Power teams in today's NHL have tough power forwards

Sporting News, The, March 29, 1999 by Larry Wigge

His every move is smooth, calm and calculated. Like a paid assassin, Coyotes left winger Keith Tkachuk quietly gets behind the Detroit defense and heads for the front of the net--where the action is. He swats defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom in the fanny with his stick to distract him. Like on cue, the puck arrives from the right wing faceoff circle and Tkachuk directs it to the open far corner of the goal.

There's one second left as the red light flashes behind the Red Wings net. One second.

"It's like Michael Jordan's last shot or a last-second field goal," teammate Rick Tocchet says, gushing.

Players such as Tkachuk and Tocchet know the secret of success at their position, NHL power forward: Get down and dirty along the boards and in front of the net.

"I grew up copying all of those moves by Cam Neely," Tkachuk, the Boston native, says of watching his boyhood idol. "The job looks tough, but it might be the easiest in the game. You bang along the boards, hit in the corners and then set up in front of the net, waiting ... waiting for a scoring opportunity."

On this night last week, Tkachuk beat the Red Wings at the Wings' game.

"The thing that makes the Red Wings so difficult to beat," Blues G.M. Larry Pleau says, "is they have a physical presence on each of their four lines."

And when a team wins two straight Stanley Cups as the Red Wings have, it's only natural that teams calmly and coolly calculate what they have to do to get even.

"We had a group of small, talented forwards when we set the record with 62 wins in 1995-96," Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman says. "But Colorado's defense had such a reach advantage over us that we couldn't get close to the net.

"We needed to give up a little of our talent for players who gave us size, skill and heart to counteract the Avalanche."

This season, the Red Wings not only are as fast and talented as ever, they are are bigger and stronger. It's an evolution that began in 1996 when Detroit acquired Brendan Shanahan from Hartford. "It took Marty Lapointe and me about five seconds to go over to him and ask Shanny for his secrets," Darren McCarty says. "I had the size and body to be a power forward, but people only thought of me for my fighting.

"Brendan took time to show us some of the techniques he learned from Brett Hull in St. Louis--like a quicker release, how to find the holes and how to use our size and muscle more effectively."

Shanahan also talks about Neely, but he quickly adds former Flyers perennial 50-goal scorer Tim Kerr as a power forward who made scoring look easy. But Neely and Kerr often came home hurt because of the calling card of a quality power forward: hit and be hit.

The Blackhawks thought they had a quality power forward when Ethan Moreau came on the scene three years ago. But 15 goals is the most he has scored in a season--and last Saturday Chicago traded him to Edmonton, proving that just looking like a power forward doesn't make you one.

The snarl isn't enough.

"Equipment keeps getting better and better, and we begin to think we're invincible," Lightning left winger Wendel Clark says. "We mistakenly get that macho mentality--and continue to take hits, to the back, to the legs, to the head.

"Just like the longevity of a running back is no more than three or four years, a power forward's years in the NHL are numbered."

Just like a 1,000-yard running back who can take punishment and still score, the quality power forward is one of the most coveted commodities in the game.

"It was scary how much alike we were with the Red Wings--it was like looking in a mirror," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock says of meeting the powerful Red Wings in the hard-hitting Western Conference finals last spring. "We looked at their old defense and thought we could beat them. But, then, every time we thought we had them, they dug down deeper--and found something we didn't have."

Detroit had that calm, cool, calculating presence--and still does. Yet despite their lofty record this season, the Stars still don't have that hired gun.

The Red Wings' forwards continue to prove that a power forward is more than just a hired gun; he's a paid assassin. Drive, character and, yes, a macho mentality is what sets the best teams apart year after year.

RELATED ARTICLE: The dirty dozen

Power forwards no longer have to be big, strong, give-and-take players. But the NHL definitely has paid assassins. Here's a dirty dozen--the best power players in the game:

1. Eric Lindros, Flyers. He bangs with anyone and always seems to get a stick on pucks in front of the net.

2. Jaromir Jagr, Penguins. All he's missing is the mean streak, but hit him and it's like trying to ride a Brahman bull.

3. Peter Forsberg, Avalanche. He may not have the size, but he definitely has the mean streak. He's just plain nasty to play against.

4. John LeClair, Flyers. When you let him get in front of the net, the puck usually ends up in the back of the net.

5. Keith Tkachuk, Coyotes. This two-time 50-goal scorer still is learning to be cold and calculating. Imagine how scary he'll be when he finishes his course work.