The skill is still destroyed by familiar means – this NHL clan has the brightest Finnish representation and this would be the expert’s first kit choice

Saturday evening 18.2. NHL match Nashville Predators–Florida Panthers. Live broadcast on TV2, Areena, app and Urheilu’s website starting at 20:55.

In the NHL, the zeitgeist is gimmicky. Youthful speed and eye-popping individual performances fill the target lists of visual radios on both sides of the Atlantic, and why not? Hockey is ultimately a scoring game, and if the new generation keeps coming up with more entertaining ways to turn on the red light, all the better.

This is self-evident, because the people want goals.

Read also: The “gimmick boys” charmed the NHL, but do flashy tricks have anything to do with winning? A blunt judgment from an expert

However, the people also want championships.

How to win championships is a discussion of its own, and it does not deal with individualistic virtuosity with silk gloves. In the merciless world of the playoffs of the fabled hockey league, the gikka spirit often suffers badly. In the NHL, the playoff world is the territory of the Dunas.

This also applies to the new generation of puck defenders.

– We should value this type of basic defender much more in hockey, ‘s hockey expert Ismo Lehkonen says.

In the new era NHL, tempo skill is defended with good positioning, smooth skating and timely stick pressure. In previous decades, the grip was a bit more brutal. Although in the NHL you don’t run into and search for big mines in the middle area like in previous years, the physical threat is constantly present and, according to Lehkonen, in ever-increasing amounts.

– I have been of the opinion for a long time that this is what will happen. It has been talked about in other sports as well, how to destroy skill. Well, with hardness, of course. Thanks to a few championship teams, many now build their defenses with four big boys who provide toughness starting in the middle.

– Basic defenders never go out of style, says Lehkonen.

There is support for the view.

Defense wins punts

of Colorado Cale Makar is a generational talent and an exceptional individual as a puck super player, but for example from Vancouver Quinn Hughes, one of the five defensemen who averaged a point per game this season, overall still strong in the process. Still, Hughes is his team’s number one defender.

Few very young – or even more experienced – virtuosos have been successful at team level.

Take, for example, Tampa Bay, who won the double championship (2020 and 2021).

Swedish defender Victor Hedman probably the best defender in the world overall, who doesn’t live on points, even though he scores them. Behind him were the core defenders of the champion teams, among others Ryan McDonagh mixed Erik Cernaknames more unknown to many who didn’t really celebrate with points.

St. Louis won in 2019. Since then switched to Vegas Alex Pietrangelo was the rightful star defender of the team, but not a virtuoso operating at the risk limits of goal combinations, let alone the second pair From Jay Bouwmeester or About Joel Edmundson – for his team’s absolutely irreplaceable basic bones, who scored one goal for two men in the playoffs.

A year later, Edmundson was the starting lute for the finals with Montreal.

When Pittsburgh won the championship in 2017 without their No. 1 quarterback Kris Letangquantities such as. got the most ice time Brian Dumoulin, Rob Hainsey and Olli Määttä.

Defense still wins championships.

– When teams are built in the NHL with the idea of ​​going to the playoffs and succeeding there, they understand that often these smaller defenders are torpedoed on the way with a tough game. A thousand and one hundred people come back from there all the time. It’s already harder to pull something Hedman onto the roof, Lehkonen laughs.

– Or let’s turn it around, when talking about winning play and high-quality defense, that as an opponent, would you rather play against Hedman or Hughes, Lehkonen asks.

Both ways

The so-called two-way defenders, who are able to operate at both ends of the rink, are among the most unpredictable. Colorado’s superstar defenseman Makar has charmed the entire hockey universe with his incredible skating and incredible individual skills, but he would not be the first or even the second choice for Lehkonen’s dream team.

– If I could start choosing any way, I would take Hedman first. There are no two words about it. After that, I’d take Colorado Devon Toews and then only Makari, Lehkonen downloads

Toews is a lesser known name to the general public. The Canadian defenseman is an almost irreplaceable, balancing top two-way defenseman for both Colorado as a team and Makar as an individual. Other high-quality two-way defenders are, for example, Carolina Jacob Slavin and Boston Hemp Lindholm.

Then there is the clan of so-called stay-at-home defenders, whose job is purely to protect their own goal and kill the ice. You don’t see these hard-working brutes in the superiority game, but especially in the playoff world, the value of such players goes through the roof.

If one of the pairs of kits in this category stands out from the past few years, it is the New York Islanders Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech. The duo has overshadowed the opposition’s elite players for years and has dominated the goal distribution this season by more than 65 percent. Finns have the strongest representation in this category Esa LindellOlli Määtän and Jani Hakanpää through.

– These are players who stay within the game, give an easy first pass all the way to the shoulder and share toughness. The distances are very good there, and when they are still very mobile and reaching guys, there is no way to get past, Lehkonen praises.

Few reach Heiskanen’s level

Evolution has taken the game in the direction of speed and skill, but could Finland, which has scarcely produced NHL defensemen in recent years, get defenders behind the baton at a more frequent pace, if examples were mentioned more often in the general conversation Miro Heiskanen along with, say, Esa Lindell or Jani Hakanpää, a real top-level general defenseman in the NHL.

Only a few can play in the NHL, like Heiskanen, more than Lindell or Hakanpää.

– We would definitely get more players there this season. The ideal should be a good basic game where yours stays at zero and everything that comes from the attack is a bonus. It seems that this new-age puck operation has become a headache for the players.

Ismo Lehkonen chose the best defender profiles from this season

ROCKY DEFENDERS:

Adam Fox, New York Rangers – “Exceptional offensive zone movement and insightful action. And excellent in supporting direct attacks, finds gaps well.”

Erik Karlsson, San Jose – “Plays at an absolutely incredible level. Here is a player who is never in a hurry. Unbelievably great solutions even in tight spaces.”

Josh Morrissey, Winnipeg – “When the door opened, please start running a first-caliber puck game. And it worked, a lottery win for Winnipeg.”

TWO WAY DEFENDERS

Devon Toews, Colorado – “A player of incredible quality and absolutely irreplaceable for his team. Through his reliability, Makari has a license to fulfill himself and run around.”

Jacob Slavin, Carolina – “I really like Slavin, one of the best defenders in the league. An incredible warrior and bull.”

Hemp Lindholm, Boston – “Damn good two ways. He is one big reason why Boston is having a super season. They knew they would get a good defender from Anaheim, but not that they would get a superstar.”

STAY HOME ADVOCATES

Ryan McDonaghNashville – “Doesn’t make any mistakes, the first pass is always on the shoulder and the little things on top of the last.”

Esa Lindell and Jani Hakanpää, Dallas – “When you think about the rise of Dallas, you can’t forget these guys. They do their job very well. Lindell still goes about his business without ice, even though he is constantly playing against guys in the first team.”

Nikita ZadorovCalgary – “Head Coach Darryl Sutter’s looking player who plays really hard. They are still working on his playing, but he is a really dangerous player for the opponent.”

Saturday evening 18.2. NHL match Nashville Predators–Florida Panthers. Live broadcast on TV2, Areena, app and Urheilu’s website starting at 20:55.