The NHL’s new generation has rushed into the 100-assist club. of Edmonton Connor McDavid and Tampa Nikita Kucherov reached this incredible achievement in the regular season. Previously, only greats had reached it Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.
– Absolutely incomprehensible! We talk all the time about how the game has sped up, defensive and underpowered plays have improved and so on. Sport skill and options, what they have in their heads, and how they always scan the field, it is indeed art, Urheilu’s expert Ismo Lehkonen anneal.
– The guys who get to enjoy this kind of service can really only go to the wrong places.
Lehkonen raves about how the game “slows down” in the eyes of McDavid and Kutšerov: both are able to make skillful decisions even at high speed.
– McDavid destroys with his speed. He also sees the guys coming from the background, Lehkonen points out.
The expert compares Kucherov to divers who learn to do two-second things in one second.
– He is a wonderful beast. When taking over the pass, he is able to read the opponent’s stick pressure, and then the pass goes flat, sometimes between the legs, and sometimes between the stick and the skate. And then there is the unfathomable ability to pass hard and accurately with the first touch.
In McDavid’s case, the ability to go from 64 goals to 100 assists in one season has added to the confusion – and appreciation. This says it all as to why the Canadian is a quintessential generational talent.
Lehkonen emphasizes that McDavid has kept to his defensive obligations while chasing a personal record. At the same time, the star player has shown a desire to make his teammates hard scorers.
– Leon Draisaitl has been an option for him all along, but it felt like by Zach Hyman the rise made him even more excited to pitch. When a hundred service points started to look realistic, I think he was interested in breaking it.
Who surprised?
There’s no need to talk about the surprise anymore, but the Winnipeg Jets, who should be added to the hot group before the playoffs. A few weeks ago, the Manitoba team was in a bit of a slump and the direction was pointing downward, but somehow it is currently on a seven game winning streak. The tube’s most impressive performance was seen on Saturday in Denver, where it defeated Colorado, the champion from two years ago, no less than 7-0!
Now the question is: is Winnipeg a viable championship contender?
– Of course, Lehkonen answers without a moment’s hesitation.
Lehkone has a clear view of the recent small recession, as does the team’s strengths.
– The small problem is related to the fact that they are a large team with a heavy style of play. There was a small weary period, but I never doubted for a moment that they would correct their course.
– There is a defense full of big, experienced boys. Keeper Connor Hellebuyck is the best goalkeeper in the series, the middle lane is strong and the chain of threes by Adam Lowry management has my favorite. From there, tough leadership sets the standard for everything we do.
In the first round of the playoffs, Winnipeg will face Colorado.
– They have a strong four-cylinder mill and certainly strong in the mind that the Colorado can’t handle it, Lehkonen reflects.
Who cheated?
Buffalo. Again. No playoffs for 13 years, and at the end of the season, the entire coaching staff got the boot. In the coming fall, we will already see the eighth head coach in 13 years behind Buffalo’s bench.
Continuous underperformance has become an embarrassing trademark for the club, and the ending Main Series was no exception. As usual, the team played its best games when it was practically too late.
– Now we should be able to bring in a host who will change the whole club culture. The change must be visible in the entire team, starting from the top chain. If you want to get to the playoffs in the NHL today, you have to have a top-notch attitude. You can’t come to the hall to float whether I’m amused today or not. From everything, it seems that it doesn’t really matter if the player has had a bad night, Lehkonen says.
It is clear that Buffalo has not been successful in its coaching choices, but the 13-year slide cannot be blamed on the pilots alone. Lehkonen expects strong leadership from the top players, but someone with a sharp tongue could state that there are no players in Buffalo who are capable of this kind of leadership.
– Exactly. That’s why you have to get them elsewhere, for example at player stores. We have to start putting the team together.
Goal of the week
By far the most special and perhaps most significant goal of the season was seen on Wednesday morning Finnish time. Detroit had just tied the game in Montreal and given themselves a shot at making the playoffs with a possible win.
At the same time, Philadelphia, which was in a 1-1 situation with Washington, decided to take out its goalkeeper in order to pursue a victory that would not even have been enough for the playoffs. Washington hit the puck in the goal and grabbed a playoff spot right in front of Detroit’s nose. With one goal, Philadelphia eliminated three teams from the playoffs: itself, Detroit and Pittsburgh.
– How to that guy (Philadelphia pilot John Tortorella) just always hurts, Lehkonen laughs.
– There were three minutes left. Järkikin says that when we start our own, first we’ll see if we can get a starting point guard. Then overtime and so on, but no. In Tortorella’s pants, I could have also asked the video coach how it went, just like in my opinion, when they heard that the game in Detroit went to overtime. I don’t understand what came of it.
What next?
End review, prodigy by Connor Bedard to the rookie season. The Canadian player, who started the season with huge expectations, flashed in a weak Chicago and showed that he is capable of making an immediate result, but the piggy bank was not broken yet.
Bedard scored 22+39=61 in 67 games in the injury season. In the power statistics, the center forward left no less than 41 hits in the cold. In the last 40 years, only five times has a rookie player recorded more minuses.
– In the summer, Chicago will have to think about whether this boy is a center or a winger. At the moment, the tools for playing the two-way center forward are really weak when it comes to playing close to the wings, playing loose pucks, defending and starting. It would take at least a couple of years to learn this. And you can’t always get behind the fact that there is a bad team around. You have to start making the players around you better like Sidney Crosby.
Kudos to Bedard for operating the offensive end.
– For his age, he has exceptional passing skills. Of course, it was known that he passes well, but it came as a bit of a surprise that he finds gaps so well and puts passes there.
– Of course, the shot is quite exceptional, no one at that age has such a shot. I think the first season went exactly as expected. There is still a lot of work ahead, but this was a very positive season, Lehkonen says.