of them took particularly long to break through. Cody Glass (sixth overall) and Owen Tippett (10th), on the other hand, needed a few years of marination before announcing their arrival this season. The playmaker Glass, the first-ever draft pick by the Vegas Golden Knights, is thriving with the Nashville Predators, posting 12 goals and 18 assists in 64 games. He played AHL games in the previous four seasons while also grinding through a significant knee injury. The sniper Tippett was part of last year's Florida-Philadelphia trade involving Claude Giroux. After rounding out his game under coach John Tortorella, Tippett's enjoyed a career year, sitting second on the Flyers in goals (23) and third in points (42).

Erik Karlsson: The race to 100 points is most definitely on for the San Jose Sharks star defenseman. Karlsson's amassed an eye-popping 91 points through 75 games, which means he needs nine in his final seven games to hit the milestone. It's doable considering his rate of production this season, and you know San Jose will be peppering him with passes. The 29th-place Sharks don't have much else to play for down the stretch, anyway. Karlsson's point total is already tied for the 24th-highest in NHL history. The last blue-liner to reach 100 was Brian Leetch, who put up 102 in 80 games in 1991-92.

Takes, Thoughts, and Trends is theScore's biweekly hockey grab bag.

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The next time you watch the Boston Bruins, fix your eyes on No. 37 and don't look away for the entire shift. Take a few mental notes. Then do the same thing when Patrice Bergeron hops over the boards again, and for a third time.

By the end of the third shift, you'll start to see the patterns of a hockey genius.

The Bruins captain will probably win a faceoff cleanly, and for the following 40 seconds, he'll stay within a few feet of the puck, never cheating for offense or defense. He won't be overbearing to teammates or suffocating to opponents; he'll just be nearby, lurking from the perfect spot. If Boston has the puck, he's a safety valve, and if the opposition has possession, he's a disruptive force.

As I discussed during the home stretch last season, Bergeron earns Selke Trophy votes through thousands of subtly smart plays. And the 2022-23 campaign, Bergeron's 19th in the NHL, has been no different. At 37, he remains a textbook 200-foot center and a front-runner for the award that honors "the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game."

Bergeron's finished first, second, or third in voting in a staggering 11 straight seasons, claiming the trophy a record five times. He's arguably the greatest defensive forward ever, and until his play tapers off or he retires, the Selke is his to lose.

Yet voters don't blindly select Bergeron. It's a deep field this year, with Jordan Staal, Mikael Backlund, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Elias Pettersson among the dozen or so forwards vying for downballot votes.

Using data from Sportlogiq and Evolving Hockey, let's assess how three of them - Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Aleksander Barkov of the Florida Panthers, and Nico Hischier of the New Jersey Devils - stack up against Bergeron. (All tracking statistics current through Monday's games.)

The Marner conversation

What's helping Marner's case: Marner leads the league in takeaways, with 97 in 73 games. Like a grandmaster chess player, he's elite at anticipating his opponent's next move. He takes efficient routes and won't be outhustled.

Marner, who's armed with remarkable hand-eye coordination, ranks second among everyday NHL forwards in blocked passes per game. He regularly knocks down clearing attempts and intercepts stretch passes before quickly turning the change of possession into a grade-A scoring chance for the Leafs.

Marner is both an offensive dynamo (28 goals and 66 assists for 94 points) and a workhorse (21:19 a night, including 2:20 on the penalty kill). He has Bergeron beat in both areas (57 points in 73 games; 17:36 and 1:46). And while the Selke is by definition reserved for defensive studs, there's logic in the old "the best defense is a good offense" argument. A strong two-way impact should be seen as a boon to - not a drag on - Marner's case.

What's hurting Marner's case: Centers have owned the Selke during the salary-cap era. In fact, 2002-03 was the last time a winger won (Jere Lehtinen). While it'd be nice to break the drought - Mark Stone has come close - the trend is grounded in reason: Wingers generally have it easier than centers on the defensive side of the puck. They don't help out as much deep in the zone or take faceoffs - two areas in which Bergeron absolutely crushes.

Bergeron's Bruins also boast the NHL's top penalty-killing percentage while the Leafs sit 14th. Quality of teammates is a major factor with a stat like PK%, and Boston has better personnel, but the 13-team gap is worth mentioning.

Meanwhile, Bergeron ranks second in goals against per 60 minutes among the 349 forwards who've logged 500 five-on-five minutes or more this season. His ludicrous rate of 1.31 trails only Stefan Noesen, a Carolina Hurricanes forward who's faced significantly weaker competition. Marner's tied with Jordan Staal for 90th, at 2.18 goals against per 60. Very good, but not Bergeron great.

