As a hockey-obsessed Canadian kid, Josh Morrissey grew up appreciating the best and brightest of the NHL’s elite.
He caught the bug at five and by the time he had reached his 10th birthday, his nightly television-watching habits were often informed by the play of two men — the now-retired Nicklas Lidstrom and Scott Niedermayer.
The second-year Winnipeg Jets blue-liner remembers focusing on the performances of those future Hockey Hall of Fame defencemen with unusual intensity.
“So efficient, so smooth,” Morrissey said Tuesday morning. “Always making the right plays — little plays that you wouldn’t notice unless you really just watched that one player.