No doubting Tomas

Red Wings winger provides perfect postseason punch

The start of the NHL postseason is less than a week away, which means Tomas Holmstrom is probably busy filing his funny bones with an emery board, trying to fashion two pointy shivs where his elbows should be. Not that the Red Wings winger is a dirty player -- far from it, in fact. Holmstrom, a slow-footed skater with little offensive flash, is one of the braver souls in the NHL. He's a mucker who makes his living camped out in front of the opponent's net, letting goalies slash at his ankles and defensemen jab at his kidneys so he can draw penalties, deflect flying pucks, pounce on rebounds and generally create chaos in the offensive zone. For a player who spends as much time in the trenches as Holmstrom does -- he takes such a beating that he wears extra padding behind his knees and calves -- sharp elbows are as critical a piece of equipment as a stick and skates.

Welcome to Tomas Holmstrom's time of year. The regular season belongs to glitzy scorers and speedy skaters. During the playoffs, when the checking is tighter than Anna Nicole Smith's bike shorts, pests such as Holmstrom can be the difference between a run at the Stanley Cup and a first-round flameout. Despite all the high-priced firepower on Detroit's roster -- Brett Hull, Sergei Fedorov, Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan, Nicklas Lidstrom -- I'll have one eye on Holmstrom whenever he's on the ice during the next two months.

Yes, everyone knows that a good goalie is the DNA of a long, successful postseason run. If you don't have one you won't have one, as Yogi Berra might say had he grown up in Moose Jaw instead of St. Louis. And, yes, All-Stars have to play like All-Stars if their teams want to advance. (I don't care how many goals, say, Henrik Sedin scores. If Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi don't play well, the Canucks aren't going anywhere in the postseason.) But the Holmstroms of the world are often the backbones of playoff teams' offensive attacks. They're the ones who create scrums in front of the net that lead to scoring opportunities in tightly played games. They're the ones in position to knock home loose pucks for the waste-management goals that offenses survive on in April, May and June.

Consider Holmstrom's postseason track record. Last year, after scoring just eight goals during the regular season, he added eight more during Detroit's championship run, including a key tip-in during the Cup-clinching win over the Hurricanes. Only three players (Hull, Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic) had more playoff tallies. In his career Holmstrom, who has won three Cups with the Wings, has averaged a goal every 5.8 regular-season games. During the playoffs his scoring rate nearly doubles, to one every 3.1 games.

The 30-year-old Swede, who's known as "Homer" in the Detroit dressing room, is wrapping up his best offensive season. He scored a career-high 20 goals, shot the puck more often than in past years and occasionally even moved out of his customary spot on the doorstep and fired away from the perimeter. "Homer gives our power play so many options," coach Dave Lewis told the Detroit News last week. "He's another dimension for the other team to worry about down low. But also he gives the guys up front other options because of things he's capable of doing, like tipping the puck, redirecting, passing it."

If the relentless Holmstrom does all those things, chances are good he'll carry another Cup in June. As the playoffs begin, consider this a pre-appreciation of his skills.

Sports Illustrated staff writer Stephen Cannella covers the NHL for the magazine and will contribute frequently to SI.com.

 

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