The Barkov conversation

What's helping Barkov's case: For voters who fancy a pure defensive artist, Barkov would be a tantalizing candidate. Among everyday NHL forwards, he ranks first in puck-battle wins per game, second in stick checks per game, third in loose-puck recoveries per game, and fourth in blocked passes per game. What else could Panthers head coach Paul Maurice ask for?

Barkov, the 2020-21 Selke winner, plays a ton (21:15 overall, 2:04 shorthanded) and alongside less talented teammates than the others we're considering here. His two most common linemates at five-on-five this year have been Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe, while Gustav Forsling and Brandon Montour have been the defensemen who most often share the ice.

Bergeron's crew, by comparison, consists of Brad Marchand, Jake DeBrusk, Hampus Lindholm, and Charlie McAvoy. All but DeBrusk are star-caliber players.

What's hurting Barkov's case: Barkov's tracking stats are extremely impressive. But Bergeron ranks fairly high on various lists too - fifth in puck-battle wins, sixth in blocked passes, 16th in stick checks, and 49th in loose-puck recoveries. Barkov's edges in those categories aren't definitive.

Barkov's shot-based statistics - five-on-five shot attempts against, expected goals against, shots on goal against - grade out at 18th, 118th, and 134th out of 349 qualified forwards. While some of that is linked to Florida's middling five-on-five numbers, the low ranks still sour Barkov's Selke resume. Another thing: Barkov's appeared in only 60 games this year. Missing 14 games isn't cause for exclusion from the discussion, but it diminishes the body of work.

Lastly, a note on the quality of Barkov's opponents. Sportlogiq calculates a "strength of opposition" metric, which is the cumulative average of offense-generating plays by opposing forward lines. The higher the average, the more difficult the defensive assignment. Barkov, with a strength of opposition rating of 22.9, is 215th among everyday forwards. Bergeron, with a 24.5 rating, is fifth.

The Hischier conversation

What's helping Hischier's case: If Marner's the takeaway king and Barkov's the tracking-data wizard, Hischier's the do-everything, all-around guy. The Swiss center doesn't have a discernible weakness, posting good-to-excellent numbers in virtually every relevant defensive category, from expected goals against and faceoff win percentage to puck-battle wins and takeaways.

Penalty differential is an interesting separator, though. This season, Hischier's been assessed only four minor penalties but drawn 25 penalties for the league's third-best differential. This type of discipline isn't typically associated with strong defensive play or the Selke, but maybe it should be. Power plays are so lethal in the modern NHL that every man-advantage opportunity is valuable.

Something else that can't be discounted: Hischier is the defensive conscience of an upstart Devils team, leading the forward group in shorthanded ice time (New Jersey has the seventh-best PK%). In many ways, he's the yin to Jack Hughes' yang.

What's hurting Hischier's case: Awkwardly, what helps Hischier is also what hurts him. Bergeron is a do-everything, all-around guy like Hischier, except the Bruin gets better results. Take the faceoff circle: Hischier has won 53.6% of all draws, tying him for 30th in the league, and he's even better in the defensive zone, tying for ninth at 57.8%. Bergeron's 60.6% overall rate (third) and 61.3% D-zone rate (fifth) make Hischier's strong work appear, well, less stellar.

Hischier's versatility could certainly earn him a finalist nod. But, like Marner and Barkov, he cannot match the layers of Bergeron's dominance. Not only does Bergeron have a materially better goals against per 60 rate at five-on-five - a clear indicator of defensive prowess - but his strength of opposition is far higher than Hischier's (23.1 rating, 165th among everyday forwards).

Bergeron has been competing against the best of the best every shift this season, and still, his results are undeniably Selke-worthy. Even at 37, the man is essentially peerless.

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Getting a tough puck sucks. Back in the 1990s, when heat-seeking missiles Scott Stevens and Darius Kasparaitis roamed NHL rinks, a tough puck usually preceded a thunderous body check in the unclaimed ice of the neutral zone.

One glance down to corral a poorly placed pass and ... boom! Clobbered.

Getting a tough puck in open ice remains dangerous, even in an offense-first era. But it's a rare occurrence. In today's game, there's another, more common scenario where a winger is tasked with taming a fast, wobbly pass along the boards before attempting to exit the defensive zone.

"The difficulty is in getting the puck off the wall," Buffalo Sabres captain Kyle Okposo said earlier this season, describing a nightly challenge for all wingers.

