Canada
Prospects writer @Eliteprospects. Systems and Tactics @TheCoachesSite. Video Analyst. Previously at Habs Eyes on the Prize. En français aussi.
Some players make a scout's job easy. Marat Khusnutdinov is one of them. The Elite Prospects team didn't necessarily all share the same view of the prospect in his draft year. Some valued his package of skills more than others, but there was no debate on what those skills were.
For the first time in years, there's real intrigue with the first overall pick. Juraj Slafkovský? Shane Wright? Which player will the Montréal Canadiens take off the board first? Elite Prospects lead scout David St-Louis breaks down the decision from every angle in his latest.
Somehow, even as the Montreal Canadiens were getting heavily outshot in the first two periods of Game 3, I didn't feel worried for them. Of course, they didn't look like they had a strong grip on victory, but it didn't seem to be slipping away. The Habs looked almost comfortable under the barrage of shots.
Spacing is a term more often heard in other sports, but even if hockey has its own particularities, the concept remains crucial to offence. The more attackers you bring in an area, the more defenders will follow, making it hard to create meaningful plays. Spacing aims to counteract this.
Sparky the Dragon has been the mascot of the New York Islanders for a while now. While the current playing style of the team under Barry Trotz, its defensive tendencies, and the way the Isles protect the vital slot, might lead NHL fans to call for the replacement of old Sparky with a great big turtle, the winged mascot fits the new direction of the organization well.
''He is always around the puck." Since the start of training camp, we have heard variations of this saying for Nick Suzuki. It's a common way to describe hockey players, especially smart ones. Those players seem to have an unfair advantage; they get more puck touches inside a shift and the play runs through them.
Scoring goals is all about being in the right spots. Scorers find and use open spaces better than the average player; they recognize dangerous areas, move inside holes in the defence and load up their shots.
Hockey is a game of space. Defenders fight to reduce it, attackers to create it. Controlling space requires the coordination of all players, as scoring chances are a product of movement with and without the puck. But not all areas of the ice are as valuable to battle over.