In part I of our
breakdown we took a look at Liljegren's decision-making coming out of his zone
and his defensive coverage. In part II we will now tackle his skating, transitions and offensive blueline play, which are some of the stronger points in his game.
SKATING AND TRANSITION
One of the assets in
Liljegren's arsenal is obviously his skating. Liljegren uses his skating to be
a factor all over the ice and combines it with quality puck-handling when
moving the puck forward as well as when trying to pull off 1 on 1 moves. He can
also use his skating in defensive situations, which is where we'll start off part II of our breakdown.
EXAMPLE 1
Example 1 shows off
Liljegren's ability to quickly recover backwards and close gaps down in a hurry
if/when necessary. We can see Liljegren starting on the offensive blueline
facing forward, yet he manages to retreat backwards and recovers towards the
middle of ice in time to close down the play. More impressively, a forward pass
was made by opposition in frame II, but Liljegren still managed to catch up to
the play with his skating. To top it all off, in the last frame, he is already
positioned for a D-to-D pass, opening himself up as an option for his partner.
