Draisaitl's Paddle
It's high-time someone addressed the obnoxious blade owned by the man they call the "German Gretzky," Leon Draisaitl. I mean, seriously, who even makes this thing?
I know it says Warrior, but I've never seen anything like it at the store, which is enough to convince me that Drais has his own small department dedicated to cranking these things out. (I wonder how much cred he had to establish in the hockey community before Warrior started answering his emails with the subject line: "See Specs Attached.")
At any rate, the thing about obnoxious equipment in sports—and let's keep in mind that even the EDM announcers routinely dub this “a paddle”—is that the player using it must be good, otherwise they wouldn't get away with it. That's how you know the guy with green laces or pink gloves is a stud before he even steps on the ice. By wielding what is essentially a cricket bat, Drais enters the elite—but undoubtedly quirky—company of OV with his banana curve, Zucc with his ten-foot pole, and Duchene with that toothpick he fittingly calls a “twig." Drais, meanwhile, calls his “the burger-flipper.”
Now, I would argue that there's an unconscious bias against such a large blade in the sport of hockey, which likes to keep things tight. Traditional aesthetics prefer jerseys to either fit or be tucked in, players to skate with fluidity, and pucks to remain on the ice or perfectly saucered. (Our name, Along The Ice, pays homage to this preference.) Though it happens quite often, players don't like to score off the defenseman's skate or, more generally, in a part of the net they did not intend.
Drais' blade does not fit this aesthetic, to say the least. It's a bit abrupt and uncouth, like packing a boner to the first dinner with your girlfriend's family. Its size throws away all sense of skill, accuracy, precision. Draisaitl is the wing bubble hockey player come to life. And in the end, he couldn't care less. For most of his career, he's been content to sweep everything on the floor into the net, remaining comfortably in the position of MVP frontrunner should McDavid get hurt.
There's also an obvious logic to Draisaitl's paddle that other equipment choices lack. The others have clear trade offs, but his is only that he looks like a tool from time to time. Zucc's pole, for example, makes it difficult to field pucks in his skates or operate efficiently near the net. Duchene lacks the length to play good defense. And when was the last time you saw OV do anything with his backhand? Drais' blade is not just tolerated because he's dominant at the thing everyone has gathered to do; it is also integral to his dominance.
I mean, if you think about it, why wouldn't a longer blade help you in essentially every aspect of the game, from faceoffs and one-timers, to takeaways and deflections? The only downside is that a poke-check coming your way might miss the puck but catch your blade, but that's a relatively infrequent scenario, and Drais overcomes it anyway by being freakishly strong on his stick. Meanwhile, let's look into the various ways it gives him an advantage, beginning with the most straightforward. In the following video, Drais scores because his blade is simply bigger than Stralman’s:
Similarly, Drais's ability to deposit wobbly pucks is easier done than said:
In addition to shoveling pucks home, Leon uses his extra blade area to intercept passes. In fact, I would argue that this is the main way he creates offense when McDavid isn't on the ice:
Example 2:
Example 3 (WOW):
What about just winning puck battles? The "max blade" can be helpful in that regard, too:
Of course, let's not forget the main things players do with their blades: shoot and pass. Have a look at this saucer from Drais to RNH; it's so fast and low that it's essentially Along The Ice. Nuge bobbles it and still has time to put it home:
Nor is Drais' lethal backhand restricted to passing. Here he uses the relatively flat curve and extra length (which basically provides more runway for the puck's takeoff) to rip a backhander—from distance—past the world's best goalie:
(Notice that Vasey's glove was low, an indication that he didn't think Drais would get it off the ground so quickly or powerfully.)
Most obviously, Drais uses his blade in service of the second-deadliest one-timer in the game. First place goes to OV, obviously, who as far as I know, is the first player to be shadowed on the Power Play. But Drais will be stashing cookies well after OV hangs them up. For an example, all you have to do is watch two Oilers games in a row, and you're likely to see what I mean. Until then, the following will suffice. As you watch, just imagine if Jones had...Draisaitl's paddle:
Finally, what about some niche uses of the burger-flipper? After all, if you're going to have a unique piece of equipment, you might as well do unique things with it. In this video, Drais gets a goal and a free shot to Dach's face:
How about this next one? A paddle between the legs, not necessarily the last place you'd expect to find it:
All in, when you consider what NHL players can do with their sticks—e.g., routinely deflect pucks moving 80+mph into any corner of the net they want— then an increase of, say, 20% of the blade would in theory have massive consequences. With Draisaitl, this is reality.
There's plenty of hecklable material on the German power forward. In addition to his massive blade, he skates a bit like a flamingo given to fright. He basically gargles his mouthpiece. He's routinely called "Robin" to McDavid's "Batman." The list goes on. (Not really, that's all I have on him.) But the fact is, he's now been a Top 5 forward in the league for the last 5 years, almost no matter how you want to slice it. He's provided ample evidence that he can carry the load when McD is out. He's shown his fair share of grit (I hate this word), most remarkably when he scored 2 points per game in the playoffs last year on one leg.
In short, it's high-time to give this man his due, and proclaim that while his blade is indeed a bit shocking, all the more power to him.
- Josher
Home page image courtesy of Canadien Press