"Getting a tough puck off a rimmed pass - as a winger, when the opposing defenseman is coming down at you, and you have to separate yourself and make a play to the middle of the ice, that can be really hard," he said. "But it's also nearly impossible for the other team to defend. So, if you can do it consistently as a winger, that quick breakout off the wall can be very useful."

Okposo, a 15-year veteran, was talking about tough pucks inside the Sabres' KeyBank Center dressing room following a morning skate. I had asked him a simple yet loaded question: What's the hardest skill to master, the most difficult thing for you to do on the ice, as a professional hockey player?

"Geez ... there's a lot," Okposo started. "Every year there's something new."

That was a popular reply when I asked six of Okposo's peers the same question as a follow-up to a 2020 article about skill mastery. But, like Okposo, all six managed to identify at least one especially hard skill, move, or trick.

Here are their answers and explanations.

Ditching long-held defensive tick

Matt Grzelcyk is a 5-foot-10, 176-pound defenseman who simply can't outmuscle most opponents. So he's been hardwired to issue cross-checks. At least you'll slow him down, he reasons. At least he'll know you're there.

Grzelcyk's trying to change his habits, however. There's a more effective and efficient way for him to defend.

"If I have a bigger guy in the corner, I want to steer him out of danger," said Grzelcyk, who's in his sixth season with the Boston Bruins. "I can put my stick on the ice, in a specific spot, and encourage him to move away from the net."

He's right. Every time Grzelcyk raises his stick to deliver a cross-check - one that's barely disrupting the opponent's flow - he's leaving himself exposed. The opponent can easily scoot the puck through or around Grzelcyk's legs.

John Tavares is one rival Grzelcyk's seen plenty of this year. The Toronto Maple Leafs center is listed as three inches taller and 40 pounds heavier.

"It's a natural habit to want to be physical in the corners and around the net," Grzelcyck said. "But when the guy's throwing his weight around, if he has 40 pounds on me, he can spin one way or another and I lose control. Countering that with the stick angling is something I always talk about with the coaches."

Turning slap shot into weapon

It's been well-documented that slap-shot usage is on a steep decline.

Yet one-timers are still relied upon in one particular game situation: the power play, where extra time and space facilitate clappers. For this reason, Kevin Hayes is motivated to do whatever he can to turn his into a legitimate weapon.

Building muscle memory through practice reps are important, the Philadelphia Flyers forward said. Developing chemistry with the right passer is, too, with John Carlson's influence on Alex Ovechkin's goal total being a prime example. Expanding one's wheelhouse and learning how to fire equally lethal slap shots from one's front foot and back foot are other pillars. Hayes has thought about tinkering with his stick specs, but it's complicated.

"I've been using a 95 flex since late high school," Hayes said in February. "And I made it to the NHL with a 95, right? So why am I even trying to change it? I don't really see myself changing anytime soon, so I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to make it work with what I'm using now."

Could Hayes, who's used his slap shot to score 12 of 154 career goals, grab a 95-flex stick for even-strength shifts and a whippier stick - say, one with a 75 flex rating - for power-play time?

"You could," he replied. "But what if you have a grade-A chance that calls for a wrist shot? Know what I mean? So it's hard to figure that out. I haven't really asked too many players about it, but it is something I'm trying to dig into."

Keeping opponents guessing

Adam Fox knows exactly what kind of player he is - one of the smartest and most agile defensemen in the world - and exactly what kind of player he isn't.

"I'm not going to kill people with speed or strength," Fox said with a smile.

This self-awareness gives Fox the agency to double down on the attributes that powered him to the 2021 Norris Trophy. The New York Rangers blue-liner is focused on refining the subtleties in his game - which can be a difficult undertaking.

Example 1: Improving edge work in tight spaces to open up his hips and mess with the forechecker's timing and positioning. "If it works, you're turning your feet one way and the forward coming at you is turning the same way," Fox explained. "Then, when he sets into a track, you quickly go the other way."

Example 2: Improving his capacity to act casually when slipping a puck to a Rangers center after curling deep in the defensive zone. He's working on this because the last thing he wants to do is telegraph breakout passes. In this case, deception flows from Fox's elusiveness and quick hands.

Example 3: Improving his blue-line trickery by incorporating more jukes, shakes, and head fakes. "It's all about working on deceptive plays," Fox said.

Fox, once again a candidate for the Norris, knows he must pick his spots.

"Feeling everything out, being in the league for a few years to see what works, is super important," he said. "There's a lot of smart guys in the league that you're just not going to fake out. Some guys might outsmart you, so holding that puck an extra second works sometimes and other times it doesn't. It's about feeling things out. In the end, there's a time and place for everything."

