♪♪♪ - [Adam Lefkoe:] When you speak, we listen.
Move 'em! Move the cones! Let's do it.
- [Alex DeBrincat:] They're really making this tough on me. - Now we'll see what he's really got.
♪♪♪ - [Lefkoe:] Booom!
Woo! It is cold, and I feel good.
Welcome to "Underrated."
I'm Adam Lefkoe. Behind me is the Cat. Alex DeBrincat, a young rising star
for the Chicago Blackhawks, third-leading scorer in the NHL last season.
And we wanna know how he looks in NHL 22. What X-factors does he bring?
We got our pro gamer Nasher to take a look.
- [Nasher:] What I'm looking for in
a left winger is somebody that's speedie. They can go up and down the ice.
No problem at all.
Make that move and not just score goals but score nasty goals as well.
And I feel like that's what ADB does best.
He's got "make it snappy."
So he has the ability to just go up and down the ice again.
When you have those defenders in front of you,
you wanna be able to quickly make that move.
And he's the one that can do it.
♪♪♪ - [Lefkoe:] When you were playing NHL games growing up,
who was your team? - Uhh.
- Who was the squad?
- Yeah, definitely Detroit.
- [Lefkoe:] Red Wings. - I was a huge Red Wings fan growing up.
- And would you play a lot? - Yeah, I like the NHL a lot. Yeah.
- We just heard from our pro gamer Nasher that you have
a very important X-factor that not everyone else has:
"make it snappy," the ability to get off that wrist shot super quick.
I'm here today to make sure that you still deserve it.
So we've got a little defense set up here.
And I mean little.
We need you to skate through our defenders and take a shot on goal.
You get six chances to explode
two of our targets. You can get two of those things
you've proven you deserve the "make it snappy" X-factor.
- All right. - [Lefkoe:] You cool?
- Yeah, yeah, it's cool.
- The Cat is on the ice.
Let's do it. [Lefkoe making skating sound effect]
All right, which target you going for first?
- [Alex DeBrincat:] I'm going for top left. - [Lefkoe:] Top left?
- [DeBrincat:] Yeah.
- [Lefkoe:] In three, two, one. [Whistle blowing]
The Cat, weavin' in.
Ooh, almost destroyed the goalie in the face. [Buzzer]
DeBrincat weaving… Woo!
[Sighing] That was two inches…
- [DeBrincat:] That's as close as you can get. - Two inches.
DeBrincat weaves in. Booom!
Bang. That's how it's done.
Can’t you see? It's like I played hockey. I knew you do a little knuckle.
That felt good. How did it feel?
- [DeBrincat:] That felt good. That felt good. - [Lefkoe:] See?
I think this should be hockey all the time.
- [DeBrincat laughing] - [Lefkoe:] You score and confetti explodes.
- [DeBrincat:] Yeah. - [Lefkoe:] OK, there's one.
- I'm going top right.
Yeah. That's probably good. - [Lefkoe:] The man likes top shelf.
All right, DeBrincat wants two.
Let's make it snappy. Oh, the goalie is dead… ♪♪♪
This is the last one.
Whenever you're ready, man.
- [DeBrincat:] All right. - [Lefkoe:] You got this, bro.
Here he goes. He has one.
He needs the second one. ♪♪♪
Boom! Nailed it!
Not only did you nail it. Oh, man, I'm proud of you.
Take a look at what you just did. [Lefkoe making skating sound effect]
Ah, ooh. Woah, I almost bit… - [DeBrincat laughing]
- Bang, make it snappy. - [DeBrincat chuckling]
- [Lefkoe:] Bang.
I'm not giving this back. I'm proud of you.
That's the big X-factor. - [DeBrincat:] All right, I'm keeping this in my pocket.
- Yeah, tell Sidney Crosby to eat it. - Yeah.
- Perfect.
- [Nasher:] So obviously, Alex is a smaller guy in the NHL,
but he doesn't let that bring him down.
He's able to utilize his speed
and, of course, that ankle-breaker. Make his way up the ice, quick
move, can get the shot
and we can bury the goal. [Horn blowing, crowd cheering]
♪♪♪ - All right. So you did phenomenal in the
make it snappy, but now it is time for the ankle-breaker drill.
