SO this is a great clip to discuss when looking at highlights. Now, disclaimer. This is a highlight of 1 play back in December and I am breaking it down, not the player overall.
When I see a clip like this I actually am not overly impressed (it is still nice). Why? Well, the play starts with a fake towards the middle. This is good because it draws the defender away from the intended attacking point. In high level offensive players like Tage Thompson, you see this type of thing a lot. It doesn't have to always work either but it is the habit of trying to bring defenders into areas and then attack the space you create. Benson is really good at doing this but Benson lacks the explosive stride to fully take advantage of the space he is creating, he makes up for it with sublime passing.
Once that space is created the defending player doesn't have the backwards and lateral mobility to match Miedema, Miedema only has to power past the defenders outreached stick. This stick check is a desperation play because the defender is already beat, the defender turned his hips to make up for his inability to skate backwards and close that gap so it becomes a race. He take 2 good swings at the puck and connect a little on the 2nd one but Miedema is already moving past and he maintains possession.
What happens next is where Tage (yes an NHL all star center) really would have shown his skill to get that puck off the wall and move in across the hands of that 1st defender. Once you break in like that, the 1st defender has to reach around you or hook you to get any leverage. Now we see 2nd defender also with hips turned coming parallel to help out but there is space before he will get there and if you attack that space inside, it forces our 3rd defender to react. Since our guy can't get the puck off the wall, defender 2 makes no adjustment and takes himself out of the play like a dip. Why? Idk. However the puck is still attached to the wall so options are limited.
The 3rd defender has his stick waiting for that movement towards the net or the pass and it never comes (this is fine). In order to make a play the stick is swung around towards the boards and 3rd defender takes a few backwards strides in an effort to close the gap and end the play against the wall. However the timing is off and Miedema is able to just jump the hit enough to squeak through. At the NHL level does this happen, yes but less often as the timing issues and speed make it harder.
At this stage 3 things of importance have happened. The 1st defender is behind Miedema, the 2nd defender is useless, the 3rd defender is now flat footed and blocking the 1st defender. This brings us to the 4th and final defender to beat. He slides into what he thinks is the shot lane and when he sees the shot motion he drops for a deflection or block. Here is where Miedema does the best thing in this play, he hits the breaks and he cuts in all while loading the shot and changing the release point. The breaks separate him more from that defender, the cut finally brings him across the hands of the chasing defenders and you will actually see the 1st defender unable to stop him because of that cut inside, and he has the puck loaded as he moves laterally allowing him to release once he clears the 4th defender. That is very good and the best part of the clip.
Conclusion. Miedema gets to that spot for the shot because he has good skating and enough strength to outrace and muscle past the first defender, ignore the 2nd defender completely due to his speed compared to the closing speed (don't coast kids), and then finally with the 3rd defender Miedema is able to take the contact but basically hop through it and quickly get his feet going again. It is a nice sequence but not an overly impressive one because of the following. In the NHL that 1st defender might still miss depending on the speed, that is true, Miedema gets him to move inside than exploits space. The 2nd defender depending on the system though is either closing that gap faster or is already moving to support our 3rd defender. That defender is going to get more of Miedema and is going to slow him more though, the timing and ability to just slide on past like that is much harder in the NHL. I think that is where this play ends at the next level. Let's say it does make it through though, again you have defender 2 who in this sequence just is useless but in the NHL they would skate back at an angle as opposed to the straight horizontal along the blueline this guy takes. That would be known and it allows that 3rd defender to be moving towards the wall sooner. If the 3rd gets beat the forward is there to take this away.
Can this play happen in the NHL, yes. Do I think Miedema does enough to make it happen in the NHL, no. Again this is my opinion watching and breaking down and I still love the end of the play where he breaks the defenders hands with the cut inside (the 1st defender on the backcheck) and uses his lateral movement to load the shot, get the space, and release after the clears defender 4. That I think is very translatable. Short version, kid has good skating, needs to work on the manipulation and think about when to cut inside or manipulate defenders inside a bit more. Still very nice finish to this play. He's growing on me as a pick for sure.
What if, and hear me out first, we found a DeLorean with a Flux capacitor?