Finding faceoff-circle groove

Tage Thompson has followed up last season's 38-goal outburst with 43 in 70 contests this season. A highlight-reel regular, he's a bonafide NHL superstar.

It can be easy to forget that Thompson's in the middle of just his second season at center. However, his faceoff win rate of 43.1% is a giveaway that he's still learning the position.

"Right now, I'm trying to find one thing that works, something I can fall back on," Thompson said of overcoming his woes in the faceoff circle.

He later added, "A lot of people from the outside, those watching, think it's meat and potatoes, hack and whack. But there is an art form to it. Certain guys have made a living off it. There are little nuances to the process, lots of detail."

Thompson is being proactive. In the offseason, he worked with former NHLer Marty Reasoner, a 52.9% faceoff guy in his day, and during the season he's been leaning on Sabres assistant coach and resident faceoff guru Jason Christie.

"If I can dial that in, get good at it, that gives our team such an advantage, starting with the puck," said Thompson, who usually shares the ice with Jeff Skinner and Alex Tuch. "We won't have to chase it around for half of the shift."

He's been picking his teammates' brains about technique, watching video of the best active faceoff men, and studying linesmen to tease out tendencies.

"Linesmen have a certain routine," he said. "Some of them are quicker on the drop. Some of them make you really square up. Some let you cheat a little. You've got to know who you're working with in that respect, too."

Outdueling while under pressure

Sean Durzi didn't know what to make of the question when it was posed. He's learning loads "every single day," so the list of skills to master is long. Durzi's only appeared in 126 NHL games, after all.

A beat later, though, an answer came to the Los Angeles Kings defenseman.

The most difficult thing for Durzi is to shoot the puck while under pressure and at full speed. No, wait, he continued, honing his thought - it's shooting the puck to a specific spot while under pressure and at full speed.

"I can pick a spot from the point, no problem," Durzi said of outdueling goalies. "But when it's one-on-one with the goalie, can you be deceptive enough to beat him? Whether you turn your blade over or do something else. That's what I'm learning and, from what I've seen, you gain with experience."

Durzi knows he's capable of carrying the puck down the wall in the offensive zone, then, with defenders swarming, cut to the middle of the ice and beat the goalie cleanly. He's done it in practice. But the stakes are significantly higher in games, the intensity ratcheted way up. Nothing truly matches game action.

"Especially with all of the defenders on you," he said. "It's just a lot different."

Developing better puck poise

Cole Sillinger, the 12th overall pick in the 2021 NHL draft, turned heads last season as the league's youngest player. Conversely, Year 2 has been a bumpy ride. The 19-year-old has recorded just 11 points in 64 games.

Sillinger is still confident he can blossom into an impact, 200-foot center for the Columbus Blue Jackets. And one of the ways he'll come to earn that label, he insists, is by becoming fully comfortable operating below the hash marks in both end zones. Developing better poise with the puck is his top priority.

"Ultimately, you want to create more puck possession and O-zone time," Sillinger said. "It's the same mentality in the D-zone, as far as retrieving the puck and moving it out of the zone through possession and protection. You don't want to force anything."

He's trying to learn to be less predictable in those areas. Holding onto the puck a second or two longer can give him, as the puck carrier, more influence over the play. Defenders have no choice but to swarm, opening up teammates for a pass.

Right now, Sillinger's predictability makes him easier to shut down.

"If I can keep improving on the possession aspect, and then add it to my game permanently," Sillinger said, "I'll see myself have more opportunities and also whomever I play with will have more opportunities as well. Win-win."

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

That said, if the topic is right, he may share a pearl of wisdom with the world.

Take his appearance on a national TV broadcast in late November. Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet, then an analyst for TNT, asked Yzerman about the astounding number of blown leads during the 2022-23 season.

"Yeah," Yzerman replied. "I wouldn't say I have a real scientific answer. But I think our game - the league, in general - is in a real transition."

In today's NHL, Yzerman continued, the attacking team prioritizes puck possession and motion within the offensive zone. Defensemen activate often, which creates confusion for the defending team and leads to goals against.

"The offensive side of coaching has overtaken the defensive side," the GM added. "Now teams, coaches are going to have to adjust and come up with better defensive techniques or systems to defend a little bit."

Traditionally, hockey coaches have obsessed over defensive structure and habits: backchecking, blocking shots, clogging passing lanes, battling along the boards, closing gaps, and clearing the front of the net. It's ingrained in coaches' collective identity to care deeply about defensive details.

