The Minnesota Wild have been finding ways to win, and although it’s been a struggle as of late, they’ve still tallied points. Their entire team has found ways to step up their game from the goaltending to the offense and everyone in between. They’ve still had their fair share of issues, but overall, they’ve found ways to win.
One of those players who missed the first 22 games of the season after suffering a back injury during training camp has made quite the impression since returning from that injury, and that player is Nico Sturm. He’s quite the student of the game and has a lot of insight that he was willing to share with THW in late November.
Sturm’s a Student of the Game
THW: At training camp, you talked about studying things and being a student of the game. Have you always been that way?
Sturm: “I’d say probably started in college, maybe just the details of the game, being able to do video, and then you go to pro hockey, and you play so many games. You maybe don’t practice as much as in college. In college, you got that nice schedule where you only play Friday nights, Saturday night, and then you kinda got five days to reset and practice and stuff. So you don’t have a ton of practice time, so I think doing video is just a tool that’s available, it’s great.
You can slow everything down, you can pause, it kind of gives you a different perspective. Sometimes on the game you feel like maybe in a certain situation oh I didn’t have any time to have to make the play but then you watch the video and you’re like oh I actually had more time than I thought I had and then if you repeat that and you see the same situations reocurring all the time it’s like okay maybe this is something that’s in my game that’s kind of a scheme or repetitive thing that I can correct.
So, it’s just like a tool that I like to use, and I’m also always open for input, talking to the other centers on faceoffs, like what do you like to do, what’s your thought process? Like I always tell coaches, hey, if you have video clips of me and I don’t mind if it’s negative, like I’m not going to be butthurt, like I want to improve, so feel free to show me, tell me, and yeah, it’s just you never stop learning. It doesn’t matter if you play 50 games or 500 games in the league.”
THW: Have you always wanted to keep learning? Or was it as you got older?
Sturm: “Yeah, I think it’s definitely something that you learn as you get older, and like I said, now it’s also, I think it comes from experience as well. Especially when you first get into the league. It’s just the NHL is different than well the AHL is different than college, and the NHL is different than the AHL, and so certain things you just have to change. It’s just you don’t have the time, the space that you have in college, and the AHL that you have in the NHL, so and some guys honestly don’t like watching video, like they just don’t.
They’re like Hey, I practice, then I play the game, and then when I’m away from the game, I’m away from the game. There’s certainly times where that’s applicable. If you play like a lot of games, and you feel like you’re at the rink 24/7 and it’s kind of like a mental overload.
Sometimes I have to catch myself also and be like, hey…it’s time to get away from the game and to disconnect, and that helps you at the end of the day because you come to the rink more mentally refreshed rather than always hockey, it’s hockey again, it’s hockey 24/7, so you have to strike a balance. It’s a lot of hockey from August until May or June, so just experience is something that you have to learn….”
Sturm Talks Face-Offs, Experience & Penalty Kill
THW: For fans watching, are there any keys to winning a face-off that you can share? Or is it kind of secret?
Sturm: “No, there’s no secrets, I think, anymore, like I said, because of video, every player now has the opportunity to study every other center. So there’s no more secrets, per se. Now, players do use different tactics. Obviously, I’m a big, stronger guy, so I still try to use my strength as my main component, but then there’s smaller centers that maybe know hey I can’t outmuscle this other guy, he weighs 35-40 pounds more than me, so I gotta make sure to use my speed a little bit more rather than my strength.
I just like to, before the games or the day before, I look at the other center groups, and again, there’s usually some sort of schematics to every center and how he likes to approach. Is the faceoff on my strong side, on my weak side, am I going against a righty, am I going against a lefty, and you can study tendencies. There’s never a guarantee, the center might switch it up on you when he steps into the circle, but it just gives you another opportunity to be prepared for the game, and I like to use that.”
THW: With that experience, do you help teach the younger guys in the room?
Sturm: “Certainly, certainly, I think…as a centerman, you come into the league the struggle on the face-offs, I was not great at face-offs right away when I came into the league, it’s just you’re playing against guys that have to get, tens of thousands of pros in this league and you come in and they’re usually also bigger, they’re stronger, they’re faster than the college players in the circle and like I said especially when you’re a rookie, you don’t have the leash from the linesman, that they give a guy that’s been in the league for three, four, five, six years so they gotta start at the bottom, that’s not easy right out of the gate.
