"I'm not surprised
he's doing well in this league! I've played against him before a
bunch of times internationally. He's a good player! He's strong,
he's got a good shot, good with the puck. I haven't seen Crosby much, but I think Ovechkin is a better
player." -Henrik Zetterberg talking about Capitals
rookie Alexander Ovechkin.
Wings'
Magicians are Something Special
By Larry Wigge, NHL.com
columnist, Dec. 7, 2005
There are frequently
no words spoken between Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg before
they make magic on the ice that other NHL players only wish they
copy.
It's a quiet
confidence. A communication beyond words, spiced with skill,
instinct and an innate ability to produce something that a coach
could only dream of drawing up on a
chalkboard.
We've talked a lot
about the dazzling performances that have been turned in by
Ottawa's line of Jason Spezza, Daniel
Alfredsson and Dany Heatley or Philadelphia's potent unit with Peter Forsberg,
Simon Gagne and Mike Knuble, as well as Carolina's trio centered by Eric Staal or Craig
Conroy's line in Los Angeles or Ilya
Kovalchuk's line in Atlanta. But for pure magic,
there's nothing more unpredictable than the moves Datsyuk and
Zetterberg produce every night.
"Sometimes Pavel will
give me a wink or nod his head ... and I usually know what he
means," Zetterberg told me.
Sort of like Peyton
Manning gesturing at one of his receivers, when he gets up to the
line of scrimmage?
Datsyuk nodded and
said about the Manning comparison, "I used to point my fingers to a
spot like he does for Brett Hull. It seemed to
work."
Said Zetterberg, "I
don't know how to describe it. I guess it's just instincts. I see
him make a move and think, 'Where would I want my linemate to go if
I was making the same kind of move he's
making?'"
So, it's more than
just coincidence. It's like twins finishing one another's sentences
or a great comedy team adlibbing their way through a skit to make it
more entertaining. What makes it even more impressive with Datsyuk
and Zetterberg is they are from two different countries and cultures
-- Sverdlovsk, Russia for Datsyuk and Njurunda,
Sweden for
Zetterberg.
In an Olympic year,
it's amazing to see just how lucky we are to see the thread that
pulls the greatest talent in the world together to make such
marvelous theater from night to night -- especially in the new-look
NHL, where these breathtaking skills can now be seen nearly every
shift. And with the world stage NHL stars will have in Turin, Italy, for two weeks in February,
think of how many more great players around the world will want to
come to North America to play in
our game.
Magical adlibs and
instincts aren't the only things that makes Datsyuk and Zetterberg
so special. It's the surprise that these two players are even
getting the chance to play on the best stage in the world. After
all, some 170 players were chosen in the NHL Entry Draft in 1998
before Datsyuk and even more, 209 players, were picked ahead of
Zetterberg just one year later.
"I had never heard of
Pavel and Henrik. Well, I had read a little about him in the Swedish
newspapers and magazines I get from back home. But never in my
wildest dreams did I think these names on a draft list would bring
so much creativity and production to our lineup," said Red Wings
defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, a three-time winner of the Norris
Trophy. "And it's no fluke, either. (GM) Ken Holland and (assistant
GM) Jim Nill seem to find great players every year. You don't know
how much confidence that gives the guys who have been here for a
while to know that somebody pretty darn good is going to come in to
compete for a roster spot almost every year."
Several scouts
interviewed for this column indicated that Datsyuk always showed the
great skill, it's just that the glimpses of brilliance were too far
apart in his draft year. Like Datsyuk, Zetterberg's size was a point
of contention in an NHL where bigger was better during all of those
years where teams were able to trap and obstruct the smaller players
who weren't equipped to fight through the hands and arms and
stick-checks. Datsyuk is now listed at 5-11, 185 pounds and
Zetterberg at 6-0, 190. Before they were drafted, Datsyuk was 5-10,
160 pounds and Zetterberg 5-11, 175 pounds.
"Pavel had loads of
talent, but I remember saying to myself, 'At that size, can he make
those breathtaking moves against the big people he'd be facing in
the NHL?'" said Rick Dudley, the former GM in Ottawa, Florida and
Tampa Bay, who now scouts for the Chicago Blackhawks. "The long and
short answer: Obviously, he can."
"It's a fair question
to wonder why did so many teams pass on Datsyuk and Zetterberg,"
said former Calgary GM Craig Button, who now scouts for the Toronto
Maple Leafs. "I remember thinking that Zetterberg was too skinny,
too frail to take the pounding he'd receive in the
NHL.
"Well, we were all
wrong. Even the Red Wings must have had some doubts, or else they
would have picked Pavel and Henrik earlier. What you have to give
them credit for is sticking to their guns and drafting for skill and
talent up and down the draft, when, at that point, other teams might
be looking for a specific type of player like a defensive
defenseman, a tough guy, a big center for a particular role in the
later rounds. That seems to be the key to their success in the draft
over the years with more than just Datsyuk and
Zetterberg."
