PITTSBURGH — Inside the NHL’s playoff bubble, through the doors of the Royal York Hotel and down in the basement, you’ll find the oldest barber shop in Toronto.
It was here, at the Men’s Salon, in August of 2020 that Jared McCann settled into the chair. His scruffy look prompted Penguins color commentator Bob Errey to reference Flyers mascot Gritty a few days earlier.
But more than a snip, McCann needed a spark.
“It was really kind of a mental thing, trying to change something up,” he said.
Mired in a miserable slump, McCann finished the 2019-20 regular season goal-less in his final 22 games. He returned to Canada during the NHL’s four-month pause to find a locked-down country full of roadblocks. An attempt to buy a weight vest ended with McCann waiting around at a gas station for a scammer that never showed.
“Coming back from the break, my body didn’t feel good,” McCann said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Even mentally, [the quarantine] was a little bit draining.”
By the time the Penguins fell into an early series deficit against the underdog Montreal Canadiens, McCann’s game was a question mark. He became a Game 3 healthy scratch. Before he went to the press box, McCann visited the barber.
“It was a learning experience,” McCann said of the whole whirlwind of 2020. “It made me better. It made me more mentally strong for sure. You can’t control stuff like that. That’s something I learned. You’ve got to just roll with the punches sometimes.”
Now, one year later, the 24-year-old McCann and the Penguins are preparing to open a seven-game series against the New York Islanders at PPG Paints Arena. With fans back in the stands and shots in many arms, the world is in a different place than it was back in August of 2020.
And so is McCann.
In 43 games this season, the versatile Penguins forward racked up 32 points, including 14 goals. At 5-on-5 play, the Penguins generated 54.5% of the expected goals and 54.5% of the high-danger chances when McCann was on the ice. Both of those metrics are the best among Penguins forwards who played in a minimum of 20 games.
What’s behind the resurgent season? To answer that question, go back to McCann’s hometown of Stratford, Ontario, where a skills coach improved his puck possession and helped the winger rediscover his confident scoring touch.
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In Stratford, Ontario, on the banks of the Avon River, the William Allman Arena stands like a monument to hockey.
Opened in 1924, the same wooden seats and high-arching ceiling have witnessed everything from helmetless skaters roaring around the ice to a six-year-old Wayne Gretzky scoring his first goal.
Inside this relic of the past, McCann began to rewrite his future with the help of Joey Hishon.
McCann and Hishon both grew up in Stratford and played inside this arena before the Colorado Avalanche selected Hishon with their first-round pick in 2010 (17th overall). However, his career took an unexpected turn during the 2011 Memorial Cup. A vicious elbow concussed Hishon, and the subsequent post-concussion syndrome sidelined him for 22 months.
Now, at 29 years old — after several years in the AHL, 13 NHL games and a pair of pro seasons abroad — Hishon has moved into the next stage of his hockey life as a skills coach. His company, Skills Corps, has worked with the likes of St. Louis’s Ryan O’Reilly, Montreal’s Nick Suzuki, New Jersey’s Nate Bastien, San Jose’s Kurtis Gabriel and Vancouver’s Tanner Pearson.
Stratford’s own Justin Bieber also enlisted Hishon to help him prepare for the proposed shootout against St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington. But that’s a different story for a different day.
During on-ice workouts and off-ice video sessions, Hishon began to set the stage for McCann’s season.
“He was obviously frustrated with how the year ended, but it was in the rearview mirror,” Hishon said. “He was just ready to work. Really focused every time we got together.”
While there are plenty of fancy skills drills that will go viral on Instagram, Hishon’s approach is to focus only on game-specific events like picking pucks off walls, releasing a shot quickly, receiving a pass in a tight area and making a play on a goalie.
“I feel like those things that activate your mind and make you think quickly at an elite level are the things that are really going to help you in a real game situation,” Hishon said.
McCann’s puck possession was an especially critical area of focus. Because he has such a great shot (it’s arguably the best on the team), McCann can get trigger happy. That’s mostly a good thing, especially on a team full of pass-first playmakers. But Hishon watched video with McCann to look at moments when there was more time and space to create a better shot, either for McCann himself or for a teammate.
“I feel like that was something I needed to work on from last year, holding onto the puck a lot more and not always making the quick play,” McCann said. “Getting my head up and using my options.”
More than that, Hishon worked with McCann to ensure he felt good about his own game. Former assistant coach Mark Recchi noted last year that McCann is the type of player who sometimes cares almost too much, if that’s possible. When he doesn’t meet his own standards, he can be his own hardest critic.
“Evaluating Jared over the years, when he’s confident, he’s one of the best players I’ve ever been on the ice with,” Hishon said. “I was just trying to bring that out of him.”
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During this season, McCann and Hishon remained in touch every couple days to reinforce what they worked on over the offseason. Then it turned into weekly, as McCann’s game gained traction and his confidence grew.
Now?
“Lately, it’s been more like, ‘Hey, keep it going. This is fun to watch,’ ” Hishon said.
Many of the defining moments came on the man-advantage. The lefty with the big shot went from power play replacement to catalyst. He scored six power-play goals in the span of 15 games from March 25 to May 24.
While Evgeni Malkin’s return eventually bumped McCann off the top unit, the fact that there was even a debate as to whether a generational talent like Geno belonged on the top unit speaks to just how far McCann came in a year.
Lately, McCann has been linked up on a line with deadline acquisition Jeff Carter. Both are proud Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds products from the Ontario Hockey League, which has conjured up more memories of the past.
McCann used to walk into the Sault Ste. Marie dressing room to see Carter’s name on the wall with all the other Greyhounds who made it to the highest level. Now, the 24-year-old McCann steps onto the ice to skate alongside the 36-year-old two-time Cup champion.
“He’s a guy that I looked up to,” McCann said. “I followed those Cup wins when he was in Los Angeles. He’s been more of a calming mindset. He’s not a guy who gets too fired up. Sometimes that’s kind of my issue. It’s been good to have him around.”
Though Carter is a dozen years older than McCann, what they achieve in this moment together could go a long way toward propelling the Penguins in the postseason. In years past, the Penguins filled the Cup with a cocktail whose recipe went something like this: Start with a lethal one-two punch of the Crosby line and the Malkin line. Add a third potent scoring line. Shake and serve over ice.
At least on paper, with Carter scoring nine goals in 14 games as a Penguins and McCann once again flashing his offensive upside, it seems the Penguins may have found that difference-making third line.
A big part of it is McCann finding his own game and his swagger.
“We all learn through experiences,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “I don’t think Jared is any different in that regard. He’s matured as a player. He’s matured as a person.”
Those disappointing 2020 playoff experiences are becoming a distant memory. If you’re looking to see how far he’s come, just look at the flow tumbling out of the back of his helmet. Aside from one minor trim, that visit to the barber shop was the last real haircut he got.
As McCann’s long, shoulder-length hair has grown, so too has his game.
“I feel great,” McCann said. “This year is going to be a different story.”
