Matt Savoie was cold as ice on his penalty shot Friday night, making a couple of sweet moves, waiting out Calgary’s goalie and tucking the puck inside the right post.

Not long after that, he took a pass on the backhand at full speed, flew across the crease and slid home his second of the night before the keeper even knew what happened.

In other words, pretty much what you would expect from a ninth-overall pick with a year of AHL seasoning under his belt.

Speed, quick hands and offensive instinct are elements that can’t really be taught, so this is exactly what the Edmonton Oilers were hoping to see from the 21-year-old St. Albert product.

But, as a long, long line of failed prospects will tell you, skating fast and scoring goals isn’t nearly enough to keep a player in the NHL. And it certainly isn’t enough to make you a regular on a Stanley Cup contender.

So it’s the other end of the ice that’s been a main focus for Savoie as he attempts to track down one of the job openings on Edmonton’s wing.

“(Two-way hockey) has been a big part of my game going back to my junior days with James Patrick in Winnipeg (WHL Ice),” he said. “He instilled that in me when I was 15 or 16 years old, to play both sides of the puck. And, last year in Bakersfield, (Condors head coach) Colin Chaulk gave me an opportunity early to get my feet wet on the penalty killing side.”

Focusing on defence and penalty killing isn’t something that comes naturally to naturally skilled players, but Savoie realized years ago that one-dimensional players don’t survive very long in the NHL and took the complete game challenge to heart. It’s paying off — he had 54 points in 66 games and was plus 21 as a rookie in the AHL.

“When you get called up from Bakersfield you need to play without the puck because we don’t see the top six changing very much or the power play changing that much,” said Chaulk.

“That was the message. If you want to be effective in the National League … the communication from Kris (Knoblauch) down to me and Keith Gretzky was making sure that Matt got those (PK) touches.”

Now, a player with foot speed and hands like Savoie, who is learning to be a penalty killer and understands the importance of being reliable defensively is something that makes an organization sit up and take notice. You can work with somebody like that. Defence doesn’t just win championships, it wins jobs.

“The player has to meet you half way, they have to want to do it and Matt was a great student,” said Chaulk. “That young man embraced it. One of the defining moments for me was an early road trip in Calgary — we were losing the game 4-1 with seven or eight minutes left, the game was over, and Matt Savoie laid down in front of a shot. I was like, OK, he really wants to do the hard things.”

He does, because he knows they work.

“One hundred per cent,” said Savoie. “In the last year or two I think my defence game has grown a ton. I’ve been relied heavily upon on the penalty kill late in games, holding leads. I just have so much more confidence and comfortability in those situations that it will give me confidence up here.

It also helps earn a coach’s confidence. Coaches love to have a young kid scoring goals, but he can’t put him out there if he’s giving up easy ones the other way. Savoie earned that trust with Chaulk and if he makes the Oilers it’ll be because he earned it with Knoblauch.

“That’s a big part of it, having the trust of your coach to put you out there and defend a lead on D zone shifts,” he said. “Just having that trust that you’re going to do the right thing is big.

“It’s stressed everywhere, defence is the biggest part of the game. Defence leads to offence and it wins you games, it shuts down the other team’s best players, it frustrates them. Having a good defensive stick and defensive mind is the biggest thing.”

It’s not as much fun as freewheeling around the offensive zone and burying one-timers, but staunch defending has its moments.

“It’s a blast, shutting down the other team’s offensive guys, making life a little tough on them. As an offensive guy I know you can get frustrated, so being on the other side of it and being able to shut them down is definitely a lot of fun.”
E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com