You're gonna go through. I need to see quickness.
You can't lose speed, but you gotta break some ankles.
I'm not qualified to judge this. Would you agree?
- Yeah, I would agree. - Oh, great, awesome.
But I have someone that is: the greatest that's ever done it,
Wayne Gretzky, the Great One. Bang.
- Thank you. All right, let's see what you got. I'm so excited.
- What are we looking for, Wayne?
What are we, what are you looking for?
Well, first of all, we want to look for balance, and you have to have speed.
That's a hard combination to keep the balance and speed together.
So if you can keep the balance and the speed, you'll be fine.
But it's a hard one. This is a tough one to do.
- Do you wanna ask any advice?
Do you wanna say anything to him?
- Uh, no, I think I'll just give it a go.
- He's gonna give it a go.
Wayne, are you ready to judge? - All right—
- I don't want you to be soft.
I want harsh criticism. - All right, I will be.
- Awesome.
All right, Gretzky, let's do this. You got it, Cat. - All right.
All right, Cat. Keep the speed,
break some ankles. Whenever you're ready, man.
Easy... easy work. Easy work. Woo!
Now I see why he was third in goals.
Man, that was good.
OK, let's go to the Great One.
What did you think from what you saw?
- Well, first of all, you guys brought in a ringer.
His technique was really good.
He was upright. He had balance. He had great mobility.
He was strong. He was fast.
It was really good. - Were the ankles broken?
Like, if you were a defender, would he have broken your ankles?
- Well, I wasn't a very good defender. - [Laughing]
- So probably, right?
- I was better going the other way. - Yeah.
- I really didn't do much backing up.
We should move the cones, make it harder for him.
- How would you like to move them?
- My grandson could go through those cones. - [Laughing]
And he's five. And he lives in Florida.
So you need to stagger the cones.
So he has to kinda go in and out.
That's how we're gonna see if he has agility and balance together.
- Stagger the cones.
When you speak, we listen.
Move 'em! Move the cones! - [Laughing]
- Let's do it. ♪♪♪
- [DeBrincat:] They're really making this tough on me.
- Now we will see what he's really got. We need one more cone where he's standing.
You know what, can we get
one of you guys just to stand there?
- Yeah? - Yeah, you could stand there.
- Oh, man. All right.
- [Wayne Gretzky:] See? That's what a good host does. He's versatile.
- [Lefkoe:] Wayne's making it tough, man.
- You're the first cone. Here we go. - You know,
you know, for someone that said, "Oh, he did a great job,"
you really got a lot of suggestions with this one.
- Well, I wanna see if he's really good.
- OK, deal. We have the suggestions from the Great One.
I am now a prop, and we are gonna see the Cat in action.
Whenever you're ready, man.
♪♪♪ Wow, wow. Wow...
Hey! And he drills
the goalie in the face.
- See? - Come on. Come on, Wayne.
- OK, he's really good. And I knew he was good.
That's why I wanted to make it more difficult.
- Yeah. - [Gretzky:] That was really good.
He bent his shoulders down when he leaned in.
Kept it up the other way when he went the other way.
He had his stick turned properly.
I gotta tell you, it was really good.
- [Lefkoe:] I just want to know, what is it like to hear that?
- [DeBrincat:] That's crazy. I mean, obviously, the Great One
- [Lefkoe:] Yeah. - telling you that,
you know, shows you some accomplishment. - Mm.
- And hopefully I can get this ankle-breaker. - I love it. All right.
So now, Wayne, I'll ask you, in your mind should he keep the ankle-breaker?
- Yes. And you are a great pylon. - [Laughing]
- So this was a win-win.
- You know, that's what I've been working to my entire life was for that moment. Wow.
How 'bout that? - It's crazy.
- I, one,
I was a little bit nervous that you were gonna run me over.
And now I experienced that speed firsthand.
Tore up the drill.
You keep the ankle-breaker.
But that last compliment for me,
I feel like that's something that I would hold for a while.
- Yeah, for sure.
- Congratulations, bro. - Thank you.
- The Cat in action. - [Laughing]
- The claws are out.
Man, he almost run me over, jeez. ♪♪♪