With the NHL plunging deeper into an era of offensive dominance, where league-wide scoring continues to hover well above six goals per game, how are coaches adapting? How much credit do coaches deserve for the uptick?

theScore recently asked eight coaches - four currently running NHL benches and four with loads of experience in lower leagues - those exact questions.

Here's what we learned.

The modern mindset

As of Tuesday morning, the average NHL game this season featured 6.38 goals. If that rate holds until the end of the regular season, 2022-23 will count as the highest-scoring campaign since 1993-94, according to Hockey Reference.

"We want to score 10. Every night," Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour told theScore over All-Star Weekend. "Now, we don't want to give up any, but we're trying to score 10. I think where the game's really improved in that regard is that (most NHL) coaches think the same way now."

This season's power plays have been converting on 21.4% of all opportunities - an absurd rate reached only in the wide-open 1970s and '80s. Moreover, multi-goal, third-period comebacks have suddenly become fairly common, with 2022-23 having already set the record for most in a single campaign (53).

This chaotic, offense-first product is a continuation of last season when goals per game rose to 6.28 from 5.88 in 2020-21 and 6.04 in 2019-20. Power-play success rate rose to 20.6% from 19.8% in '20-21 and 20.0% in '19-20.

"The one thing I know for certain is that no one fears a defensive team," Buffalo Sabres head coach Don Granato said when asked about his overarching philosophy. "Coaches and teams have to strategize to put people on their heels when they know you can score, and that commands respect."

Granato, whose team ranks third in goals for per contest this season, said he doesn't diminish or overlook the defensive side of the game. In his mind, Buffalo's defensive issues (27th in goals against per game) can be traced back to a youthful lineup making too many poor decisions with the puck.

"But yes," Granato said of aggressively pursuing goals, "it is and will be a deliberate focus. Always. It's always been like that with my coaching. Guys want to score, and it's a lot more fun to watch. Fans want to be entertained. So from the outset, yes, a couple of years ago we were dead last in scoring in the NHL. Now we're very close to first in the NHL in scoring, just tiny percentage points away. And that's by design and by effort by our guys."

The uptick in goal scoring can be attributed to all kinds of macro changes over the past decade. The NHL cracked down on slashing and cross-checking. Expansion created roughly 50 new jobs, which means players who previously competed in the minors are now in the NHL. Skaters everywhere gained access to better stick technology while goalie equipment has been slimmed down. Most elite youth players train with skills and skating coaches, raising the baseline of offensive ability at all ages and levels.

"We have better athletes all across the board," Brind'Amour said. "They've pushed the bar up, and now everyone's getting better and faster and stronger and more skilled because they've worked on it 24/7 since they were 10 years old."

Added Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer: "We've got so much young talent on rosters now that you didn't have before. You used to put out your third- and fourth-line checkers to lock down games as early as the second period if you've got a lead. Now you've got young, skilled players looking to score the entire game. That's why you see the swings. ... No lead is safe."

Coaches pull goalies earlier and more often, putting extra pucks in both nets. Power plays have been optimized by using four or five forwards, loading up the first unit with three or four deadly shooting threats, and disorienting the penalty kill with passes from the bumper spot and goal lines.

DeBoer, who's coached five different NHL clubs, noted that pro bench bosses are taking advantage of statistical and video analysis "more than they ever have in the history of the game" - especially during special-teams meetings.

"Players are a lot more inquisitive now. They do want to know the why and how things work," said Danton Cole, who's coached pro, junior, and college players for more than two decades, most recently at Michigan State. "The analytics of the game can help you offensively because you can show players how to attack through the middle of the ice or get off the wall in the offensive zone."

Teams have also altered how they operate at five-on-five - more carry-in zone entries, higher shot volume from the slot area, and a preference for east-west passing, just to name a few trends. The focus on maintaining possession and generating quality looks shows clearly in the five-on-five high-danger data:

James Richmond, GM and coach of the OHL's Mississauga Steelheads, said it's vitally important to frame defensive play in an incentive-rich way at the junior level. "The more we can pressure the player with the puck, the better chance we get it back and get it back soon," he tells his players.

"Every good junior player comes up through minor hockey having the puck a lot. That's not a new thing, but it's true," Richmond said. "As you go up levels, the puck is on your stick less and less. So, the goal is to get the puck back.

"How do we do that?" he continued. "We don't send five guys after the puck carrier, like a team of six-year-olds. There are certain areas you can occupy on the ice to make the puck carrier feel uncomfortable. You ideally want that player to pass or shoot it before they're really ready to pass or shoot. And if you can get somebody to do something out of their comfort zone, there's a good chance they're going to make a mistake, and you'll get the puck back."

