Brind'Amour reveals why rookie defenseman Nikishin was scratched, highlighting lessons on earning ice time and mastering defensive details.
Carolina Hurricanes rookie defenseman Alexander Nikishin has looked like the real deal so far in his short NHL career.
The rangy 6-foot-3, 218lb blueliner has brought a physical presence to the backend, and with already two goals and eight points under his belt, you can see his confidence in the offensive zone growing with every game.
After starting the season on the third pairing, rampant injuries to the blueline forced Nikishin higher up into the lineup and he was playing north of 20 minutes for nearly 10 straight games.
In those minutes, he performed well and he currently holds the best 5v5 goal differential (+11) amongst all of the team's defensemen.
As players slowly returned to the lineup, Nikishin saw his minutes come back down as well.
But on the road in Winnipeg, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour made the decision to give the Russian defenseman the night off, scratching him for Mike Reilly and Joel Nystrom with Jalen Chatfield also returning to the lineup.
It wasn't crazy to see why, as at the time, Nikishin was allowing the second most chances and high-danger chances at 5v5 and also had the second worst expected goals against per 60 amongst all the team's defensemen.
His physicality had also slowed down a bit and he was committing a few too many turnovers, icings and penalties.
On Tuesday, Brind'Amour explained the decision and opened up on what Nikishin still needs to work on moving forward.
On the decision to scratch Nikishin: Sometimes you need to sit back and watch from up top. It's just a good reminder too that it's not always going to be automatic that you play and that you need to earn your ice time. I think we need to make sure we do that right with this player. He's going to be a really good player in this league, but there's a big learning curve still. We have to make sure we do it right with him because you don't want it to be four years from now and still be talking about the same issues because we didn't address them. Little details. We know he's got offensive ability. It's crazy. We don't have to talk about that. It's just the other stuff in the game, which is the hardest part about playing defense in this league.
On how he's handling all the coaching and learning: It's been a little bit of a challenge. Again, there is a language barrier. He's done a nice job of understanding English, but there's still no possible way he could be really comfortable in what's been thrown at him. That's why we work with him every day and show him the clips. I think it's all gonna come together, but it doesn't hurt to give him a night or two off here or there. Especially given that I don't think he's played in this type of environment, this many games, playing sometimes four games a week. It's a lot to take in.
On his work ethic and attitude: That's part of it. There's a different level of work ethic that needs to be out there in an NHL game. I think just learning that, how it's every shift, every second of every shift. These are all learning points that once he picks up, I think you're gonna see just a huge... not even so much a maturation in his game, but that's the easy stuff to do. The stuff he has, you can't really teach. The poise with the puck and the offensive skill. We can definitely teach him the other stuff though.
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