Signature skill: Rasmus Sandin's puck retrieval abilities
Rasmus Sandin is one of my favorite players to watch because of his puck retrieval abilities on pressure breakout situations. His poise under pressure is an art. We'll take a look at the skills needed for a defenseman on breakout retrievals and why Sandin is so good at it.
1- Great habits
This is a simple retrieval with space, but we can see many important habits/details:
-Multiple shoulder checks while keeping his feet moving
-Quick to the puck
-Roll his body around the puck (because there's space) to get his feet up ice
-Eyes up on the first touch
-Puck on forehand and hip pocket, ready to make a play in many directions
-Underhandling
1.1- Great retrieval skillset
Ability to make plays on forehand and backhand, ability to receive puck in movement, edge work/agility, etc.
We'll see many of these habits and skills in most of the next clips.
2- Ability to beat F1 and attract F2
That's what differentiates great breakout retrieval defensemen from the average one. When a defenseman can beat F1 and attract F2, it facilitates the breakout for his team once the first pass is made because it creates an odd-man situation (4v3) to breakout.
2.1- With deception
Sandin is so good at using deception to beat F1 and attract F2. A defenseman can use deception in many ways: With his feet, eyes, puck placement, shoulder/stick fake, etc.
In this clip, we can see Sandin using deception with a stick fake. He makes it look like he's going for a chip play (glass out), then he quickly changes direction to wheel the net instead. Now F1 is beaten and because of that, F2 is now pressuring Sandin:
In this clip, we can see Sandin using hip pocket deception (puck placement). By putting the puck on his hip pocket, he makes it look like he's making a pass on the wall. Because of that, F1 tries to seal the wall with his stickwork. Sandin can now make a play through the middle:
This one is elite. Deception with his feet, then quick cut back and backhand middle play exit:
2.2- With his footwork/edge work
Watch how Sandin uses his agility to evade pressure. We can see him change direction with a quick cut-back and heel-to-heel to stay in movement while scanning his options. He beat F1, attract F2, then activates wide on the weak side in open space (gets lost) for a shot on net. High-end play:
3-Slip under play through the middle
Having the poise and the confidence to make slip under five-foot pass to the middle of the ice is another important trait for defensemen on retrievals. Most teams seal the wall (board) on the forecheck, so making these plays through the middle is huge.
Here, we can see Sandin shoulder checking before receiving the D2D pass, then making a quick play under pressure to his center supporting the puck inside dots:
Same concept here. Multiple shoulder checks before retrieving the puck, and instead of going up the wall to his standstill winger, Sandin makes a middle play to his center with speed:
4- Vision through multiple layers
Because of multiple shoulder checks and poise under pressure, Sandin is able to see and make plays through multiple layers. On this clip, Sandin identifies (shoulder check) that Hershey is using a 2-1-2 forecheck. With his skill (backhand pass), he’s able to make a controlled play to bypass that aggressive pressure:
5- Reverse hit: Controlling the puck area
When Sandin retrieves a puck and has no separation with F1, he's great at using a reverse hit (offensive contact) to leverage the F1 and control the puck area. Because he has no space on this retrieval, watch how Sandin makes a quick offensive contact to control the puck area. He's now in a good position (F1 is neutralized) to wait for his center support. Breakout in control for the Leafs:
6- Cutting the net
Using the net as a shield is important to create space on breakout and separation from the forechecker. In this clip, Sandin loses the puck for half a second so it's not a perfect example, but still, we can see him cut the post tight to create separation from F1 before passing the puck to the center. Marlies' exit the zone after that:
In the clip (2.2) where Sandin uses his footwork to evade pressure, we can see him cutting the net and creating separation from F1 (Mikheyev).
Conclusion
Because of great habits, skillset, ability to beat F1 and attract F2, and by making the right read/decision (using deception, stretching versus quick support play, middle play versus wall play, controlling the puck area, cutting the net, etc.) given the situation, Sandin is on of the best young defensemen on pressure puck retrievals.
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