David Perron's Stickhandling

Less is more

Before David Perron, there is his older brother Pascal.

Half a lifetime ago, Pascal and I are regular posters on an online hockey message board.

English isn’t Pascal’s first language. Posting under the unfortunate alias Kovy_Ribs_Fedo, his poor grammar and over-enthusiasm about anything Alex Kovalev make him the predominantly Anglophone membership’s official whipping boy.

Pascal, a junior AAA player, tries to turn his online reputation around. He decides to show off his skills and uploads a video of him practicing off-ice stickhandling.

In the short, grainy video, he is wearing plaid boxers, locked in a 30-degree knee bend while chopping up a stickhandling ball positioned in front of him.

Needless to say, the (mostly) friendly ribbing continued.

The pre-YouTube footage is lost to history, but the memory lives on.

Alex Kovalev channelling Pascal Perron, perhaps

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All things considered, then, I’m surprised that Pascal’s little brother is still a top-line NHLer at 33.

Exposing the puck in front of one’s body is a poor idea against savvy defenders. Players who grow up doing so tend to age poorly, especially when they don’t possess blinding speed, which David doesn’t.

David might’ve grown up doing the same off-ice drills as Pascal, but over the years STL57 has refined, and redefined, his understanding of what effective stickhandling really is.