Nils Höglander is beginning to find his game and be able to play with an identity under head coach Rick Tocchet.
The 24-year-old forward is coming off a career year where he scored 24 goals and is looking to continue developing into an NHL player that his coach can trust.
Höglander is trying to be more assertive with the puck over the team's recent stretch of games.
“These last couple weeks feel like I’m getting more opportunities,” said Höglander. “I feel I’m playing better, being stronger on the puck, and winning more pucks. I’m trying to be more physical out there and I seem to have the puck more. I feel like I want the puck more, maybe before I was skating around out there, and [was] hopeful the puck would come to me. Now, I really want to have the puck, that's what I think changed from the past.”
Tocchet was happy to hear that Höglander wants the puck on his stick and is now looking for the young forward to find the next level in his game.
“I’m glad he said that,” said Tocchet. “If you want the puck, put yourself in position to want the puck. But when you get it, what are you going to do with it? Are you going to take it to the net? Are you going to take four or five strides to make a pass? These are the sort of things that are the next level for him, but the confidence in himself on the puck is big.”
Höglander is still getting scoring chances but this season, some bounces just aren’t going his way. He’s had a career-low shooting percentage and admits that it’s been difficult on him but he’s not letting some bounces get him down.
“I mean, it's hard. It can’t always be good either,” said Höglander of the ups and downs in hockey. “I had a really good season last year, and it feels like this year [when] I have had my opportunities, I don't score. I just have to work through it and be positive and not be grumpy about that. It's not going my way all the time but the biggest thing for me is to just work through it.”
In the eyes of his head coach, the next step for Höglander comes from him finding an identity and being able to take control of a specific spot in the lineup. We know that Höglander can be an option in the top-six as a spark plug type player but his game has to play a bit differently when he is in a bottom-six role.
“He's got to have an identity, a role,” said Tocchet. “Early in the season, I don't know if he was trying to score or if he was trying to play safe. I don't know. He was just caught in between. But I think when he's hard on the puck, that's when good things happen for him. And I think he's starting to do that. He’s starting to hold on to pucks a little bit more. Take it to the net. Shoot more pucks. I think he has done that lately. Hopefully, he can get on a roll for us.”
Saturday night was a step in the right direction as his head coach liked the way that Höglander played with an identity and contributed at both ends of the ice.
He assisted on the opening goal of the game with some strong work on a forecheck before holding off a defender and making a strong tape-to-tape pass to Quinn Hughes.
