TORONTO — The sample size used to evaluate the Brady Skjei-Adam McQuaid pairing is rather small. Indeed, the defensemen had hooked up as partners for only eight games and 102:40 of five-on-five play (as recorded by Naturalstattrick.com) prior to the Rangers’ match Saturday night against the powerful Maple Leafs.
But it seems relatively clear to the eye, if not demonstrably supported by publicly available possession metrics, that playing with a stabilizing, stay-at-home veteran such as McQuaid is more beneficial to Skjei than being paired with an unpredictable, offense-minded defenseman, such as Tony DeAngelo.
If Skjei were at his 2016-17 NHL All-Rookie team best, then a dynamic skating duo featuring him and DeAngelo might have been the charm for both of the young men and for coach David Quinn and the Rangers, as well. But with Skjei’s confidence as wobbly as his game through this second consecutive mysteriously down season, teaming him with the erratic DeAngelo, as the Blueshirts did for 17 of the 21 games McQuaid missed after a late October injury, worked to the benefit of exactly no one.
So Tuesday, for the first time since McQuaid went down in Chicago on Oct. 25, the younger mobile guy played with the older, more traditional defense-oriented defenseman. And though it certainly helped that the Ducks played minimalist hockey that rarely posed a threat around the front of the net or below the hash marks, the pairing was strong in the Blueshirts’ 3-1 victory.
“Adam and I have had good chemistry and I think we played well when we were together at the start of the year, ” Skjei said. “That’s not to say that Tony and I didn’t play well or couldn’t play well, but Adam brings a little different element to it. When I — or Tony — play with a more defensive-minded partner, there are fewer decisions to make about whether to go or stay back.
“Adam is one of the best defenders I’ve ever played with. He’s very steady and tough to play against.”
Decisions have been at the heart of Skjei’s problems both this year under Quinn and last year under Alain Vigneault. The less constructive those decisions, the more Skjei’s confidence takes a hit. It is essentially impossible to get impressive, or even adequate, hockey from a player fighting through a crisis of confidence.
“I’ve never been a guy who’s gotten too high when things are going well or gotten too low through those tough stretches,” Skjei said. “I don’t think there’s a player in this league who hasn’t lost some confidence through stretches of the season, so when that happens to me, I focus on preparation and what I need to do in order to get back to my game.”
Skjei has been an ongoing concern. The Rangers believe in the 28th-overall selection in the 2012 draft out of the U.S. Development Program by way of the University of Minnesota so much they signed the 24-year-old this summer to a six-year contract worth $5.25 million per. He is their only player under contract past 2021-22. It is imperative that the presumptive top-pair lefty play up to expectations, and not down to second- and third-pair status, as he has most of the season.
Management needs to know what it has in Skjei as plans are being made for the future and interested parties come calling in advance of the Feb. 25 trade deadline.“Part of my problem has been trying to do too much,” Skjei, a healthy scratch three times thus far, said. “And my play is my responsibility, not my partners. Tony or Adam shouldn’t get any blame if I don’t play up to my capability.
“I’ve talked about it before, but there were times I put too much pressure on myself. I need to keep it simple and solid and be decisive. I feel that my game has been coming back, but it has to be on a much more consistent basis.”
Consistency should be more easily attained with McQuaid as a partner, though Saturday’s matchup against either Auston Matthews’ unit or John Tavares’ line would have been an immense small-sample-size challenge for anyone.