FEATURE: Caggiula reflects on role next to stars before EDM return

For hundreds of NHL players, getting inside the mind of a superstar can make or break careers. Understanding a guy like Connor McDavid or Patrick Kane is the first step to slowing them down, winning games and, hopefully, keeping a job in the league.
Unless you're Drake Caggiula, the only player in the NHL to share a line with both Kane and McDavid this season. He's spent his career learning what makes superstars tick and, hopefully, how to make them even better.
"The way [McDavid and Kane] see the ice and the way they control the play, they're right up there with the best of them. A little different in the way they play, obviously Connor plays with a lot of speed and Patty seems to slow the game down and play with a lot of skill, but they're both tremendous passers and tremendous players in their own right," Caggiula said. "Being able to play alongside either one of them has been pretty special for me."
When the Blackhawks face the Oilers on Tuesday night, it will be a game with playoff implications that would have been unthinkable just two weeks ago. But it will also be a return to Edmonton for Caggiula, linemate to the stars.

After he arrived in Chicago, following a December trade from the Oilers, Caggiula found a role skating on the Blackhawks top line. That meant sharing the ice with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, two face-of-the-franchise guys named among the 100 All-Time Greatest NHL Players in 2017.
For another 24-year-old forward, it might have seemed like an impossible task. But after three seasons playing sporadically alongside McDavid, Caggiula is one of most uniquely qualified players in the NHL when it comes to skating next to superstars.
"The biggest thing is they want the puck on their stick," Caggiula said. "The biggest thing for my game is winning puck battles and creating second opportunities, being good on the forecheck, and being responsible in the D-zone. Helping them get the puck."
Caggiula is the kind of player built for hockey clichés: He's an undersized forward not afraid to get dirty or scrap with an opposing player who starts taking cheap shots. But to hear Caggiula to tell it, his game is more about making life easier for the guys around him.
"I'm not necessarily the playmaker on the line, but I like to consider myself a shooter and put myself in good opportunities for those guys to give me the puck," he said, "But the biggest thing is finding ways to keep the puck on their stick and creating open ice for them by finishing checks, going to the net and doing the little dirty stuff for them."
Caggiula's first goal as a Blackhawk came on Friday night in Buffalo, a second-chance goal off a rebound right in front of net and the kind of scoring chance that Caggiula said he prides himself on.
"I've been told to go to the front of the net and good things will happen. Throughout my entire life, that's what I've been doing," he said. "Playing with guys like Kaner and Toews, they control the puck so much in their own zone, you can just kind of pry up space in front of the net, give them a little more open room, converge on tips, rebounds and all that sort of stuff. If you're not the one scoring, then maybe one of them are scoring through your screen."
Caggiula's return to Edmonton will be another chance for him to showcase what made him such a desirable asset to the Blackhawks.
"You want to go out and prove you can be a really good player, you want to make them miss you and show them that they gave up on someone," he said. "I'm looking forward to heading back there and showing them what I can do."