Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Developing Stories: Frozen Four
Different mentors have helped key players from each team assume even bigger roles.
By Nate Ewell
Player development at the NCAA level can take many forms, and players have many mentors to turn to. After each Frozen Four team held practice Wednesday at Amalie Arena we examined the different mentors who have had impacts on some of the key players:
The Head Coach
Quentin Shore (Denver, Colo./U.S. NTDP/OTT) had every reason to be skeptical when Jim Montgomery was hired at Denver after his freshman year. Shore had seen former head coach George Gwozdecky develop not only his game, but those of older brothers Drew and Nick, both of whom have reached the NHL.
“It was for sure a surprise after my freshman year,” Quentin said Wednesday. “Gwozdecky was a tremendous help for my entire family; he was incredible. Montgomery made it really easy when he came in, smoother than most people expected really.”
That successful transition must have made it easier when Montgomery approached Shore this season with a significant request.
“I asked him this year to change the way he plays the game,” the coach told the Denver Post. “I asked him to become an inside-the-dot hockey player instead of an outside-the-dot (perimeter) hockey player. It took a while, but he has 20 points in his last 24 games playing real hard hockey for us. And nobody likes playing against him.”
It’s been a long process, but as Montgomery said, it is paying off.
“It’s a bit of everything really,” Shore said, “whether it’s video, working over the summer, working on little details in practice or just learning your role better. It’s been more than one aspect but when you get it, it just comes naturally … Whether it’s a D-zone draw or matching up against another team’s top line, it’s something that I embrace and look forward to every game.”
That development has put Shore – an Ottawa Senators draft pick – in good position to follow his brothers into the NHL. For now, he’s focused on enjoying the Frozen Four, something neither Drew nor Nick were able to reach.
“Coach is doing a great job developing me and getting me ready for the next level,” Shore said. “That’s a job I’ll think about after these two games. Right now I’m just worried about this weekend.”
The Strength Coach
North Dakota junior Paul LaDue (Grand Forks, N.D./Lincoln-USHL/LA), a Los Angeles Kings draft pick, faced a choice last offseason to sign an NHL contract or return to school. It’s a decision that will likely be in front of him again in a few weeks.
Regardless of where he plays, the North Dakota connection will carry on for LaDue – and he hopes to continue working in the offseason with assistant athletic trainer Mark Poolman, who coordinates the UND strength and conditioning program.
“Mark Poolman works with us every day in the summer,” LaDue said Wednesday. “He puts his heart into his job, and it shows. It’s great to have him around and I hope I can keep working with him in the future, too.”
Poolman has helped LaDue add 15 pounds of muscle in the last three years, which LaDue said makes a big difference on the ice.
“You definitely notice it,” he said. “The game’s easier after you work with him in the summer. You feel more confident. It’s one of the key reasons this team has been so strong in the postseason.”
The Assistant Coach
When the time comes to rank the best defensemen in Quinnipiac hockey history, there are two names that will be in the mix whose games couldn’t be more different: Reid Cashman and Connor Clifton (Matawan, N.J./U.S. NTDP/ARI). But Cashman, the quintessential offensive defenseman, has played a key role in helping Clifton round out his game.
Clifton is a battering, tough-to-play-against defensive defenseman whose style made him a fifth-round draft pick of the Arizona Coyotes. With the help of assistant coach Cashman – who had 148 points in four years in Hamden – Clifton has become an all-around weapon whose point total this year (27) nearly doubles his first two seasons combined (14).
Part of that comes from pre-practice sessions with Cashman and the team’s defensemen.
“He’s always hopping on, getting us better,” Clifton said. “He’s a great guy to have around to build skill. [We work on] hands, shots, quick shots, quick release, backhand, forehand, that kind of thing.”
Those sessions are before practice for a reason, Clifton notes.
“The ice is clean,” he said. “We don’t want those forwards chopping up our ice.”
Spoken like an offensive defenseman.
The Teammate
Casey Fitzgerald (North Reading, Mass./U.S. NTDP) entered Boston College this fall with a few mentors in place. Older brother Ryan had two successful years on campus under his belt, and the Eagles coaching staff includes legendary Jerry York and assistant coach Greg Brown working with defensemen. Then there’s Casey’s father, Tom, a longtime NHLer and current New Jersey Devils executive.
According to York, however, the biggest influence on Casey during his freshman year has been stationed to his left on the Eagles’ blue line.
That’s where first-team All-Hockey East defenseman Ian McCoshen has played, paired with Fitzgerald since day one.
“Ian has been a tremendous mentor,” York said Wednesday. “He’s a junior, been through the wars. He’s kind of nurtured Casey coming in. I think Casey was a little bit underrecruited. He played for the NTDP, and I think there were five or six defensemen statistically rated ahead of him.
“We saw something in Casey when he played at Malden Catholic that we thought would be a special player, and I think he’s gone through the NTDP, and he’s learned some lessons. But now it’s coming to fruition, what we thought we saw at Malden Catholic, dynamic skater, very intelligent player, hockey wise, and competitive level off the charts. He’s come into his own this year, and Ian’s helped him in that.”