CrashingTheGoalie

by Ron Spence

You lit it up in Major Junior.

You tallied 129 and 131 points in 70 and 72 games.

And for this you were drafted 11th overall.

You show up at the big  boy’s camp and who’s ahead of you on the depth chart – at centre?

Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Shawn Burr – who can also play left wing – Jimmy Carson, Paul Ysebaert, and Keith Primeau.

And there’s four other young pivot men – as well – who will wear Red Wings’ uniforms during your inaugural 1990-91 season.

courtesy of hockeydb.com

Mike Sillinger played the next season in Adirondack, although Detroit dressed him for 8 games during the playoffs. He split the 1992-93 season between Adirondack and Detroit, with three quarters of his games in the Big Tent. He next played 62 games for the Red Wings during the 1993-4 season, and was traded part way through the following campaign to Anaheim.

How did the 1989 draft pick get ice time with this logjam at centre?

“[The Red Wings] really teach you the defensive aspect of the game. I was a player drafted in the first round, as a skilled scorer out of junior. But then when I came up, I really learned how to play in all areas of the game, so that it wasn’t just about scoring goals…They had so many good players, so many scorers, I knew I would never get a sniff on the power play. When I broke into the league, I knew I was going to kill penalties and that was about it. That’s why I became a good faceoff guy: If you weren’t winning faceoffs, you weren’t going to kill penalties either.

Back then, I thought being traded was actually a good thing. I broke in with a really good organization, so I was playing behind endless good players. No matter what I did, I wasn’t going to be on a top-three line. I was getting a few minutes a night, killing penalties, asking myself, ‘When is it going to be my turn?’

When I got traded, I thought, ‘Yeah, I’m going to get a chance to play.’”

Offense-only centremen usually don’t make it through the logjam at their position.

Often, they never recapture their junior game in the NHL, falter, and go to the minors.

The way to do “on-the-job-training” in the NHL, is to take on a defensive role, get your game, and then climb to the top of the roster.

*****

Cody Hodgson has an advantage here.

He’s an excellent two way player already – and he’s cheap.

“Hodgson is a complete two-way center as he is strong in the face-off circle, good at killing penalties, hustles in all zones and is a model of consistency,” wrote Hockey’s Future.

Cody can start the 2009-10 season as a 3rd or 4th line centre – or right winger – and learn the NHL game and work his way up the ladder.

But, don’t be surprised if you see him on the right side of Henrik and Daniel by the end of the season.

*****

Writer’s Note: I interviewed Mike Sillinger when we were both in Vancouver – after he was in Anaheim.

Most of the interview was about his adjustment from being a junior scoring star, to an NHL 4th liner.

However, my taped interview is in Victoria, B.C. and I am in Suphan Buri, Thailand, so I found a similar espn interview – to mine – and am quoting from it.