Promising Red Wings Forward Urged To "Turn Himself Loose"
Todd McLellan has a message for this young Detroit Red Wings forward.
24 year-old forward Jonatan Berggren has long been a source of fascination, or at least discourse, for Detroit Red Wings fans. He's been billed at different points as an impact top six scorer and a trade chip, alternately too talented to play in the bottom six or too turnover prone. Now, new coach Todd McLellan has a different message for Berggren, who has four goals and three assists in 34 games thus far this season.
When asked after this morning's skate for an assessment of Berggren, McLellan said:
"He seems to be a sturdy solid good puck protector. I think he's got some offensive instincts in mind. Sometimes those players, they want to stay and play in the NHL, so they're afraid to make mistakes, and they play a little more conservative. I'd like to see him just turn himself loose a little bit: Make mistakes, we'll help you, it's okay. But bring your complete toolset to every game. They're also trained throughout junior or wherever they're playing and even in the American League, they're trained for 18, 19, 20 minutes, and if it doesn't happen for them early, they still have 15 minutes left in the game to make their mark. Right now, Dylan Larkin and [Lucas] Raymond are getting more minutes. So you have to work your way in with 10 or 12 and feel good about it, and then pretty soon you start biting off 13 and then you get to 14, and all of a sudden, you're Razor or Larks where you've moved up the lineup. But everybody goes through that...[Young players] all want more, which is great and I appreciate that, but with what they get, they have to make it count. So with Berggy, play, let's go. You have—at least from what I've heard—you have a lot of real good tools. He hasn't hurt us defensively, which is great, but I think there's some [more] offense there."
It is hard not to juxtapose that message—of trusting his instincts to make an offensive impact in the minutes he does earn, without fear of avoiding mistakes—with the way erstwhile coach Derek Lalonde used to talk about Berggren. Lalonde would often speak of Berggren's "fingerprints" winding up on a goal against, citing those same offensive instincts as a source of defensive lapses.
Berggren is presently averaging 12:34 of ice time and skating in a third line role beside Vladimir Tarasenko and JT Compher. He's been held pointless in Detroit's first two games under McLellan's leadership, but perhaps the new coach's words of encouragement will manifest on the scoresheet soon.
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