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From Leading Scorer To Fourth Line |
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It’s one thing when a coach suggests a player isn’t pulling his weight.
It’s an entirely different story when the player himself admits to it.
“I haven’t been battling as hard as I wanted, so that’s the biggest thing right now,” Detroit Red Wings right-winger Anthony Mantha told Mlive.com.
The upshot of this admission is that Mantha, who has scored one goal in eight games this season, will find himself skating on the fourth line as the Wings face the Carolina Hurricanes Monday at Little Caesars Arena.
Last season, Mantha was Detroit’s leading scorer with 24 goals, but this season, disturbing old habits relating to work ethic and battle readiness have once again emerged, and Wings coach Jeff Blashill seems at a loss to understand how to light a fire under Mantha, who at 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds, should be able to deliver an imposing physical presence.
“I’m not sure,” Blashill admitted as to why the message isn’t resonating with Mantha. “I don’t know why it’s a recurring theme but it’s something we’re going to keep working at.”
One of Mantha’s self-imposed objectives is to put five shots on goal per game, but he’s well off that pace this season with 20 shots in eight games, an average of 2.5 shots per game. He knows that he must do better.
“It’s just being intense, winning battles, using my body to win those battles and obviously putting the effort in a little more in games,” Mantha said. “I think last game I didn’t play a whole lot of minutes but I won my battles, I had a couple scoring chances. I need to build off that and keep going forward.”
Curiously, for someone who acknowledges he’s not putting his hard hat on and going to work often enough, Mantha also recognizes that’s exactly what he must do in order to succeed.
“You work harder,” Mantha said. “I had a meeting with Blash the other morning. We talked about it. That’s why I’m on the fourth line. I need to get my game going and go back up the ladder.”
But just as you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, old habits are hard to break.
“Anthony has played a certain way a long time in his life and over the past number of years we’ve been trying to change that, so he can be as effective player as possible at this level,” Blashill said. “There’s different ways to change habits. I’ve gone through this lots over the years with him. One way is to meet and talk, one way is to show, and I think the most powerful for him has been clips when he’s doing it right and clips when he’s not doing it right, so there’s a good comparison between the two.
“One way is to take away ice time. Sometimes that’s to change habits, sometimes that’s just to help your hockey team. Sometimes you tell.
“This isn’t something he doesn’t want to change. He wants to. He recognizes that to you guys, he recognizes that to me. He’s got to find a way to get himself moving in a more consistent basis.
“I think he’s a good kid who wants to be a real good player and our job is keep trying to do everything we can to help him get there.”
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