Keep it Simple, Komisarek

First, stop hurting your teammates. 

Firing pucks and injuring Leafs winger, James Van Riemsdyk is only the latest incident.

Mike Komisarek has not lived up to the $4.5 million cap hit signed as an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2009. That much is crystal clear.

With two more seasons, barring a trade or buy out at the end of the 2013 season – a likely candidate – Komisarek must make adjustments in his game. No longer can he aimlessly seek targets for body contact, he has to change things up.

It’s doubtful he can ever justify the $4.5 million cap, and never did, but with some tweaks and a lower, altered expectation, for a specific role, not the cap hit, he could still be of use.

Towering at 6-foot-4 and 237 pounds, he should be taking some points on the type of game of another former Montreal blueliner, Hal Gill.

It begins with improved decision making, specifically on the frequency of committing to the big hit. That one play alone is a cause for concern as he takes himself right out of the play. Sometimes, it works. Sometimes … 

Here he stops Campoli dead on the spot with the play, with a two on one going into the corner where the where the puck is recovered by then bobbled by a Canadiens forward before the Leafs finally get it out of the zone, to the detriment of Mikhail Grabovski. That’s a great, clean hit in a situation with timing that led ultimately to the puck being moved out of the zone. However the hit also took him away long enough to create a two-on-one down low. With different fortune that could have ended up as a scoring chance.

He can cut through the middle here, too, as he does with Sean Avery here. On the play, there’s a winger on the right wing as he engages Avery. As soon as the pass across is made, Komisarek uses his long reach and extends to hit Avery and take the puck before he is able to shoot it. If Avery had made a little pass through the middle, he would have caught the streaking winger all alone with a scoring chance. 

The reliance on the big hit I think gets Komisarek into more trouble than the dazzle the moment is worth. This is a situation where the old adage of ‘finishing your checks’ has to be modified for the situation rather than the established norm. Every rush is unique and doesn’t always require a finishing check along the boards. He gets pulled into the commitment to make the hit and open up space behind him.

The purpose of body contact is to separate the man from the puck, which isn’t predicated a big collision; only the end result is relevant, separation of the man from the puck.

This play against the Senators is a great example. 

First, he takes his man, Jason Spezza streaking down the wing. He has support and numbers as two Senators are joining the rush. Spezza knows he’s going to be hit, it’s telegraphed and Komisarek is committed to the contact. Spezza just chips it through and creates a race into the zone.

He follows up the Spezza collision by smashing Alfredsson in the corner, utilizing his aggressive nature. He is predictable in this regard, hitting to hurt and pulling him out of position. He must cut down on the aggression and pick his spots laying the body. Luke Schenn was guilty of this trait as well.

Hal Gill, while not as enthusiastic a hitter as Komisarek, eased on trying to make the big hit and started to utilize his long reach to push puck carriers to the outside, a skill Komisarek can adapt. Gill topped out at hits per game almost five seasons ago, while being more strategic about hits.

Komisarek on the other hand has maintained a healthy hits per game mark north of two – aside from a 1.95 average in 2010-11. 

As this play starts, he has his sights on the hit. He watches as the forward skates through the middle and engages, flies over his man and leads to the rest of the breakdown.

If he kept some semblance of balance and kept the space to a minimum instead of trying to get the big hit, the loose puck off the broken play is scooped up and cleared.

In the end, Komisarek will have to simplify, make better use of his large frame and reach, keep players to the outside and just stay in front clearing space of opposition forwards protecting the crease and clearing out rebounds.

He could emulate Hal Gill, or stay the same and be more like Todd Gill.

************

Stats compiled through NHL.com

Compilation videos included snips from these sources: