Summer break didn’t change Washington Yevgeny Kuznetsov approach to penalties. When Washington met Calgary in the NHL arena earlier this week, the Russian hit the table with his patented solution: A floorball-style slow crawl towards the goal and finally the puck into the net with quick hands.
With the same formula, the Russian baked the puck into the goal in the previous season as well. Kuznetsov is actually the NHL’s most efficient penalty kill last season and this season. The success rate exceeds no less than 85.
The conservative hockey community in North America has not greeted the puck technique with anything but joy. Many so-called authors of the old covenant have criticized the custom strictly. In some talk shows, a shot clock has even been proposed for shooting contests, which could be used to eradicate creeping.
The greatest of the great Wayne Gretzky harshly criticized Kuznetsov’s style already last spring.
– I hate that style, Gretzky charged in TNT’s television studio at the time.
– A clock should be set for the winning shot contest, just like there is a clock set for pitchers in baseball, Gretzky continued.
Gretzky’s bile was also made to boil by Kuznetsov’s artistic spinning of the stage in the early stages of the penalty shootout.
– I understand that we are living in a new era, but some kind of dignity should still be preserved. If I had done that, twenty players from the opponent’s bench would have jumped over the side. Likewise, we would have jumped off our bench if that had been done to us.
A new dimension
Experienced former Finnish NHL goaltenders do not treat Kuznetsov’s toughs with the same emotional fire as Gretzky. Got a shirt on the roof and a statue in the yard of the arena in Nashville Pekka Rinne has followed the conversation, but does not judge the player.
– I don’t understand why players don’t do that more often, Rinne thinks.
– Such special toughs are damn difficult for goalkeepers. The easiest is when the player comes at speed and there are options for a shot or a deflection. It’s also easier for Veskari to find his own pace and rhythm. In this slow version, it is difficult for the goalkeeper to just wait. You can’t just cancel indefinitely and do nothing.
Rinne had recently discussed penalty shots with Nashville’s goaltending coach.
– He has calculated probabilities and kept statistics on them for years. These so-called special fighters have the highest success rates, Rinne opens.
Along the same lines, he has represented Tampa and Calgary in his playing career in the NHL Karri Rämö.
– Gretzky’s speeches sound like they are somehow humiliating the opponent. I don’t think that’s what it’s about, just like it’s not in airwaves either. You can’t start dictating that a player has to skate a certain speed. Rankers are entertainment, so this kind of thing doesn’t bother me.
The slope is bumpy.
– I don’t have a problem with Kuznetsov. If we talk about the lack of respect for the opponent, it’s more about venting yourself or how you behave after the situation. Such a code and label belongs to the species. I don’t want to lose the skill that the new generation has brought to the sport. It is wealth and a new dimension, Rinne says.
“Why can’t the game end in a draw?”
Neither of the former goalkeepers believes that the NHL will react to the situation with rule changes. Other players have not copied the Russian.
– I don’t think the NHL will react at all, but hardly Sidney Crosby we see him doing that, Rinne laughs.
Rinne says that he liked tough guys during his playing career, but Rämö has a more squeamish attitude to the concept in general.
– More than that style, I’m bothered by tough guys in general. I understand them in the finals of the World Cup, but not in the long regular season. It’s more entertainment now.
– If I could decide, the draws would come back. Why can’t the games end in a draw, what’s the problem? Rämö ponders.