The Players’ Tribune is an interesting site because it gives athletes a chance to tell their own stories. I particularly enjoy reading their insights not because they are always on point or because they always well written, but because their point of view is so unlike our own. This piece by Igor Larionov about the creative freedom that was born out of the Soviet system is a really cool view into a part of hockey’s history that usually gets painted with a cartoonishly evil brush.
As Larionov, who is now a player agent that represents many young stars including Nail Yakupov, was discussing what it was like to train under what we would consider hellish conditions he made a point about modern coaching that is hard not to take as a subversive shot directed towards the way the Eakins Oilers handled their Russian 1st Overall pick. He never mentioned Yakupov or the Oilers, but the connections are there to be made. Larionov writes:
The problem is more philosophical and starts way before players get to the NHL. It’s easier to destroy than to create. As a coach, it’s easier to tell your players to suffocate the opposing team and not turn the puck over. There are still players whose imagination and creativity capture the Soviet spirit — Johnny Gaudreau in Calgary, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews in Chicago just to name a few. However, they are becoming exceptions to the rule. Many young players who are intelligent and can see the game four moves ahead are not valued. They’re told “simple, simple, simple.…That mentality is kind of boring. Nobody wants to get fired. Nobody wants to get sent down to the minors. If you look at the coaches in Juniors and minor league hockey, many of them were not skill players. It’s a lot of former enforcers and grinders who take these coaching jobs. Naturally, they tell their players to be just like them. Their players are 17, 18 years old — younger than I was when I joined the Red Army team. Say what you want about the Whiplash mentality (or the Soviet mentality), but if coaches are going to push kids at that age, why are they pushing them to play a simple game? Why aren’t coaches pushing them to create a masterpiece?
We lose a lot of Pavel Datsyuks to the closed-minded nature of the AHL and NHL.
He talks about the turnovers made by Datsyuk and how the right coach was able to see the unique talent despite those mistakes whereas another on a different team might not have been able to get past them. He’s talking about Pavel Datsyuk but he might as well be speaking directly about the young Oiler winger he represents.
And he’s making a great point. The Oilers did try to break Yakupov down and force him to be a better grinder. They did demand more simplicity from his game (not that that is always a bad option). Eakins’ approach to Nail Yakupov was he was going to turn him into a great 200 foot player and the fact that he was already a dynamic offensive player was never really taken into consideration. The philosophical differences were so bad between coach and player that Larionov visited Edmonton early into last season to discuss them with the team’s leadership.
Of course now there’s a new coach in Edmonton, one who isn’t afraid to play Yakupov when the game is on the line. Nelson is a coach who has empowered this young player, not broken him down, and the results are extraordinary. He went from looking like a lost kid to being one of the team’s most consistent and dynamic players.
I don’t think that Larionov wrote that piece entirely to gently make a point about Yakupov, but I do think the situation here was inspiration for those few paragraphs about the importance of recognizing unique talent and pushing for greatness rather than settling for mediocrity.
Or maybe he was just talking about Pavel Datsyuk.
LINEUP
Nail Yakupov was not present at the morning skate and he left early in yesterday’s practice too. It’s a tweak of some kind that might prevent him from playing tonight. That would serve as a big blow to the team as Yakupov has been a consistently good player for the past month. Petry’s rib should be fine and he will likely play tonight too. There is some merit to the idea that his stock is as high as it can possibly be right now and playing him only risks injury, but resting him only weakens the team’s chances of winning even further.
Pouliot RNH Eberle Purcell Roy Yakupov (Fraser?) Hamilton Hendricks Pakarinen Gazdic Gordon Klinkhammer*
Ference Petry Klefbom Schultz Marincin Fayne
Scrivens
*Note: I never list the Gordon line as the 4th line because despite what the Oilers say, they are the 3rd line. However, I just wanted the lines to be set up for this from Jonathan Willis.
LRT:
2nd line: Purcell plus two guys who were on waivers
3rd line: Hendricks plus two AHL'ers
4th line: Gordon, enforcer, throw-in
— Jonathan Willis (@JonathanWillis) February 24, 2015OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) The White Whale. “Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.… Nobody has dominated the Oilers this year like Devan Dubnyk has. He’s posted a .970 sv% against the Oilers this season and averages less than a goal a game against him. He is effectively better than Dominic Hasek in his prime so long as he plays Edmonton. There’s an alternate universe where Dubnyk played as well as he has this year except while an Oiler still. In that universe he was signed to a 4-5 year contract at 4M per season and both sides were happy. In this one he has become the team’s arch nemesis and a symbol of the club’s failures, fair or not.
2) Pedal to the Metal. The Oilers are putting Pouliot back up on the top line and that hopefully should help keep that line heading in the right direction. Even if he is shooting at an entirely unsustainable rate, Pouliot is a North-South player who can hopefully elevate the speed that RNH and Eberle play with. It’s not all about scoring, because Eberle has been a man on fire since Nelson took over, but the Oilers were choked out by Minnesota the last time these clubs played. 15 shots on net are not going to get it done and the Oilers’ don’t have a ton of speed so loading up on the attacking lines might help them out tonight. That’s the theory anyway.
3) Stop Getting Hurt. The Oilers lineup is overburdened by replacement players right now and they cannot afford more of them. As Willis pointed out, if Yak is indeed out there is only 1 line that consists of 3 established NHLers tonight. As pleasant as Oesterle was in his debut, the team also needs Petry to remain unscathed until next Monday. The medbay is getting filled with a lot of redshirts who aren’t coming back in one piece from away-team missions.
Puck drops tonight at 6:08 PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet Oilers. Whale On!
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