Tomas Tatar is supposed to be a healthy scratch for Game 3 of the MTL-TOR series.
I don’t understand MTL’s reasoning, as MTL90 is not only the team’s best 5v5 player in Game 2, but also its most dynamic rush player during the season.
MTL split up its Almost Perfect line of Tatar-Phillip Danault-Brendan Gallagher in the past two postseasons, but regardless of where he plays MTL90 brings an offensive element that few teammates possess.
As anticipated Tatar is one of MTL’s most threatning attackers, assisting on Nick Suzuki’s goal and recording the team’s best 5v5 play-driving stats.
An Influential Player
Tatar is not big or especially fast.
He’s not airtight in the defensive zone (even if the opposition rarely gets the puck there when he is on his game).
He is not an especially charismatic teammate.
But Tatar masters the Holy Trinity of playmaking in a way that few do.
From my ebook Hockey Tactics 2020:
Offense implies getting into a scoring position, and it was (Guy) Lafleur’s successor who introduced the Holy Trinity of playmaking to the masses. In 1979-80 Wayne Gretzky took over as the NHL’s leading scorer. He was neither big nor fast nor strong, but he could outwit and outplay anyone in his way…
On his backyard rink in Brantford, Ont., No. 99 had mastered the Holy Trinity of modern offense: change of speed, change of side and the slip pass. We remember him best for his uncanny ability to find a seam from his office behind the net, but it was those three tools that allowed him to get up ice with unparalleled efficiency.
(Hockey Tactics 2020, Chapter 1)
The best Slovak winger of his generation has a bit of Gretzky in his game.
Look at his actions leading to MTL’s lone Game-3 goal.
Starting from a defensive position, MTL90 out-thinks TOR65.
Expecting a cutback by the TOR forward, Tatar reroutes and smartly wedges himself against his opponent, gaining exclusive access to the puck.
Critically Tatar then scrapes the puck off the wall and slips it to MTL94 at the strong-side dot lane.
With a full head of steam, MTL94 finds MTL14 on the far side, who blitzes TOR and sneaks a wrister under the goalie’s blocker to tie the game.
If I were MTL, I’d be working feverishly to groom more Tatar-like creators, rather than demoting one of the few players who are able to imagine and execute these exacting patterns at game speed.
Ingredients for (Future) Success
In all likelihood the 30-year-old Tatar will be moving on from MTL during the off-season.
But it would be such a shame if he departs without influencing the team’s player development philosophy for years to come.
Tatar the player might be as good as gone, but Tomas Tatar hockey is a course that every prospect and vet should be taking before matriculating to the Habs.
MTL’s coaches and development staff should be going through Tatar’s game with a fine-tooth comb to identify the details and habits that drive his exceptional on-ice results.
If every MTL skater internalized a bit of what makes Tatar a top NHL player, the entire team will be underskilled no more. And the Habs will indeed be great again.
Why did MTL win 24 cups, but none since ‘93?
Hockey Tactics 2020 is the ebook you need to read first
Get it now.
Hockey Tactics: Retrospective is the ebook you need to read second
Learn more here.