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.