Holmstroms Aggressiveness Proves Beneficial

by Ansar Khan-Grand Rapids Press

Detroit- Detroit Red Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom is not content to just stand in front of the net and let pucks deflect off his body or stick. Hes taking a more active role in creating offense by shooting the puck more.

You try to be a little more selfish, Holmstrom said.

Ordinarily, thats not good in team sports. In this case, it is good.

Holmstrom has 78 shots on goal in 54 games, one less than his total in 69 games last season. The results are clear: He has 15 goals, seven more than last season and one short of his career high, set in 200-01.

Ive gotten a couple of goals from further out, from the top of the circle. Usually, I dont score from there Holmstrom said Im getting more comfortable with my shot and shooting more.

Maybe he needs to shoot even more; His shooting percentage (19.2) is second to Igor Larionov (20.0) on the team.

Hes getting his typical, classic, Tomas Holmstrom tip goals, but hes also scoring some goals in different areas-off the side of the net, off a rush last night, Red Wings coach Dave Lewis said. Hes just having a year, especially in the second half, where things have started to go well for him offensively.

Nine of Homstroms goals have come on the power play. Among Red Wings, only Shanahan (11) and Brett Hull (10) have scored more power play goals.

During the middle of the season we were struggling a little bit (on the power play), nobody knew what was going wrong, Holmstrom said. Now we start scoring and everything seems to be in place, Guys have confidence and were moving the puck around really good.

Holmstrom has also made a dramatic improvement in plus-minus rating, going from a team-worst minus-12 last season to a respectable plus-five this season.

I think hes been better defensively this year than a lot of years, Lewis said.