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Earning His Wings
Springfield Falcon rookie Jeff Taffe is learning the pro game on the fly.

By Dan Hickling
MinorLeagueNews.com

03.07.03 - SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- It's been a heck of a year for Jeff Taffe, the rookie sniper for the Springfield Falcons.

In 12 quick months, Taffe (pronounced TAYF) has helped lead the University
of Minnesota to the NCAA championship, been named an American Hockey League all-star, and during a brief call up by the Phoenix Coyotes, netted his first NHL goal.

You might think that the native of Hastings, Minn. has come a long way in such a short time...but he doesn't.

For that matter, neither does his coach, the redoubtable Marty McSorley.

Both will tell you that Taffe is merely a work in progress. A very promising prospect whose game has plenty of polishing yet ahead.

"If it's strictly goal scoring," said McSorley, who is in his first year of
coaching, "he can score as well as those guys in the National Hockey League."

"He's got to have more urgency to his game, and he's got to play better defensively," the coach continued." I think after (three) years in college, he needs to break some habits. I've been hard on him, but he really wants to score. He really accepts the responsibility, at key times of trying to be the guy, offensively. (That's) good, but now let's try to round his game out."

Success has been predicted for the speedy center ever since his freshman year at Minnesota. St. Louis thought enough of him to make Taffe its first round choice in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft. Phoenix thought enough of him to insist he be included in a package of players before sending elite power forward Keith Tkachuk to the Blues in 2001.

"It showed that somebody wanted to have me," said Taffe. "I couldn't be happier, being with Phoenix. They've given me every opportunity to play. That's all I can ask for."

Taffe has been among the AHL's top rookie goal-getters all year, and hit the 20-goal plateau on Mar. 1. He was rewarded with a place on the PlanetUSA squad in this year's AHL All-Star game, and has been summoned by the Coyotes three times this year for fill-in duty.

While there, he scored his first two NHL goals, the first coming, ironically against St. Louis.

With McSorley's exhortations ringing in his ears, Taffe says he knows he's a long way from being NHL ready.

"It's a couple seconds faster here than what I'm used to," Taffe admitted. "Every time you go up a level, you're going to get faster. It's just something you have to get used to. That's why I'm playing here all year. To get my defensive game together...tune up this area of my game. This is a great league for that."

That is where McSorley comes in.

McSorley was as subtle as a sledgehammer during his 17 year NHL career, which he wound up as the league's third all-time penalty leader, with 3,381 minutes.

He was also smart as a fox, and known for his ability to quickly size
up a situation and act accordingly.

Having seen Taffe's game for the first time, this year, he felt he knew
which switches on Taffe's control panel needing flicking.

"He's not shirking from the fact that he needs to work on things," McSorley said. "What he is doing is working faster with the puck. Some of the college players I get have the bad habit of standing with the puck, and slowing the play down in the neutral zone instead of picking up the speed of the game. That's a huge adjustment to make."

McSorley's velvety hammering has had its desired effect. So too have Taffe's occasional callups.

"It puts everything in focus. You see the difference in lifestyle, and
makes you want to work that much harder to get up there that much sooner. It's great, to be able to do what you love to do for a job. But at the same time, you think about what's (up) there, and how much more you could be achieving. It makes you want to work that much harder."