THW: Do you help them tune out the noise?
Sturm: “Yeah…It’s hard, it’s hard to teach that, you can say all the stuff in the world, but I remember how much pressure I put on myself in my first two, three years to just establish myself, and once you’re here, you don’t want to leave…I just put a ton of pressure on myself. It’s hard to talk that away, to be honest with you.
It might just be something you have to go through, but also just making them feel comfortable and not feel like you’re walking on eggshells just because you’re a rookie. You can be yourself, you can joke around, you can shoot the s*** with the guys, and that’s okay. Usually, I found that when I feel comfortable off the ice, it usually has always translated, that’s how I want them to feel.”
THW: How do you know the best penalty kill strategy? You talked a little bit about it back in training camp.
Sturm: “That’s just relative, I think the best kills, are kills where you don’t have to overthink things and obviously things are going really well right now but I tell myself everytime in my career when the kill is not going well and you’re overanalyzing it in terms of video and stuff and then you’re on the ice and you’re thinking ‘where should my stick be right now…the other guy’s over there, where should I be?’
That’s not, it doesn’t work, I think the penalty kill is largely insticts, of course there’s certain tactical aspects of it where you rotate a certain way but you have to rely on your gut, you’re a man short, the other team is going to make plays, they’re gonna find an open guy, they’re gonna get chances so you want to limit them to the worst chance possible, right? But you also can’t panic over every time they get a shot, and so it’s a gut game, to me it’s instinct and also again experience.”
Sturm on his Role, Changing Teams & Having Fun at Practice
THW: Now that you’ve been here a little bit, do you feel like you’re fitting into your role?
Sturm: “Yeah, I mean, I knew what my role was signing here, and obviously…, I’ve played here three years before, so it was really easy transition, and it was never a question where I’m gonna be in the lineup.”
THW: What’s it like changing teams? Have to uproot family?
Sturm: “Yeah, it’s tough, this time it was easier because my lady, she’s from here, and we already have the house here, bought about two years ago. I spent most of my offseasons in my career here, so I’ve always felt like this, we kinda built our home here so it was about as easy as it gets but getting traded usually it’s tough and it’s maybe a lot more work than people think it is with packing and planning all this stuff so especially when it happens during the season.
We’re lucky we don’t have any kids or pets, so it’s a little bit easier for us, but if you do have two, three kids and maybe two dogs, I can’t imagine how long the process takes, you’re probably best off hiring somebody…”
THW: Looks like you had fun at practice. Do you try to do that each time, or does it just depend?
Sturm: “I think you just gotta strike the right balance between being dialed in and then when that time is during practice, and when maybe there’s certain situations when you can have a little more fun, and be a little bit more loose. Whenever I’m out there, I try to practice the right way, I try to practice hard, but when there’s certain situations, nice goal scored, nice move, or something funny happens. I mean, we’re playing a game for a living, it’s at the end of the day, as much as it is taking up every second of our lives until you retire.
If you retire and you look back and you feel like it was just a job and never had any fun, I think you missed out on the best parts, and that’s also something I have to learn. I was very, I was almost too much of a …for the first couple years of my career, and it makes it hard when hockey’s on your mind 24/7, and you come to the rink, and it’s only a work mindset and never a play mindset.
Related: Wild’s Nico Sturm Brings High Hockey I.Q. to Team
That makes the game less enjoyable and again we’re talking about experience, it’s just something you have kind of a gut feeling, hey this is the right time to laugh around with the guys up there and this is the time when we gotta dial it in for 45 minutes out there so again that’s something hard to teach, you just gotta find your way around.”
Sturm’s Been a Great Addition
When watching Sturm play, it’s clear he’s put that learning to good use, especially in the face-off dot. While he may not be out there all the time, he’s made an impact when needed. The Wild went to overtime against the New York Islanders on Saturday, Jan. 10, Sturm was out there to take the face-off, which he won.
As soon as he won the face-off, he jumped off and let Matt Boldy head out. Sturm knows and accepts his role, and he does it well, even if it’s just to win a face-off in a crucial situation. Hopefully, it’ll continue to pay off, and he can help the Wild get a deep run into the postseason and make an impact in the Olympics as well.
