David Steckel is a very valuable member of our team. He is a big game player; a great teammate; and a big strong center that also plays wing. He is great on face offs and on penalty kills. He shuts other players down on defense. He is also a leader and is very poised on the ice in crucial moments.
A team needs component parts to excel in all the areas of the game to be successful. We know and understand that fact. Stats can be misleading.
Whether David has scored a goal or not this season is not that important. He is vital to our team and to his teammates. We win as a team and we lose as a team.
We respect his game. We value him. He is important to us, his teammates and to the fan base.
David will score goals but he needs to know he is respected and embraced and that we appreciate what he does for our team when he isn’t scoring goals.
I am very grateful to him for his contributions to our team. This article doesn’t do justice to his contributions. He is trusted by our coach and by his teammates. My bet is that he will win many games for us in this season and in the playoffs with big time goals and his overall quality of play. Go Caps!
I couldn’t agree more! I love David Steckel! He is a dedicated player who is a valuable asset to the team! Hang in there David! Your time will come again when you are getting goals. Right now you are doing a little things that add up to big things! Keep up the good work!
Great post Ted! I don’t think Stecks gets near enough credit for his contributions to this team. He is definately one of my favorite players because of his consistent work ethic. Sure it would be great to see him get on the score sheet more but with what he does on the PK, the face-off circle and along the boards, more then makes up for his lack of goal scoring. The goals will come David!
GO CAPS!!!
As someone who now wears a Steckel jersey at the games, I’ll take up for him as well. I think David has struggled a bit through the early stages of the season this year, even defensively at times, and it looks to me as if he is pressing a little on offense, wanting to get off the schneid. But hockey is a game of ups and downs, and he still brings absolutely crucial value to the team in his role. If this team is going anywhere special this year we HAVE to have David at the top of his game in Spring 2010. You have to have defensive stoppers you can rely on when things get tight.
What is nice about this story, from a team perspective, is that years ago, the articles used to be about how the TEAM couldn’t score enough goals
. If there’s any article to level criticism at the team, it should be about goals against. That being said, I like the high scoring style of the Caps and as long we have one more than the other guys, who cares?
Agree 110% with you Ted. Stecks is a very valuable member of the team. His percentage of faceoff wins is phenomenal. That is such a big part of the game, even if it doesn’t show up on the score sheet. He’s doing just fine. The goals will eventually come. Even if they don’t, if he continues to play the way he has this season, all is well.
My primary question about David Steckel is why isn’t he used on the powerplay?
One of more inspired recent rule changes was giving the power play team an offensive zone faceoff. This is a huge advantage if that team wins the draw. Firstly, a disproportionate number of goals are scored within 10 seconds of a faceoff win. Secondly, a lost faceoff and full-length clear costs the offensive team over 10% of its powerplay time. Given that time is the limiting factor on the powerplay, I would think all effort to gain immediate puck control should be taken.
Over the course of a week I would imagine using Steckel on the pp would lead to 3-5 more pp faceoff wins. He might even bang in a rebound for that first goal. I think having one of the top faceoff guys in the league is a tremendous advantage, I hope we take full advantage of it.
Thanks for all you’ve done. Go Caps.
could not agree more with you ted- i refused to even read the article you linked
he may in fact be one of the most important players on the team come playoff time…the caps need steckel…he is and will be a playoff stud
btw-i am not sure- but who won the faceoff in the last fifteen seconds of the game against the habs which ultimately gave the caps two points
second btw -he is my favorite player on the caps
Read: Stuff it, haters.