The alley-oop goal by Sonny Milano on Dec. 7 that tore up the internet and set social media on fire is the kind of thing coaches either love or, if they’re old-school like John Tortorella, just hate.
So which group did Milano’s Anaheim Ducks coach, Dallas Eakins, fall into? Specifically, what did Eakins say when Milano and Trevor Zegras, whose lacrosse-style pass over the net was batted into the goal past a baffled Buffalo Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, came to the bench immediately afterward, the crowd still abuzz, phones all atwitter?
“Well, No. 1, I hoped it wasn’t a high-stick because I want it to count,” Eakins told Jeff Marek on The Jeff Marek Show podcast on Thursday. “That was the first thing. And that was a huge goal for us in that game, that was a sleepy game, and there wasn’t a whole lot going on in the game, and that kind of woke us up.
“We’re trying to get pucks into the slot. And I do not care how we get them there. And if there’s an opening like that … Zee had no pass to the slot on the ice. He was well-covered, so we put it over the net. He got that into the slot another way and we’ll take goals however we can get them.”
Not a ringing endorsement, but not wet-blanket Torts, either.
Eakins, during his playing days a stalwart stay-at-home defenceman brought up through the Peterborough Petes system of coaching maestro Roger Neilson, went out of his way to take absolutely no credit for most creative goal scored so far this season.
“Uh, no. I wouldn’t even know where to start with that thing,” Eakins replied when Marek asked if he taught his players the move. “Sonny Milano in practice, he can actually dribble the puck with his stick. It’s incredible to watch. And Zee is like a magician with this thing. He can pick that puck up all day long, he does it through the neutral zone. They’re extremely fun to watch, sometimes mesmerizing, and I think they’ve got a great handle on in the game when to do it and when to not. I can say this: I had to zero to do with that play. That is way above my IQ creativity-wise.”
That creativity and speed are helping the Pacific Division-leading Ducks (17-9-5) surprise this year. Eakins credits the change with a new approach heading into training camp that has freed up the offence.
“(We had) lot of conversations in the summer, going through guys’ games, how they felt, and really listening to them,” Eakins said, who changed support staff over the summer and now has Geoff Ward, Newell Brown and Mike Stothers helping him behind the bench. “And not so much, ‘Here’s how we’re going to do it, guys,’ but really listening to the players and where we could be better, especially better prepared.
“And through that we changed how we dealt with training camp, how we were going to train, when we were going to rest, and check off the box we needed most. Every training camp that I’ve ever run, every training camp that I’ve ever been to, you know what it starts with? Forecheck, D-zone coverage, battle-battle-battle, all check-check, battle-battle. And we went a different way. Day 1 was score, and score, and score, and we never came off of that. And we changed the way we trained in training camp as well, which I think has really paid off with us being healthy for the most part, and fresher.”
With the Ducks seemingly all offence, all the time, they have become an exciting watch. But the madness does have a method.
“That was one of the spots last year where we were terrible, we were one of the worst teams in the league at creating the odd-man rush,” Eakins said. “We used to think of odd-man rushes as, well, let’s get a 3-on-2, right? Well, teams check so well, they’re so great with their high forwards, that the odd-man rush now is the 4-on-3 or the 5-on-4, where you trap the guy and you’re gone.
“So we really pounded on our D and pushed them along and encouraged them to Get up there. Do not fear or be afraid to be the driver to the net. And if you go there, stay there and try to score. We will back you up on the other side. There was a real feeling-out process on that through exhibition, through probably the first 10 games of the year. But now suddenly we are a good rush team, we’re getting goals there.
“And the other thing is we are all over trying to get these pucks to the slot, whether we carry them there, whether we pass them there, or create a rebound that leaves the puck in the slot. … Every day in practice we’re looking to score. We’re still trying to get better defensively. We’re no worse than we were last year, maybe a little bit better. But as we score more, that certainly helps keep the puck in the offensive zone, and you don’t have to worry about D-zone coverage so much.”
Fun to watch or not, the team is, most importantly, winning.
“That’s what we came into camp with, simple two words: Win today,” Eakins told Marek. “And all we really mean by that is to find our best in each and every day.”
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