Saturday, June 30, 2012

A Different Approach to Silly Season (AKA The Importance of Personality Theory in Constructing a Champion)

With Jordan Staal gone, Ray Shero has a problem. The problem is not replacing the minutes Staal played on the penalty kill (Brandon Sutter should be able to do that) or even replacing the goals Staal scored (more challenging, especially if the Penguins don't manage to land a scoring winger in 2012 silly season, otherwise known as NHL unrestricted free agency). Nope, the Penguins have a different problem with Staal gone.

Think back to the printed copy of last year's schedule and the Pittsburgh players whose photographs graced that schedule. The then-core of Crosby/Malkin/Staal/Letang/Orpik/Fleury.

Now let's do a brief explanation of personality theory. In Myers-Briggs typology, Fs are people driven primarily by emotions. Fs are emotional. They tend to make emotional decisions, they wear their hearts on their sleeves, and they can be high-strung. On the other hand, Ts are rational. Ts tend to make decisions based on logic and data, not on what "feels right." Ts tend to be "low-key" and "calm."

Hockey Consultant, frankly, doesn't give a flying fig about the personality of Pittsburgh's core players OFF the ice (and she would not be at all surprised to learn that players who are Fs on the ice are Ts off the ice, and vice-versa). She is first and foremost—and frankly, only—concerned about their on-ice temperaments. And, quickly, let's examine the ON-ICE personalities of Pittsburgh's remaining core players.

Sidney Crosby: Emotional leader. Plays his best with controlled passion.

Evgeni Malkin: Highly emotional, highly skilled player. Like Crosby, plays his best with controlled passion.

Kris Letang: Another highly skilled, highly emotional player. Like Crosby and Malkin, he plays his best with controlled passion.

James Neal: Skilled. Emotional. This seems to be a pattern. He plays best with just the right edge to his game.

Brooks Orpik: He's a little older than the other players, and perhaps he's closer to the line, but there's no doubt he's more emotional than not and that he, like the other players, plays his best when he's controlling his emotions. He, too, plays his best with just the right edge to his game.

Marc-Andre Fleury: Oh, yes. Watch him practice and you know he's skilled and emotional through and through.

To be blunt, players like Pittsburgh's current crop of core players do not play well when they are not emotionally engaged in the game. They do not play their best when they try to be something they are not: low-key or steady-as-she-goes. They play their best when they are in control of their emotions, but they also play their best when they're working from their strengths: their emotions can propel them to take over games. As a fan, watching one of these players determine, "We're not losing this game" or "We're winning this game" and then letting his controlled passion propel him to take over the game, well—that's exactly what you want your core players to do.

To be blunt: There's absolutely nothing wrong with being an emotional player. It's not an indictment of character or leadership to be emotional. And it's also important that emotional players are always emotional players. Typically a more mature player learns to harness his emotions more effectively with experience, but make no mistake Chris Chelios still played his best hockey, at age 25 or age 40, with a nasty and emotional edge to his game. Natural temperament isn't outgrown, but that should not be considered a problem. Frankly, a hockey team that has no emotional players and no emotional leaders is not likely to win anything. Teams, going as far back as the 1992 Penguins, have always needed an emotional F in Kevin Stevens to guarantee the victory and a low-key, steady T in Ron Francis to help such victories along with their calm and steady presence. when something goes wrong during the game.

But what happens you have an entire team comprised of guys like Kevin Stevens? What happens when you don't have Ron Francis to balance out Kevin Stevens? What happens when you have an entire team comprised of guys with no emotional spark? What happens when your team is out-of-balance one way or the other?

Is it fair to say what happens is what happened in Pittsburgh's first-round meltdown against the Philadelphia Flyers, when players who have won before, who have previously shown character in spades, simply seemed to forget hockey basics?

Is it fair to say the way to bring out the best in emotional players is NOT to surround them with players who are exactly like them?

So, with Jordan Staal—seemingly the only one of the core players who wasn't an on-ice F and whose emotions didn't get the better of him throughout that series—gone, how should Ray Shero approach 2012 silly season? How can he bring out the best in his current core of players?

Assuming Shero keeps the same core, the way to bring out the best in those emotional players is simple: Don't surround them with players exactly like them.

It's still first and foremost about hockey—so get guys who can penalty kill if you don't have them. Get size if you need it. Get scoring if you need that. But if you're selecting between two guys who can play defense, then don't take the guy whose personality exactly matches that of "the" guys on your team. Take the guy who cares just as much as those guys, but the one who—frankly—is far less likely to respond emotionally to a to a real or imagined offense of an opponent or to something going great or going poorly in a game. Because you already have the core players who can do what most teams dream of when they harness their emotions and unleash their all-world skills to take over a game, it only makes sense to surround such talent with other players who, by their very nature, are far less prone to being driven by their emotions.

Make the deliberate decision to balance your team. It's not a coincidence the 2009 Stanley Cup champions had defensive stalwarts Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill to go along with offensive defensemen Sergei Gonchar and Kris Letang. It's also not a coincidence that a championship defense was balanced with steady Ts Scuderi/Gill/Gonchar and emotional Fs in Orpik and Letang. Balance, in both hockey skill and personality type, matters a great deal.

Frankly, the Penguins' core players need help to be the best they can be—and that help will not come from surrounding them with players who are just as emotionally driven as they are. Far better to surround them with players who care just as much, but whose "steady-as-she-goes" on-ice approach is the perfect complement to a "run-and-gun; let's go do this!" that helps the Pittsburgh core players play their best hockey.

In other words, Ray Shero, go get some steady Ts to surround your All-Star emotional Fs.

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