Jesper Bratt's Goal: Track Back-Speed in Transition
Jesper Bratt is one of the league’s best transitional wingers and off rush attackers. The dynamic skill with how Bratt attacks allows him to control play with the puck on his stick as both a passer and goal scorer. Bratt is typically better in tighter spaces as a goal scorer, but as a passer, he is extremely slick and does a terrific job of using handling skill to be deceptive with the puck. Bratt has the ability to sell with his eyes and stick positioning where he could go with the puck, only to bait those defenders in and to leverage space moving in a different direction.
In this sequence that we saw yesterday against the Rangers, we saw a prime example of Bratt’s transitional play that allowed him to score effortlessly inside the rush sequence. He created a 2 on 1 with speed going the other way, and was able to score down low on Shesterkin.
Inside the track back from Bratt here, his toecaps are interior and his body is focused on staying interior throughout this sequence. That puts him in good position if New Jersey gets the puck back and retrieves. One of the best habits players who track back can implement is simply getting to interior space and tracking back through the middle. In case the puck gets turned over, this puts you as the player tracking back in a suitable position to transition the puck, as opposed to being through the dot lane area and tracking back.
Bratt does a great job doing that with that simple habit, and then once the puck is turned over, Bratt swings through center with speed to open a pass lane for his teammate and that allows him to gain straight-line speed as well. All Bratt has to do is skate in a straight line with the puck to get up ice and create the 2v1, where Bratt manages to get behind the board side winger and gets in all alone on Shesterkin. The pass option across is negated, forcing Bratt no option but to shoot. Bratt realizes that he has open space on Shesterkin low, and shoots there with an effortless shot through the five hole area.
That straight line speed and quick strike ability in transition is what makes Bratt so dangerous. The speed, elusive skill, agility, coordination in his hands and feet simultaneously, quick processing, speed off the hop, and dual threat ability from Bratt allows him to be such a dangerous transition threat. It’s so hard to stop players like that because first: They are nifty on their feet and smaller to elude contact, and second: they bring speed, quick feet, and dual threat puck skill.
Bratt has become a very exciting winger in the league to watch as a result of this, and because of his ability to be an impactful offensive winger in a sustainable way. Analytically speaking, Bratt thrives at even strength and on the PP offensively, thrives as a goal scorer and finisher, thrives at generating primary assists, all while playing against quality competition as well.