Counterstriking - the act of turning defense into offense in the blink of an eye - is usually what follows a turnover in today's high-paced game. And you can't beat instant gratification in 2023.

It helps that modern defensemen are eager to start or join the attack to overwhelm the opposition. The stay-at-home archetype, which favors pucks off the glass and brute physicality over carry-out zone exits and effective stick checking, is essentially extinct. The job description for blue-liners has been rewritten for mobility, creativity, and problem-solving ability.

"Players now are interchangeable," said DeBoer, citing how frequently defensemen act like forwards and how often forwards must cover for them.

Ben Simon of the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins maintains "the old adage of 'your best defense is a good offense' is so relevant" for today's players and coaches. Everybody's eager to push play in the right direction - with numbers.

"I have seen - probably in the last four or five years - defensemen being way more active in really all aspects offensively, whether that's off a faceoff or off the rush or off a breakout or off sustained O-zone play," Simon said. "They're coming through a hockey system now where they're being encouraged to be more involved with the puck. And there's a natural correlation with coaching."

The extreme approach

Creating offense is at the core of the Brooks Bandits' program. The Alberta-based junior A team that helped develop Colorado Avalanche superstar Cale Makar scouts offensive dynamos almost exclusively, centers recruiting pitches and practice drills around scoring, and plays a high-risk brand of hockey.

It's all part of "flipping the script" inside teenage players' heads.

"There aren't really any players who get excited about defending," longtime Brooks GM and head coach Ryan Papaioannou said of the "No. 1 challenge" in junior. "Instead of trying to fight that battle head-on," he added, "we just start on the offensive side, get everybody to buy into that, then go from there."

The Stanley Cup-winning Chicago Blackhawks teams of the 2010s inspired Papaioannou to go all-in on offense. He loved how Chicago's defensemen defied tradition by always being on the move and finding ways to get involved in the offensive zone. The Bandits covet defensemen with strong skating, high intelligence, and puck skills. Size and physicality are far down the priority list.

Brooks' emphasis on offense is partially based on the widely held belief that a team can achieve defensively sound hockey through old-fashioned hard work. "I think 85% of playing defense is just straight-up effort," Papaioannou said.

The program graduated Makar, arguably the world's best defenseman (and the best prototype for the playing style), and Columbus Blue Jackets first-rounder Corson Ceulemans to the NCAA. This year's Bandits, who won 53 of 60 regular-season games, are chasing a third consecutive junior A national title.

"To try and do this in the NHL - at the scale we are - might be a little extreme," Papaioannou said. "The players you turn the puck over to in the NHL are going to burn you. You'd get eaten up pretty good most nights. But you could find a balance and bring up the level of offense in many different ways."

The inevitable counterpunch

As Yzerman suggested during his TNT interview in November, a market correction will come at some point. Coaches will try to outsmart each other, and, perhaps within only a few years, NHL goal rates will stop trending up.

There are several factors out of coaches' control - such as changing officiating standards and the young player's mindset - but they still hold immense power. Look no further than three-on-three overtime, where the chaotic action from early seasons has slowly been replaced by a coaching chess match.

"There's always a counterpunch to these trends. Coaches will figure out a way to combat this latest jump in scoring, even if it's reined in just a little," said Cole, who started coaching in the middle of the so-called dead-puck era.

Richmond, who runs the OHL's Steelheads, likens hockey tactics to fashion.

"It goes out of style, and it comes back, it goes, and it comes back. Why does it leave? Well, people get tired of it," Richmond said, chuckling. "In hockey, when you're always doing something over and over to create scoring chances, the other team sees it and builds a defensive scheme against it. Then it becomes harder again. So, it'll slow down and then come back again."

Every spring provides a temporary shift. In the playoffs, games tighten up as players fight for every inch of ice, officials put their whistles away, and coaches can key in on the opposition during a series. While the offensive mindset doesn't vanish, defensive structure certainly takes over.

"I think it's in coaches' DNA. We'll try and coach the skill out of the game as much as we can," DeBoer said with a hearty laugh. "We'll try and defend. Come playoff time, you see everyone else buckle down."

Vegas Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy recalled hearing Darryl Sutter of the Calgary Flames remark that the NHL has transitioned from being a 3-2 league to a 4-3 league. All things being equal, it's a nightly race to four goals.

That's fine with Cassidy. The NHL is in the entertainment business. Goals sell tickets. But he believes an all-offense approach would devalue the product.

