Making sense of #FreeHonka, the re-born Honka Wars, and Ken Hitchcock

The “Honka Wars” are far from over.

They started around the middle of 2017, at some point in July, as each side dug its heels in for a Twitter war of attrition. Julius Honka, then a 21-year-old defenseman, was the center of the controversy that really boiled down to a simple question, “Is Julius Honka any good at hockey?”

Some pointed out that he wasn’t, he hadn’t been able to break free from the AHL in a reasonable time, while others used numbers to point out that Honka indeed was a good NHL player, he had just been done a disservice by coaches and management in Dallas.

There wasn’t a clear winner in the initial battle, it was the middle of July, the NHL season was still three months away and therefore there weren’t any games being played to prove one side right or wrong.

So the Honka Wars went semi-dormant, waiting for October. Waiting for the time the Finnish defender would be a top-six defender, as Stars general manager Jim Nill had foretold, and would prove one side right or wrong.

But then Ken Hitchcock entered the situation.

Hitchcock moved the battle into a new medium. As the man who controls Honka’s playing time Hitchcock, knowingly or not, drew new battle lines and blurred them in the process.

Early in training camp Hitchcock praised Honka, as early as Sept. 15, Hitchcock said Honka “looks like an NHL player.” But at the same time he was also praising Jamie Oleksiak, citing the 6-foot-7 lefty as a top-four option, a player that would solidify the Stars blue line this season.

Hitchcock has always been one for hyperbolic statements, so it wasn’t easy to read. But there was still a belief that come opening night, Honka would one of the three right-handed defenders against the Vegas Golden Knights.

That wasn’t the case, and the #FreeHonka movement was born.

Honka went from an NHL practice player to the AHL, to a healthy scratch, to an NHL player, back to a healthy scratch, back into the lineup, and back to land of healthy scratches.

With each ebb and flow the #FreeHonka movement celebrated or groaned appropriately. When Oleksiak was traded away and Marc Methot was injured, it seemed like a golden moment — certainly Honka would play, heck the Stars were carrying six defenders, he had to be in the lineup and this is when Hitchcock would realize what he had in slick-skating, right-handed defenseman.

Then the unthinkable happened. Honka was scratched for Dillon Heatherington, and it’s going to happen again when the Stars visit the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.

Sitting in the press box while Marc Methot was healthy, that was frustrating but understandable for the #FreeHonka movement, but scratching him for a fellow rookie without any NHL experience?

The Honka wars were re-born, and no one was safe.

Some blamed Hitchcock’s perceived favoring of large defensemen, others blamed the Stars media contingent for not asking enough tough questions, while others simply said, “Honka isn’t good enough.”

Names were called, blocks and mutes became Twitter weapons, and #FreeHonka became a dividing line. In today’s Twitter atmosphere, you were either for or against the defenseman.

It also created Twitter-driven storylines, some true and some not-so-true.

In an attempt to better understand the Honka Wars, let’s try and debunk some of the myths, going straight to the only person’s opinion who actually matters on the subject — the coach who chooses when and when not to #FreeHonka.

Honka has the highest Corsi For amongst the Stars defensemen at 54.01. That’s a better metric than the Stars top pairing of John Klingberg (53.8) and Esa Lindell (53.65), and one of those defensemen is leading all NHL defensemen in scoring.

None of that matters.

“No, what I think it’s important is the way he plays,” Hitchcock said. “Just in general terms positionally wise. Can he build good minutes? That’s what (assistant coach Rick Wilson) is trying to do, can he build good minutes? The way our team is built, we need more extension players, we need players who can extend the rink, and he’s a guy who can extend the rink, him and Klingberg. We need him to be an active offensive player.”

If that’s the case, his defense must not be up to snuff yet. At least that was the reasoning the coaching staff gave back in October, when Honka was kept around as a practice player. He was going to learn the game with Wilson, and was going to get better defensively.

So it’s Honka’s work in the Stars zone, that’s why he’s frequently scratched, right?

Wrong.

“One thing I’d like to see more of is more activity from the red line in, for a small defenseman he’s done a really good job from the red line back,” Hitchcock said. “But we would like to see more, I don’t want to say more reckless, but more green light from the red line in. He sometimes (is) too conservative and we want to see him jump and be active and know when to get in and get out.”

