Hard to say whether Luke Schenn would have been in the NHL this season had Brian Burke been in charge of the Maple Leafs from the start. The guess here is no.
Still, with the NHL all-star break at hand, the decision to let the big kid from Saskatoon turn 19 while finding his way in the tricky waters of the world's best hockey league has certainly not been a disaster.
In a season that is becoming increasingly gloomy, Schenn has been one of the few upbeat stories.
Still looking for his first NHL goal, Schenn has made his mark as a minutes muncher in his rookie season and has been noticed enough that he'll be in the NHL YoungStars Game at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Saturday night. He'll be joined by teammate Tomas Kaberle for all-star weekend, an intriguing duo considering the Leafs are among the NHL's worst defensive teams, yet are sending a pair of blueliners.
Schenn, a minus-4 in his freshman season compared to Kaberle's career-worst minus-10 and Pavel Kubina's minus-11, skated 25 minutes and 10 seconds last night against Boston, the 25th time in 35 games he has played 20 minutes or more.
With the constant prodding of strength and conditioning coach Matt Nichol, he's gained a new layer of muscle during the season, jumping to 216 pounds from the 211 he was at in training camp. Full grown, he'll probably play at 230 one day.
"I think I've made progress as the year's gone on," he said last night after a 4-3 shootout loss to the Bruins. "I'm feeling more and more comfortable. I've learned you've got to be consistent and can't take a shift off. If you do, you can get exposed out there."
He hasn't been badly exposed often, although he was inadequately positioned on a penalty-kill situation late in the third period last night, opening a jumbo-sized passing lane in front of Vesa Toskala that Marc Savard exploited to help Zdeno Chara tie the game 3-3. Schenn was eyeballing another Bruin in the slot and it was a situation in which a young apprentice learns from his errors.
"Maybe next time I would take a step down (toward the net)," he said after the game.
What will never be known is what it has cost the Leafs in terms of Schenn's potential to keep him in the NHL this season rather than returning him to Kelowna of the Western Hockey League. Perhaps nothing - and it's true Schenn has rarely looked outclassed in the NHL this season.
At the same time, there haven't been many signs yet of nascent offensive potential, something the Leafs have to be hoping to see eventually after expending first-, second- and third-round picks last June for the right to draft Schenn fifth overall.
Maybe that offence will start to come in his second season. Schenn already makes a good first pass out of his own zone, which is enough to keep coach Ron Wilson happy for now.
"We want him to concentrate on moving the puck faster," Wilson said. "We don't want him to be just a stay-at-home, bang-it-off-the-glass player. We want him to learn to make plays."
Chances are he will. Schenn hasn't been eaten alive by the pressure of playing on a weak team - 17 wins in 47 games, now tied with Tampa Bay - in this hockey-mad city. There's obvious poise and a willingness to play a physical game and stand up for teammates, commodities in short supply on the current edition of the Leafs.
Wilson, headed to South Carolina today for a few rounds of golf, just wants Schenn to go to Montreal this weekend, soak up the atmosphere and observe the professionalism of more established NHL stars.
For his part, Schenn is just looking forward to seeing buddies Drew Doughty and Shea Weber.
Let's face it, the kid has earned himself a holiday.
No comments:
Post a Comment