"I just don't want it to become a 6-5 league," Cassidy said. "I don't think that's great for hockey. But I guess, until that happens, we'll see."

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Friday marks one week on the job for Daniel Briere, interim general manager for the Philadelphia Flyers. It's safe to say it's gotten progressively more stressful.

Philadelphia introduced Briere to the media and fans Sunday - normal and cool.

The former Flyers forward then traveled to Florida to mingle with his peers at the GM meetings. Normal and cool, too, though likely a whirlwind for the new guy.

By Wednesday, all of that normalcy and coolness vanished. Briere had to issue a statement condemning his second-oldest son's "inexcusable" actions at a bar after surveillance camera footage of Carson Briere shoving an unoccupied wheelchair down a flight of stairs went viral. (Carson, a 23-year-old junior forward at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania, apologized in his own statement.)

Carson's actions aren't directly related to the Flyers. But the entire situation reflects poorly on the Briere family and taints what ought to have been a heady first week at the helm. The proud Flyers fan base surely isn't pleased.

Mercyhurst suspended Carson Briere and two other athletes while continuing to investigate the incident. The matter is also in the hands of Erie police.

After dealing with that sideshow, Daniel Briere still has to figure out how to turn the Flyers around. He remarked during his press conference that a rebuild was on its way and warned it won't be a quick fix. He also said he didn't want to conduct a fire sale. Translation: The roster will be under heavy construction, but don't expect a Chicago Blackhawks-style strip down.

To be completely unambiguous, Briere has his work cut out for him.

On a recent episode of the Hockey PDOcast, host Dimitri Filipovic and I discussed which NHL franchises had the most depressing medium-term outlooks (roughly two to four years). We determined only the lowly Arizona Coyotes were in a worse spot than the Flyers.

Here's a high-level to-do list for Briere:

Acquire more 2023 draft capital

Failing to move pending unrestricted free agent James van Riemsdyk ahead of the trade deadline may have been the final nail in the coffin for Briere's predecessor, Chuck Fletcher. The Flyers, sitting 27th in points percentage, own their first-round pick in the upcoming draft. That's great. But they don't pick again until roughly halfway through the third round. That's unacceptable for a club in Philadelphia's position. Once the trade freeze lifts, Briere must find a way to acquire another 2023 first or, at the very least, an early second.

Define the long-term identity and core

Carter Hart, Travis Konecny, Joel Farabee, Owen Tippett, Cam York, Ivan Provorov, and Travis Sanheim are all under 27 years old and under contract or team control through next season (far beyond, in some cases). If Briere is serious about rebuilding, only some of those core pieces should be around for the long haul. Moving on from Provorov is a no-brainer, Sanheim appears to have fallen out of favor within the organization, whereas the decisions for guys like Hart and Konecny are complicated and carry more potential downside.

Search for stars and/or future stars

The Flyers' outlook seems so bleak partly because, aside from Konecny, the roster is devoid of anybody an objective observer might consider an NHL star or superstar. Hart, 24, is fairly young for a goalie, so there's still a chance he really pops. Prospect Cutter Gauthier could be a stud. Otherwise, the lack of star/future star talent is concerning, especially with uncertainty surrounding Sean Couturier's health. Proper drafting and developing are vital here, though it wouldn't hurt if Briere got creative on the free agency and trade markets.

Offload Hayes and Ristolainen contracts

Briere gave head coach John Tortorella a vote of confidence during his press conference. What does that mean for Kevin Hayes' future in Philly? Not only is he not Tortorella's favorite player, but Hayes is also a salary-dump candidate given his age and contract. A rebuild just doesn't mesh with Hayes' timeline as an effective NHLer. Rasmus Ristolainen's deal, which runs through 2026-27 at $5.1 million per year, is an even bigger eyesore on the Flyers' cap sheet. Similar to "search for stars," this task is far easier said than done for Briere.

Rantanen's MVP-caliber run

The last time the incomparable Connor McDavid collected all 100 first-place votes to win the Hart Trophy, Mikko Rantanen snuck into the top 10. The 26-year-old Colorado Avalanche winger earned a respectable 15 voting points for 2020-21 MVP thanks to one selection each for second, third, and fourth.

McDavid is going to win the Hart again, probably unanimously - again. The rest of the ballot is up for debate, though it's hard to envision Rantanen - whom teammate Nathan MacKinnon labels a "beast" one second and "horse" the next - finishing outside the top 10. The Finn will make the cut if he hits 50 goals (he's five away with 15 games remaining) and continues to play more than any forward not named McDavid (Rantanen is two seconds ahead of MacKinnon).