“We would prefer he becomes a more active offensive player, and we’re trying to push him that direction,” Hitchcock added. “But it’s hard for younger guys to have the confidence to do that stuff.”

It’s odd to fathom Honka lacking confidence. This is the defenseman that always walks with a swagger, never gets off the ice, and was even confident enough in his NHL top-six role before the season that he got an apartment in Dallas before training camp even started.

But developments within the past 12 months have seemingly hampered that in-game confidence for Honka. It started before Hitchcock even arrived in Dallas. When the Stars were effectively sellers at the 2017 trade deadline, they didn’t turn to Honka like they should have.

Honka played the final six games of the season, that was it. The Stars were officially in sell mode as early as Feb. 24, that’s when they traded Patrick Eaves to the Anaheim Ducks, but it still took six weeks for Honka to get back to the NHL after that trade.

The Stars were sellers, they were going to miss the playoffs, and while it would have been awkward with a lame-duck coach, there should have been a mandate to play Honka in the final 25 games of the season — let the kid go and build that confidence on the fly. Make mistakes, learn from them, and be a more refined product for Hitchcock’s arrival.

With that opportunity to build confidence lost, Honka entered training camp this year with a coaching staff expecting more. Demands were going to be high, and pressure was going to be on Honka to fit this new system, and it started overloading him with information.

Honka took it to heart that he had to get better defensively, he really did, but it started to actually hurt his offensive game. He was over correcting his game, trying to turn himself into more of a shutdown defender, and the Stars didn’t need that.

If Honka was an offensive player producing points, like Klingberg, he’s fine at 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds, but if he’s trying to be shutdown guy? In that case, it’s better rolling out a 6-foot-4, 220-pound lefty named Dillon Heatherington.

Ah, size. The great in-equalizer in professional sports.

By normal human standards, Honka is average height and weight. By the standard of the typical NHL defenseman, Honka is a shrimp. And he’s a shrimp that has to be protected.

You know the old adage that bigger defenseman take longer to develop? It’s BS for Hitchcock, it’s the shrimp that need extra time.

“He’s not a big guy, and we have to protect that so he can be an effective player when he does play. You got smaller defenseman who don’t really get to be effective NHL players until they’re 25, 26 years of age and we’ve just to go to understand that,” Hitchcock said. “Not many small 21, 22-year-old players are effective, some bigger guys are, but not smaller guys and we just have to be smart about it.”

And it’s not the physical side of the game where Hitchcock feels like he has to protect Honka. If that was the case Klingberg wouldn’t play every night, he’s even more of a shrimp than Honka. It’s between the ears where apparently it’s more mentally straining on a smaller player in the NHL.

“There is no point in putting a guy (in the lineup) and keeping a guy mentally if he’s taxed too far. So you have to learn when he’s at the end and he has to catch his breath. It’s not coming out and watching, it’s catching your breath and re-starting again,” Hitchcock said. “He’s a small young guy, so when he looks like he’s at the end of the rope, we pull him back and then push him back in again. But you can’t ask a guy to extend himself when physically he’s not ready.”

So the Honka Wars aren’t going to be won or lost on Twitter, and frankly the #FreeHonka movement isn’t going to a damn thing. While social media is pitting several side battles, Stars fan vs. Stars fan calling each other names over another human being they’ve likely never met, the actual battle field is between the ears.

It’s in Honka’s head, where somehow, someway he has to find a way to please Hitchcock when he gets back in. Maybe he needs to think less, that’s what Stephen Johns is doing, and play a straight forward game, let his natural talent with the puck show.

Maybe he needs to think more. Maybe the secret is analyzing more things offensively, maybe that’s the trick to proving he should be in the lineup.

Either way, only Honka himself can win that battle.

It’s also being fought in Hitchcock’s head. Hitchcock has to trust Honka, that’s really what this boils down to. And it’s hard to trust someone when you feel like you have to protect them. If you feel like you have to shelter someone extensively, you’ll never trust them to deliver when put in a tough situation.

So the Honka Wars are going to rage on. #FreeHonka will be a rallying cry on social media, but in the end there is only one general that holds all the cards.