"There are players out
there, you just have to find them," said Nill, who will someday soon
find a GM's job in the NHL. "We go into each draft hoping to find at
least two players. And we've discovered through time that if you're
going to find a sleeper, it's probably going to be in Europe. Everybody wants the 6-foot scorer, the
220-pound, highly skilled North American. But those guys go high in
the draft. We're not going to get them, because we usually don't
pick until the end of each round.
"Actually, Pavel was
even more difficult to evaluate. He went through the draft twice
without being picked. But Hakan Andersson, one of our scouts, saw
him a couple of times each year and kept telling us this little guy
was a really good player. He said Pavel reminded him of a young Igor
Larionov with his playmaking ability. Finally, we decided to
overlook the size questions. We decided that you couldn't take away
what he could accomplish with the puck -- his ability to find a
teammates in almost any situation, the moves that make him so
dangerous in the NHL now."
When you look at the
players the Red Wings have brought over from Europe and the Iron
Curtain nations like Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov, Vladimir
Konstantinov, Slava Kozlov, Tomas Holmstrom, Jiri Fischer, Datsyuk
and Zetterberg, along with a host of future prospects, you wonder
why other teams don't do a more thorough job
oversees.
"There are unknowns,
starting with showing up at a rink in Russia only to find out
the game you wanted to see was played yesterday," Nill said, shaking
his head. "And then there's the language barrier and culture shock
that you have to deal with (with) many of the kids. I remember going
over to see Pavel a couple of years after we drafted him and calling
to him. Finally, he turned around and said, 'I don't know the
English.'"
His body language on
and off the ice is just fine now.
For most of the
2003-04 season, Datsyuk was challenging Robert Lang, Martin St.
Louis and Ilya Kovalchuk for the scoring race before he struggled
down the stretch and finished with 30 goals and 38 assists in 75
games.
Zetterberg went from
contender for the Calder Trophy in 2002-03 to a disappointing 15
goals and 28 assists in 2003-04, a season in which he missed 21
games and was bothered for long stretches with a crippling leg
injury.
There's an elite level
that often comes after players with the kind of skills that Datsyuk
and Zetterberg have flashed in front of us. Both on a point-per-game
pace this season and at least one "Great One" from the past thinks
they are already at that level.
"The thing about elite
players is you see what they do and the numbers they put up, but the
next sign is the intensity they play with every shift," Gretzky said
recently. "The next time you see them play, just look at the
intensity on their faces and in their eyes. That's what impresses me
most about Datsyuk and Zetterberg."
Red Wings goaltender
Chris Osgood has seen Datsyuk and Zetterberg from both sides -- in
Detroit and when he played in
St.
Louis. He also marvels at the work ethic of
the twosome.
"They are relentless,"
Osgood said. "I remember facing them when I was with the Blues and
thinking, 'Take a shift off once in a while, please.' They were
coming at us in waves all night, every time we played
them.
"Of course, now that
I'm back in Detroit, I'll give them a pat on
the butt and encourage them to keep putting the pressure on the
opposition. It's really something to watch them now. It seems like
every time they are on the ice, they are
dangerous."
And it's more than
just flash and dash and a passing fancy.
"It's funny, but Pavel
used to want to beat the same guy three times on one play,"
Holland said. "Now, he beats one
guy and goes to the next, and taking the puck to the net is another
thing he does better than his first couple of years in the
NHL."
"I see plays, yes,"
Datsyuk said recently with a big smile. "But not three plays ahead.
... Two, maybe."
"Henrik, he's a
complete player," Holland said. "He's got great
hands, great instincts, he's great in traffic and he really sees the
ice well. With both of them, what I see is a new maturity and
confidence to go along with their dedication and determination to
work harder to be better. Over the years, I've seen a lot of great
players who don't work hard enough to be better. I always tell our
scouts, 'Tell me when a smaller guy shows you he can do it and when
a bigger guy shows you he can't.'"
You could say that
Zetterberg, one year after playing for Timra in the Swedish Elite
League during the NHL lockout and leading that league in scoring
with 50 points (19 goals, 31 assists) in 50 games, is grabbing the
most attention so far this season.
There's no
exaggeration about the skill of players like Datsyuk and Zetterberg,
who make those plays, those shots while at a high speed, sort of
like what has made Colorado's Joe Sakic so good for
so long. It's their balance on skates, the strength in their legs
and the creativity in their minds that make them so entertaining to
watch. It's those dazzling one-on-one moves that make opponents back
off for fear that they might actually look silly if they get
beat.
Pavel Datsyuk and
Henrik Zetterberg are young and they like life in the fast lane.
Speed. Excitement. A challenge on the ice.
"I think we both like
to see the challenge of competition at a fast pace," Zetterberg
said. "You should see how big Pavel's eyes get when the action gets
fierce. Mine probably do, too. Clearly, we both see a lot of the
same things on the ice and wonder how we can translate that into
making something happen out there."
Wonder? It's
precision, Henrik. We've seen it before with guys like Manning and
Marvin Harrison for years, with Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan or
Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri ... and a few
others.
Just let us sit back
and wonder. Let us enjoy what amazing thing is going to happen
next.
