Washington, D.C.
Barry Trotz has been watching Leon Draisaitl and has been blown away by his play.
“To come in when he did as a fill-in for (Connor) McDavid and to have 17 points in his first 10 games … that’s staggering. He might be leading the league if he had played all of the Oilers’ games,” said the coach of the Washington Capitals.
“He’s a big man, maturing. He sort of reminds me of (Evgeni) Malkin, but doesn’t skate as well. He’s really strong on the puck and he’s very intelligent … he’s hard to get the puck off,” Trotz said. “He doesn’t have the size as Malkin but he’s young. Malkin’s older”
“They’ve got some good young players up the middle in Edmonton. Draisaitl, McDavid, (Ryan) Nugent-Hopkins. They have to be feeling awfully good about the future.”
The Caps saw McDavid in Edmonton Oct. 23 when he had a goal and an assist, but with McDavid out for weeks with a busted collarbone, they didn’t see him Monday night. As a coach, Trotz didn’t mind. As a fan, he felt a bit cheated. His first impression of McDavid at Rexall Place was short and sweet.
“Wow,” he said. “I miss seeing him personally, but as a coach I’m glad we don’t have to worry about him.
“You don’t know until you see a player up close and personal, but Connor skates as effortlessly as anybody I’ve seen in this league. Sort of reminds me of Mike Modano. Looks like he’s not even moving, but he’s flying. Smart and dynamic. He forces players to come to him and he makes the right decisions.”
Trotz, like most coaches, talks of the “process” with their teams. But it’s clearly so with the Oilers.
“With Todd (coach McLellan) there, he’s brought some structure. There’s more accountability from watching them play. There’s a lot of demands put on the young people to understand things. Just look at the play of young (Taylor) Hall. And they have some good leaders in the older set, like Matt Hendricks. I know Matt very well (from coaching him in Nashville.”
“I like their mix. It’s a good mix. They’re headed in the right direction.”
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Speaking of people going in the right direction, Trotz has Alex Ovechkin, who is now zeroing in on 500 career goals after beating Sergei Fedorov’s 483 as the highest-scoring Russian-born player. Ovechkin went into the Oilers game with 485 goals in 778 games.
Chasing down Fedorov wasn’t a weight on Ovechkin’s shoulders. Fedorov took 1,248 games.
“Nothing bothers Alex. He’s been in the spotlight his whole life and knows how to handle it. He’s not afraid of anything. That’s his biggest strength,” Trotz said.
“I had the pleasure of coaching a lot of games against Sergei (Fedorov) and he’s a Hall of Fame player with a fantastic skill level, but Ovie beat his record by about 500 games. When I think of that, alone, I go wow.”
“The media calls this the dead-puck age, and to score at the level he has? Pretty amazing.”
jmatheson@edmontonjournal.com
http://jmatheson@edmontonjournal.com
