Skill and Sense over Size and Speed

Skill, scouts say, is easy to see.  It's visible in a fluid, extended skating stride, explosiveness off the mark and the ability to sustain top speed.  It's announced by a heavy shot or a quick release.  No one misses those traits in no-brainer prospects like Alex Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby.  But most gifted scouts can also identify subtler skills.  These reside in the player who operates on his own personal island of time and space -- who sees the play, as scouts like to say, as though he had a mental blueprint of the game.  These nuances can also be found in the player who senses pressure before it arrives and deftly uses his body to shield the puck.  Both are indications of hockey sense, defined as the ability to anticipate and predict what is going to happen before everyone else on the ice sees it happen.  It allows a player to get into position and execute plays faster than those around him.  It's God-given, unteachable and held sacred by the Wings.

Professional Hockey Team's Draft process

NHL scouts focus first on fundamentals:  acceleration, speed, shot strength, accuracy.  Then they look deeper:  "Identifying the intangibles in a kid is the toughest part of scouting, " says Jim Nill, head scout for the Detroit Red Wings.  Small kids can get bigger.  Weak kids can get stronger.  Bad skaters can learn to skate better.  But what is their character like?  Will they work hard?  You have a gut feeling that only comes from experience.

The Wings adhere to a consistent draft philosophy of selecting high-skill, high-hockey IQ skaters designed to find hidden gems in the ranks of seemingly flawed players.  In short, skill and hockey sense trump size and speed.

Flash in the pan or the real thing

Pro Hockey scouts must discern whether a potentially good player is sick or having a bad day -- or if an average prospect is having the night of his life.  Some uncertainty can be alleviated by watching a player several times and consulting coaches, but even in the best of circumstances, determining the future NHL potential of a teenage player is tricky business.

Angela Ahrendts management style

Unlike corporate chiefs who favor an inaccessible, imperial style, Ahrendts seems comfortable with dissent; her executives joke easily with her, and aren't afraid to press their points.  "She wouldn't know how to be undermining,  "EVP Stacey Cartwright says.

"She gets people to work harder than they ever have just by letting them know how important they are, how much the team relies on them", says Supply Chain VP Andy Janowski.

"It's easy to run a company while the economy is expanding, and easy to get lazy," says Ahrendts.  "A sharp downturn tends to focus the mind.  I was taught never to waste a good recession," she says.

Linda Wachner (ex-chief of Warnaco) on Angela Ahrendts (chief of Burberry)

"She was one of the few people who knew not to take things personally.  She never flinched, never whined, never shirked.  She was a class act, and I can't say that about too many people."

Please Say It

Daniela during her recovery process:

Dr. Esquenazi didn't sugarcoat her situation.  "You will always miss your hands.  Nothing we do here will ever be like what you lost.  But you have a choice.  You can hide in a corner, or you can rise to the moment and do the best you can with what you have.  Your life will be what you do with it."

After her recovery, she finished medical school and returned to the same place she went for rehabilitation, as a doctor.  The staff describes her as having an unbelievable ability to wholeheartedly accept the present moment.  She never focuses on what was lost, and she never lets her injuries define her.

No Headlines here

Daniela, a medical student, being wheeled into the emergency room after suffering a terrible accident in which she lost all 4 of her limbs, was awake and scared, asking "Am I going to be okay?"  The stricken looks on the nurses' faces as they turned away without answering filled her with fear.  Finally, in the elevator up to the operating room, she saw a gowned doctor with kind eyes and a beard.  "Am I going to be okay?" she asked once again.  He held her eyes, smiled, and said, "You are going to be just fine."

For the 1st time since the accident, she could relax.  She closed her eyes.

One tough cookie

Alex Smith, quarterback for the 49er's has been through the worst situation possible -- five offensive systems in his first five years, two shoulder surgeries, a former head coach who questioned his toughness, an offensive coordinator who tried to break him mentally because he believed Smith had been pampered, and a $17 million pay cut -- yet his will and confidence remain intact.

With all the non-believers and troublemakers gone, working hard with his current qb coach in improving his fundamentals and techniques and convinced that Singletary and company believes in him and has his back, he's determined to propel himself to the next level.

Once again, Chemistry matters

Kurt Warner, quarterback for the Cardinals and Larry Fitzgerald, receiver for the Cardinals shared a special synergy and trust.  Warner could count on Fitz to be at a particular spot at a particular time, and Fitz could count on Warner to deliver the ball in stride.

Warner has since retired and new quarterback Matt Leinart took over.  Fitz invited Leinart to join him at his wide-outs camp in Minnesota during the off-season, but Leinart declined because he wanted to practice in LA.  On 9/4, the Cardinals coach bid adios to Leinart.

There's just no escaping "Hard Work"

Assistant Coach Hue Jackson on trying to improve struggling wide receiver Darius Heyward-Bay of the Raiders

"I don't think I need to build up any football players confidence,"  Jackson said.  It's rolling up your sleeves every day and going out to work to improve your skill level. That's what the young man has done. Obviously he needs to do it in a game. I think he will."

Are the Raiders finally getting "IT?"

"We don't need to be flashy. We didn't need the high price-tag free agents to come in. We didn't go crazy in the draft. We had a purpose in free agency, a purpose to the draft and a purpose to our trades."

—Coach Tom Cable on the common-sense approach to the offseason.

No entitlement here

"It doesn't matter if you were a 1st round draft choice or undrafted -- if you can play in this league, we'll find a way to get you on the field."  Gary Kubiak, coach of the Houston Texans

"The best players will play.  I don't care when they were drafted, what their salary is, how many years they've been in the league.  Our job is to win games, and the only way I know how to do that is to try to get the best 11 players on the field."  Josh McDaniels, coach of the Denver Broncos.

Chemistry matters

Matt Stafford, quarterback of the Lions and Calvin Johnson, wide receiver of the Lions, have been logging extra practice time on the field and occasionally hanging out away from the facility, trying to build the kind of relationship between a quarterback and a top receiver that has defined winning teams in the past.

Great Example of Preparation

Preparing to play in last year's Super Bowl, Tracy Porter cornerback of the New Orleans Saints studied diligently films of the Indianapolis Colts "china route", a staple of their 3 wideout formations in which the receiver split the farthest wide motions underneath the slot receiver, who runs an in-cut for a short gain.  The play appeared so often on film that "it became imbedded in my brain," says Porter, who compared preparing for the Super Bowl to studying for a final.

When he finally saw the play live, he felt like a student who knew the answer after reading only half of a test question.  "It was like, Here it is.  It finally happened, " says Porter, who jumped in front of Reggie Wayne on a "china route" late in the 4th quarter and returned the interception 74 yards for a Saints score.  Super Bowl over.  Saints win.

Player Development

"Teams won't start to win until they fully develop the second and third year players on their rosters."  Bill Parcells, Miami Dolphins President

Brian Kelly's Rules

Brian Kelly set the rules early for his players: No earrings or ball caps, organize your lockers, keep your helmets on and pay attention to detail during practices that won’t last more than 2 1/2 hours.