Thursday, October 14, 2010

A case for giving Hall a birds-eye view



Here's Taylor Hall, in a situation I saw a lot of in tonight's game.

Taylor Hall has now played three NHL contests, to varying degrees of success. He’s gotten his feet wet playing on a line with the team’s new captain and fellow super-rookie Jordan Eberle. After these three games the team is a respectable 2-1, and Hall has recorded his first NHL point, an assist in the Oilers’ second game of the year. Unfortunately, he’s starting to show some habits.

Bad habits.

Habits that must be addressed sooner rather than later.

Before today’s contest with the Minnesota Wild, his line-mate and mentor Shawn Horcoff had this to say:

His shifts are too long... And he has to come back deeper for the puck to open up more ice. You have to overwork to get more ice. He's taking off (too quickly) and the defencemen are right there, but that's the NHL. These things will come. He wants it so badly, he stays out there because he wants it...

It’s a harsh reality for the Oilers first rounder, but it’s also truth. Sportsnet had a graphic up before tonight’s game showing Hall’s shift-times were the highest among Oilers (50 seconds per). Not just among forwards mind, this is team-wide. More than our established first-line players and even the defensemen. That’s kind of shocking.

He cut back on his shift-times today to a more respectable 45-seconds per, which is a start in the right direction. He has to show commitment to working within his limits and taking an active approach to reigning in his shift-times is a good first step.

On to the second part of Horcoff’s constructive criticism, his tendency to fly the zone was very noticeable in today’s game, particularly in the third period. I recall one such defensive series where he did it on two occasions, only to watch Eberle’s attempted home-run pass get gobbled-up at the blueline for a 5-bell scoring chance. He’s seemingly gunning for the neutral zone as soon as a teammate gains possession of the puck, hoping for an offensive chance of his own. What he has to realize at the NHL level is that possession of the puck does not always equal a change in offensive possession, a near mathematical impossibility in fact, with Edmonton’s current defensive corps playing as it has been. His lack of commitment to ensuring the opposing threat has been eliminated is creating odd-man chances against on a nightly basis, and Hall must be made to see his failures in this area if he is to succeed.

Let’s be honest here. Taylor Hall, for all his bells and whistles, is still a teenager. We all know he’s going to make the inevitable mistake and there isn’t much we can do about it. I’ll freely take the good with the bad provided he remains on his learning curve. But like my parents always said, you have to learn from your mistakes. And tonight it became apparent that either Hall is doomed to repeat some mistakes several times, or he’s turning a deaf ear to his captain and linemate. He was flying the zone tonight exactly as was addressed before the game.

So maybe he’s not one to learn from his mistakes. How else can the coaching staff get the message across to Hall that he can’t be thinking offense before his team has gained full possession of the puck?

My solution is hinging on the possibility that he’s more of a visual learner. Maybe it’s time to sit Taylor Hall in the press-box for a game.

Some of you may feel it’s too early in the season to already be so down on Hall’s play. Some of you might be right. It is early, I understand that, but it’s never too early to instil proper practices in our future franchise player. He shouldn’t view the press-box as a demotion, more of a learning tool to help him understand how our veteran players continue to (sort-of) thrive in the NHL. He could learn a lot from watching Horcoff, Hemsky and Penner’s defensive zone presence from upstairs. Hell, I’ve never played a game of organized hockey higher than house-league myself but I think that from watching Horcoff et al. for the last five years I’ve got the gist of how to properly execute a defensive-zone breakout if I’d need the skill.

The press-box duty is also a way of delaying judgement on his 9-game tryout. Not that I’m advocating for his banishment to Windsor, but it’s still technically an option if by the end of his 9th game he’s gone 0-1-1 for -10. Press-box duty for a game (or two, situation depending) would be a much better idea than sending him back to junior. The PR nightmare alone for sending the 1st Overall back to junior would be unbelievable.

Taylor Hall will one day be a great-to-elite level hockey player in the NHL. But maybe he’d learn a thing or two from a birds-eye view on Saturday.

2 comments:

  1. ya know.....not a bad idea. Lookin' at the upcoming sched, which game would u sit him for?

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  2. roaddog61:

    Tomorrow's tilt against Calgary. Bump Paajarvi up to play with Horcoff/Eberle, Jones up with the two blind mice, SMac on the 4th with Fraser and Stortini.

    ReplyDelete