Vancouver Canucks’ head coach Rick Tocchet wasn’t liking what he was seeing out his one of his forwards signed in the offseason, Daniel Sprong. Although he scored the opening goal of the season for the Canucks, he blundered in his own end through the first two games of the season, finishing as a minus-two.

Those mistakes in the defensive zone earned him a seat up in the press box for three of the following four games. Sprong started on the top line with Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson, but when he struggled, he was scratched and not demoted to the bottom six.

Well, the 27-year-old was thrown back into the lineup against the team that drafted him, the Pittsburgh Penguins. He picked up the primary assist on Arshdeep Bains’ first NHL goal after a speedy play down the wing past Erik Karlsson. Sprong’s play earned him high praise from Tocchet.

“I thought Daniel Sprong was excellent tonight,” said Tocchet. “I saw a lot of great things, and I liked his attitude. His attitude was excellent, so I give him a lot of credit. We knew this was going to be long-term in the sense that if he played a couple of games, we’d have to work on this as a staff, whoever talked to him, and we kind of rotate. He took the information and practiced really well. I don’t know who picks the [three] stars, but I thought he was a star tonight. He played really, really well.

“Along the wall, he went through his guys; he did the little things that he needed to do. But that goal, the Bains goal, that’s pretty special what he did. Going around the guy, the speed, making the shot selection was great. Like, he didn’t rip it high and wide. He tried to do that, he tried to make the shot pass – hockey IQ play was great there.”

So we thought since Tocchet spoke so highly of not only the play Sprong made on Bains’ goal but how he did the little things right, let’s highlight exactly what his coach is talking about and follow every shift in our series called the Tape.

And when we say the little things, we really do mean the little things. If Tocchet said it, we’re going to show you all the little things he did right, and that starts on his opening shift.

In the dying seconds of the power play, Danton Heinen enters the zone and rings it around the boards to Sprong’s side. And, as Tocchet mentioned, his board play impressed here as he hit the boards with speed, knocking Marcus Pettersson past the puck and collecting it. Unfortunately, he quickly loses it but keeps the physicality along the walls, bringing the things Tocchet wants to see.

Even at the end of the clip, Sprong is aware that the power play is coming to an end; he knows his assignment and skates hard to the bench for a change. After the Penguins dump the puck out, it would be easy for him to coast to the bench, but not for Sprong, who’s battling to keep his spot in the lineup.

As he comes off the bench and skates through the neutral zone, Sprong intercepts Rickard Rakell’s pass to a streaking Penguins forward. Instead of panicking, he makes a quick move with his stick to dump it into the Penguins’ zone. Not giving up on the play, Sprong goes and helps Bains in a board battle, where Sprong finds the loose puck and passes it to Pius Suter. And now, the Canucks are set up in the zone.

We all know Sprong’s ability in the offensive zone, but just wanted to point out his positioning. He sneaks through the defence and is open at the side of the net with the puck at the point, and then makes himself a threat in the slot as Suter carries the puck down the wing. Some of that high hockey IQ Tocchet touched on.

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, though, as seen in this clip. The Canucks turn the puck over in the offensive zone, and Sprong is skating back. He’s somewhat gliding back, which is okay as there are three other Canucks there to defend him, so just cover the trailing. Which he does to enter the zone, as he looks at Noel Acciari and skates towards him. But then, he gets caught puck-watching, which gives Accari a wide-open net.

Luckily, Quinn Hughes was there to poke the puck away and disrupt Acciari; otherwise, maybe we aren’t hearing the same praise from Tocchet.

Coming off the bench, Sprong sets up in the neutral zone and reads Ryan Graves’ pass to Lars Eller. Without full possession of the puck, Sprong goes into attack mode as he lays the body, pokes the puck loose and allows Suter to collect the puck and Bains to gain the zone.

Later in the same shift, Filip Hronek sends a stretch pass to Bains with speed. With great positioning, Sprong gets a step on the defender and gets a tip shot off in the slot on Alex Nedeljkovic.

Sprong had great defensive awareness in the neutral zone to turn the puck over and perfect positioning to gain a step for an offensive opportunity, all on one shift from Sprong.

Now, Sprong doesn’t actually catch up to the defender on this play. But he was the deepest player in the offensive zone when this two-on-one began, and he still managed to be the first forward back and put a little pressure on Drew O’Connor – who was way out of positioning as it is – who fires the puck wide of the net.

And, of course, his best play of the game. The play starts with Sprong following a winger down low in the zone, which can be scary as that could allow the defender to sneak down for an open opportunity. However, Sprong plays it safe and shoulder checks to make sure the bird is staying at his perch.

Then, before Bains can even collect the puck, Sprong is gaining speed heading North for a rush opportunity. Since he gained speed so early, he’s able to blaze past Erik Karlsson with ease, creating a shooting lane for himself. While he could have tried to be the hero and snipe it past the goalie, Sprong sees Bains coming with speed and elects to send a low shot off the pads – or as the players like to call it, ‘POP’ (pass of pads) – which perfectly ricochets to Bains in the slot for his first NHL goal.

He also shows how good of a teammate he is, as he makes sure to grab the puck from the referee for Bains.

This could have ended poorly for Sprong. He’s first on the loose puck in the defensive zone but sends a little floater off the boards, which the Penguins defender Matt Grzelcyk holds the zone and finds O’Connor for a shot on goal in the faceoff circle. Luckily for Sprong, he’s given an opportunity to redeem himself. He picks up the puck along the boards, and while he stumbles and almost blows another zone exit, he is able to get enough on it to get the puck to Suter for an exit.

Sprong seems to be great at the beginning of each shift. After Evgeni Malkin tries to be too cute and dangle past Suter, Sprong is able to poke the puck off his stick and has an opportunity to grab the puck in the slot for an uncontested shot on Nedeljkovic. However, Malkin pokes Sprong’s stick, resulting in him overskating the puck and can’t get a shot off. Good heads up, forecheck by the Dutch forward.

The board play from Sprong really stood out here. He wasn’t afraid to get into the dirty areas and take a hit along the boards to protect the puck and keep possession in the offensive zone – as highlighted in this clip here. The play results in a give-and-go from Bains and Suter, which nearly gave the Canucks a three-goal lead.

Here’s another strong offensive board play shift, where Sprong collects the puck behind the net, evades pressure and cycles it down to an open Bains. He then sets up in front of the net, is first to the defender, and locks up Kris Letang in the corner to buy some time for his linemates to change.

To quote Tony Romo, “IIIIII don’t know about that one, Jim.”

This was a good defensive zone shift from Sprong. He kept tight on his check and had great positioning. The Canucks nearly clear the zone, but Graves keeps the puck in, and Sprong is on him like glue. From this view, I don’t necessarily see the hold. It just looked like good defensive coverage to me, but Sprong was given a two-minute holding penalty.

Now, Sprong ended the game with two shifts in the final six minutes, logging 52 minutes of ice time with the Canucks having just a one-goal lead. This is impressive for him, considering through his first few games as a Canuck, he logged no more than two shifts in the third period. But in this game against the Penguins, he had seven shifts for 3:31 of ice time.

While it wasn’t a perfect outing for Sprong, it was certainly a step in the right direction for him and the coaching staff. The offensive forward had strong enough defensive play in this outing to earn himself another shot in the Canucks’ lineup against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night.

What do you think, Canucks fans? Are you encouraged by what you saw out of Sprong against the Penguins?