"You talk about value to a team and what he brings? Mikko's top three, top four, top five in the league," Avs forward Andrew Cogliano told theScore.

Cogliano's rationale: In his 16 years in the NHL, he's never played on a team that's encountered as much regular-season adversity as the 2022-23 Avs, and Rantanen has led them through the storm. The defending champions have dealt with a laundry list of injuries on top of having that title target on their backs. Yet they own the fifth-best points percentage in the Western Conference.

Gabriel Landeskog has been sidelined the entire season, while Josh Manson's missed 40 games, Bowen Byram's missed 38, Valeri Nichushkin 29, Cale Makar 13, and MacKinnon 11. Earlier this week, Colorado ruled Artturi Lehkonen out for four-to-six weeks. Rantanen is one of four Avs to appear in all 67 games.

"There were moments when it was Rants and maybe one more guy from the top six healthy. He was carrying the team," goalie Alexandar Georgiev said.

Added MacKinnon, who's also been incredible with 85 points in only 56 games: "Rants probably doesn't get all of the recognition that he deserves. Me and Cale were hurt, other guys were hurt, and he was getting hat tricks. He was leading our team to wins. He's been playing huge minutes all season."

Old-man Anderson still contributing

Quirky fact: The NHL's oldest player is on the league's youngest team.

Goalie Craig Anderson, who's in his 20th campaign in the league and second with the Buffalo Sabres, turns 42 in May. He has more than two years on Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Mark Giordano, the NHL's second-oldest player.

To put Anderson's elder statesman status in perspective, rookie teammates Owen Power and JJ Peterka were eight days and 10 months old, respectively, when the netminder made his NHL debut on Nov. 30, 2002.

The Sabres have kept Anderson's workload light this year with their three-goalie rotation. Still, there's no denying he's stopped pucks at an admirable rate, rocking a .917 save percentage in 23 games during a season in which the league average has drooped to .905. He's 13th in Evolving Hockey's goals saved above expected metric.

Teammates gush over how well Anderson, a leader in the dressing room and on the ice, processes incoming offense and how calm he is in the crease.

"He's so good at reading guys' eyes, reading guys' sticks, and figuring out where they're going to shoot," forward and 40-goal man Tage Thompson said.

"He makes it look like something is open," added Dylan Cozens, another young center with scoring chops. "But he takes it away right when you go to shoot. A lot of times, he knows exactly where you're going with the puck."

Parting shots

Max Domi: The Central Division-leading Dallas Stars needed offensive punch prior to the trade deadline, so they sent injured goalie Anton Khudobin and a second-round pick to the Blackhawks for Domi (and prospect Dylan Wells). Through seven games, the bet's looking solid with one goal, two assists, 17 shots, and 10 takeaways. Domi's averaged 16 minutes a night alongside five different linemates due to Dallas' injury woes. Domi's dad, Tie, and Stars bench boss Pete DeBoer were both selected by the Maple Leafs in the 1988 draft. Max is infinitely more skilled than dad, but Tie passed down a degree of grittiness. Are their personalities similar? Different? "I don't know if anyone's got a personality like Tie. I think Max is the best of his mom and his dad. That's a (good) way to put it," DeBoer said with a hearty laugh.

Kirill Marchenko: The Columbus Blue Jackets have positioned themselves quite nicely for the draft lottery in May. Better odds at picking Connor Bedard is a prize worth chasing, but the season's been miserable for a squad that aspired to make the playoffs in Year 1 of the Johnny Gaudreau era. A rare bright spot has been Marchenko's emergence on the wing. The 6-foot-3, 197-pound rookie started his NHL career by recording exclusively goals, 13 of them, before earning his first assist (16 straight to start a career is the record, set in 1917-18). Now with 17 snipes and two helpers in 44 games, Marchenko easily has the highest ratio. He's the Cy Young leader, if you will. Victor Olofsson (24 goals and nine assists) and Cole Caufield (26-10) trail him.

Fighting ban: As early as next season, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is moving toward an outright ban on fighting, commissioner Mario Cecchini said Thursday. The league is still determining disciplinary standards. I reached out to a few QMJHL contacts for reactions. One GM who is against the change is mostly curious about the motivation behind the ban. "Is it to reduce injuries?" the GM texted. "If so, the data should support this action. But, in my experience of late, most fights do not produce injuries. Thus, I believe this stance is for optics and politics rather than improving our game."

Takes, Thoughts, and Trends is theScore's biweekly hockey grab bag.

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

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