The Hockey News catches up with Red Wings sniper Daniel Sprong on topics ranging from how to beat the NHL's best goaltenders to the experience of playing high school football in Montreal
The Hockey News catches up with Red Wings sniper Daniel Sprong on topics ranging from how to beat the NHL's best goaltenders to the experience of playing high school football in Montreal
48 games into his tenure as a Detroit Red Wing, Daniel Sprong finds himself back in a familiar position. He doesn't play much, just 12:51 of ice time a night on average, but he scores: 12 goals and 19 assists for 31 points (all three figures fifth on the team). Sprong pulled the same trick a year ago with the Seattle Kraken: 20th on the team in average time on ice (just 11:25) and third in goals with a career high of 21.
"I'm pretty confident in the minutes I get, I'm gonna get some looks," Sprong says when asked about finding production in limited minutes. "I'm an offensive guy, and I try to make offensive plays. It doesn't matter if you play nine minutes or 15 or 20. I'm confident that I'm gonna get some looks every game...It's when those looks don't start coming, that's when you should start worrying. The looks have been there throughout the year, and it's the same thing as last year. It's a different role, and you gotta make the most of it and just wait for your opportunity."
"Some games are easier than others of course, but that's part of the gig," he continues, before pointing out that Detroit has clearly found a collective formula that works. "Everyone has to deal with it in some way...Yeah is it frustrating? Of course. Everyone wants to play, but we're a team at the end of the day, and different guys play different roles, and that's why we're successful right now. I think we're all playing our roles, and we're all doing a good job at it."
His most recent strike came Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and it was quintessentially Sprong.
He grabbed a puck at the red line that J.T. Compher deflected with his skate into neutral ice, chugged north in a hurry to spring clear of the Tampa defense, then wired a wrist shot past the best goaltender in the NHL as if he were no more than a last minute beer league fill-in.
After the game, Sprong revealed that he'd received a hot tip from Patrick Kane on where to place his shot, the injured winger counseling the sniper to select a low, glove side target on Andrei Vasilevskiy.
"I think every goalie's different," Sprong said, when asked about his process for scouting goaltenders. "Every situation is different. In general on breakaways, I got certain spots I like to go to, and in general, I think every shooter has an area where they like to shoot or a spot they like to shoot...The game is fast and when you get in certain spots, you just react. It's difficult to explain because the game moves so fast...All goalies are good in this league, so you're gonna have to pick your spots."
One change that's come for Sprong in the last month has been a move from the flank on Detroit's power play to the "bumper spot" in the middle of the 1-3-1 formation.
"It's a little different," Sprong says of the positional shift. "Depending on how we set up, there are different plays and everything. I think the power play's been going well right now, so it's clearly working. Both units are firing. We made a change, and it's been paying off."
"Your shooting angle is different, or the plays you make from the middle instead of the wall," he continues, when asked about what changes about his process from his new spot. "You got more time on the wall, so in the middle, you gotta make the plays quicker. You gotta be more support for the flank guys, and you also gotta be there in the battles. There's a lot of different things. I don't mind it. I think I get a bit more freedom to roam around where I can find quiet space. You look at the goal last night. I'm behind the net; if you're a flank guy, you're usually not there. I'm just finding different ways to get touches or make plays from the middle."
After the goal against the Lightning, Sprong quipped that, despite being on a breakaway, he "thought about passing it, but Twitter's been ripping me apart for not shooting as much lately, so I probably took the right decision and shot it."
"Probably want to retract that one, but in the moment, said it, was not in the greatest mood when the question was asked I guess," Sprong told The Hockey News three days after the comment, before pointing to the reality of living and working in a world in which his actions (or inactions) are the constant object of unsolicited public scrutiny. "We're not stupid. We all read stuff. Someone says it in the media, and it's like 'Oh, it's a big thing,' but everyone reads it. Whoever [says they don't] read it either doesn't have social media or is lying. Let's be realistic here. It is what it is. I thought it was a funny thing to say, and I think maybe people took it a bit more serious than it really was."
When asked whether he's noticed a significant difference in fan and media scrutiny across his various stops around the NHL, Sprong replied, "I've been lucky. I've played in a lot of good cities, a lot of good fan bases and media there too. It's maybe a little different in every city, but every fan base has been great. The goal is to make playoffs every year, and when the team's rolling, and the fans are more excited, the city's more excited—like with the Lions. The Lions, the city has a big hype around them, and it's fun to be in the city when that's going on."
For Sprong and his teammates, there is something aspirational about watching the Lions' success, the good feelings generated by Dan Campbell's team having spilled across Woodward Avenue from Ford Field into Little Caesars Arena throughout the NFL's postseason.
"It's cool," he says. "I went to a game earlier on in the year, and it was a great atmosphere. It's just fun seeing the city rally around the team. The Lions are doing well right now, and hopefully we can continue that success." In a recent video that appeared on the Red Wings' social media channels, Sprong revealed that he played high school football as a wide receiver.
Sprong's football experience was an unusual, not so much because it came in Montreal as because he seems to be in the 1% of high school football players who does not consider the experience a transformative one. "We were all on scholarship, so you had to play two sports," he explains. "All the guys that were the hockey guys all played football together, just a social club I can pretty much say now."
After all, Sprong found his sporting passion at a young age and didn't look back: firing pucks past goaltenders. Through that passion, Sprong discovered a role for himself, and, if it's quite all right with Twitter, he'll just keep scoring a first liner's volume of goals out of bottom six minutes.
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