Hedman learning to play to his strengths

BRANDON Victor Hedman saw Mike Rupp barreling down the right wing side with the puck on his stick and saw an opportunity to make an impact. So the 6-foot-6 Lightning defenseman stepped up looking to separate Rupp from the puck.

Whiff . Whoosh .

Hedman missed both during the first period of Game 3 of Tampa Bay's first round playoff matchup with Pittsburgh as Rupp slipped past Hedman, puck still on his stick, and zipped a pass over to Aaron Asham to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead in a game eventually won by the Penguins 3-2.

That play stood out as one of the few glaring errors made by the 20-year-old former No. 2 overall pick in the 2009 draft during the Lightning's five week run to the Eastern Conference Final. It also stood out as a big reason why Hedman is well on his way to becoming a dominant presence on Tampa Bay's blue line entering his third NHL season.

Instead of bemoaning over the costly decision to try to make a big hit, he shrugged it off and used it as learning lesson as he went on to log important minutes for the rest of the playoffs averaging just over 22 minutes per game, second most on the team.

"I think it was kind of the turning point for me during the playoffs to stay within myself and helping me to know what I'm capable of doing and what I'm not, so you play within your strengths,'' Hedman said. "That was obviously a big play and even though we got scored on it was good for me to see how I can play and how not to play.''

Hedman has the tools to be a dominant defenseman – size, speed, vision, long reach and he will only continue to add more strength to his 230-pound frame. And though he many never blossom into prototypical No. 1 defenseman that logs 30 minutes a night in every conceivable situation, he is already light years ahead of the learning curve for understanding what its going to take to be a top notch defenseman.

"He is still so young and you look at a guy like that playing defense in this league, it's awfully hard, he's so much further ahead than I thought he would be a few years ago,'' defenseman Mattias Ohlund said. "I think mentally for being 20 years old he is very strong . . . If you have a bad game you have to let it go, if you have a good game you have to let it go, he's just really so much further ahead than I was at that age as far as making a mistake and moving on.''

Entering his third training camp since being selected behind only John Tavares in the 2009 draft, Hedman has learned to deal with the expectations that come with being a high profile draft pick and channeling that potential into what kind of a player he is rather than what others want him to be.

"I've seen him play at three world championships, I coached against him and he is a certain player. And I think people want him to be something else, or expect him to be something else,'' Lightning head coach Guy Boucher said. "So I think getting rid of those expectations really helped him. The expectations he should have and the expectations we have is that he is going to be an all-around defenseman.

"I think by the end of (last) year we saw what he can be eventually when he does all that consistently throughout the entire year. And if he does that throughout the entire year, we have one of the top defensemen in the league and he's not even 21 (years old) yet, and I would be very happy with that.''

Hedman has come so far since his rookie season, that it's often difficult to remember he has only played two years in a league in which it often takes defenseman a half-dozen seasons to really figure out how to play at the NHL level. But even early on, there were plenty of signs that he would blossom into the type of player he's becoming, and last season's playoff run was just sort of a glimpse into what he will be at the peak of his career.

"He took it to another level, and it's not something that really surprised those of us that see him play day in and day out, every practice and every day,'' center Steven Stamkos said. "The sky is the limit for him.''