When it’s done correctly, it’s a work of art. There’s just a certain beauty to the kinetic display of a backwards-skating defenceman correctly pulling back his elbow, pulling his stick in, pivoting, punching that arm back out and increasing their forward speed as they head back on a dumped-in puck.



It’s also painfully hard to do correctly, even among hockey’s best defenders.



This is what Andrew Nielsen was working on that day, sometime after Christmas, on the road, before the rest of the Toronto Marlies joined him on the ice for practice.



He was already among the league leaders in points by rookie defencemen at that point, but some holes in his game in the other two zones had recently become more prominent. And so, his extra work began, and never stopped until the season ended.



By the time the playoffs rolled around, he had taken great strides, both literally and figuratively.



Nielsen was drafted 65th overall by...