Pasta's Shooting Touch

In many sports, there is recognition of an indefinable quality that scorers possess, whether it's a "shooter's touch" in basketball or "goal-scorer's goal" in hockey. These phrases refer to the fact that some players have a mixture of skill and luck that contributes to their ability, year after year, to score more than other players—more than, even, those who by traditional metrics have better shots or overall skill.

In the NHL, no-one fits this description better than David Pastrňák. 

Yet this ability to benefit from good bounces, puck luck, shooter's touch—whatever we want to call it—can be hard to spot, and given that Pasta went 25th in the 2014 draft, it's fair to say that not many did:

“Did he jump off the page with Nylander’s skill? Not necessarily,” said Sportsnet analyst Sam Cosentino. “Did he have the size of Perlini? No. Did he have elite skating ability like Ehlers? No. Was he big, rough and heavy like Nick Ritchie? Definitely not. So now you’re looking at, ‘OK, what is he exactly?’ Is he one of those tweener guys who gives you enough skill and you hope will grow? And is that enough to take a leap of faith in the first round?”

The fact of the matter is, things just seem to work out for natural-born goal-scorers. In basketball, maybe the ball bounces around the rim a bit before dropping in; in hockey, the puck “has eyes” and “finds the back of the net.” These ways of scoring—in addition to being difficult to spot—can't be mimicked, either. They would never become part of a formal training program on how to light the lamp. It sometimes feel weird to even call them intentional. And yet, they often constitute the difference between good and great. So let's look at how Pastrňák does it, with the full knowledge that we won't be able to copy him.

Where better to start than with Pasta's 50th last season? He finds himself on a breakaway and...somehow the puck goes in:

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How about this next one. At first glance, it just looks like a routine one-timer for the W: 

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Upon second look, though, how in the world does this find the back of the net?

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How about a little more of what seems like pure, dumb luck?

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That's right, the puck redirects ever so slightly off the ice and goes five-hole. Who else scores like this? Of course, Pasta mixes these "lucky" goals in with high-end finishes, often in the same game: 

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We don't call the above a "shooter's touch." That's just a snipe, through and through. It's something the shooter earns, and as such, it falls in a different category. But Pasta combines the goals that make you scratch your head (first goal against Flyers) with those that make you jump out of your seat (second goal against Flyers). Our video post today is about the second kind of goal, as well.

Finally, Pasta scores in a third way: by doing things nobody thinks about. Take a look at how he completes his hat-trick against the Flyers: 

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Nine out of ten shooters go somewhere else, most of them top glove. But not Pasta. He goes five-hole and completely embarrasses the tender. Here's another example of his next-level IQ: 

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Seriously, all you can do is offer a chef's kiss there.

Pasta combines what seems like dumb luck, traditional goal-scoring prowess, and outside-the-box thinking to annually vie for the Rocket Richard. These three distinct ways of scoring make him, as Marchand no doubt begrudgingly admitted, "the best goal scorer in the league.”

If I could add one more description to Pasta's game, it would be flippancy. Casualness. I don't mean it as an insult. I think what allows Pasta to try some of these things isn't so much that he's the only one that could do them, but rather that he's the only one that tries. He seems to approach each opportunity as if he has an unlimited number of them, instead of the more traditional mindset of making each opportunity count. This latter mindset tends to winnow a player's repertoire over time, until they become fairly predictable. But nobody knows what Pasta will do next, probably not even him.

In short, yes—Pastrňák is dripping with skill, and that skill is primarily what powers his All-Star game. But there’s a little more than meets the eye, and that little more is what puts him over the edge.

Over and out,
Josher