Jacob de La Rose is the topic among the Montreal Canadiens after his two goal night, and with some consistency, he can become a long term option for the team.
Brendan Gallagher wasn’t the only positive thing about last night’s game even though they lost . The https://www.goldenknightsuniform.com/reilly-smith-jersey-c-10.html Montreal Canadiens scored four goals, and Jacob de La Rose had two of them, bringing his season total to three. Not the number that many fans had in mind for the 22 year old, but he has set a new career high in points with eight in 39 games.
It’s performances like last night from de La Rose that make you stare at the screen and internally scream Deryk Engelland Jersey, “Where is this all the time Jacob?!”. The offence was the most noticeable aspect of his game, but not the only thing. He was also using his size and speed effectively to cause some chaos in front of the net and along the boards creating space for his linemates. The young centre has been playing with more confidence since the third line has become his and this may be the beginning of a new height.
However, it’s easy to say that after a night with a pair of goals.
Jacob de la Rose strikes again for his second of the night. pic.twitter.com/1cXggQiCae
— Scott Matla scottmatla March 7, 2018 What de La Rose needs is something that he’s needed all season a strong sense of consistency. Before this https://www.goldenknightsuniform.com/jon-merrill-jersey-c-8.html, the only thing that was consistent was his inconsistency as he would have a stretch of very impactful games and then a virtual disappearing act for a number of weeks.
The 2013 second round pick is a player who stands out the most when he is physical. That ability to grind opponents off of the puck and accelerate through the neutral zone is when de La Rose is at his best, and ironically those two traits have been at the forefront of the offence.
The best coaches in the league say that it sometimes takes players longer than others to learn how to play. Not the main aspects of hockey, but the small details that separate the ones who tread water from the ones who push to cross the other side of the lake. The best thing for the Habs to do is to continue to be patient with de La Rose.
Take a lesson from the Vegas Golden Knights. William Karlsson is leading the team in goals with 35. Before this season, the highest total Karlsson ever saw was 9 goals and 11 assists and only 6 goals and 19 assists the year after both with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The 25 year old had limited playing time while in Columbus seeing around 14 minutes a night.
However, it’s more than offence for him. His commitment to the defensive side of the puck has him being the Golden Knights’ main option on the penalty kill. Additionally, Karlsson has the highest plus/minus in the league at 36. Instead of waiting and trying to grow a young prospect, the Blue Jackets made a deal with Vegas to ensure that they take Karlsson in the Expansion Draft giving up a 2017 first and 2019 second in the process. Fast forward nine months and the Blue Jackets are in the latter half of the league as far as goal scoring goes with a 14.52 power play. One of the reasons why Vegas is so successful is that they identified players with untapped potential and placed them in a system to bring it out. The Habs should do the same thing.
There are a handful of RFAs they’ll need to resign over the offseason, and de La Rose should be one of them. No one is saying that a 30 goal season is in the works for him down the road, but he can be the two way centre Habs management has been hoping he would become. Claude Julien needs to continue to insulate his game and place him in the appropriate situations to succeed.
When Jake Virtanen lines up on his off wing for defensive zone faceoffs, he has a very specific assignment he’s been instructed to carry out by coach Travis Green.
Virtanen is supposed to skate forward, presumably to cover the opposition’s point man. But Jake being Jake, his https://www.vancanucksfans.com/alexander-edler-jersey-c-8.html concentration sometimes lapses and he moves backwards into the pack, inciting a familiar response from his head coach.
“He’s like, ‘I’ve told you 30 times. I’ve told you for two years to do this,’ ” Virtanen said Tuesday. “It’s a little thing and sometimes he gets frustrated Christopher Tanev Jersey, but I’m a young guy. I’m still learning.”
Virtanen was asked if Green’s constant harping, which has followed him from Utica to Vancouver over the last two seasons, ever gets annoying.
“Sometimes when you’re out there playing and he’s yelling at you, you’re just like pause you know,” the Canucks’ winger answers. “But it’s all good. He’s a really honest coach. He’s hard on me but it’s nice to have a coach who cares. I’ve learned a lot from Travis.”
Just as the faithful are starting to learn a lot about Virtanen.
Virtanen and Green have now been together for 18 months and the wonder isn’t that the kid from Abbotsford is finally fulfilling his sky high potential under the Canucks’ head coach. No, the wonder is one hasn’t done bodily harm to the other as Green tries every coaching trick in the book to mould Virtanen into an NHL player.
Has all the cajoling, imploring, nagging and scolding paid off? We’ll know soon enough, but following Virtanen’s bravura performance against the New York Islanders on Monday night, Green said his difficult pupil has “definitely turned a corner.” Where he heads coming out of the turn is the next question. But considering where he was this time last year, the least you can say about Virtanen is he seems to be moving in the right direction.
“Travis was really good for him last year,” said Canucks assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner, who had a front row seat for the Travis and Jake Show as as an assistant in Utica.
“I think the time and effort the whole staff put in with him helped. We knew we had to work with him, that he had some deficiencies in his game and his training. He needed to learn. I think that was a building block for this year.”
And a lot of labour went into building that block.
In the fall of 2016, Virtanen was dispatched to Utica after he had made a mess of his second NHL camp while inviting unflattering comparisons to some of the great first round busts in Canucks’ history. At the time, it felt like the Canucks were sending their wayward teenager to military school to get him back on track, which seemed like a fine strategy.
But what followed was nine goals and 19 points in 65 AHL games, totals that aren’t exactly consistent with the development arc of a player taken sixth overall in the NHL draft.
Those close to Virtanen, however, maintain there was another story taking place in Utica. While it didn’t show up on the scoresheet, he learned from dedicated pros like Darren Archibald and Alex Biega about being, well, a dedicated pro, proving once more all good things come from The Bulldog. Veterans AHLers Carter Bancks and Wacey Hamilton also helped.
Then there was Green and his assistants Baumgartner and Jason King drumming home the same message. The issue with Virtanen has never been talent. It’s channelling that talent in a productive, consistent manner which, unfortunately, isn’t as easy as it sounds. “Every night counts,” Virtanen said https://www.vancanucksfans.com/michael-del-zotto-jersey-c-9.html, reciting the mantra that was drilled into him. “Every practice counts. You have to be a pro every day. You have to be consistent.”
Baumgartner advises that process required constant vigilance.
“Keeping your thumb on him,” Baumgartner answered when asked to describe the approach. “There are players you have to do to that with consistently, and he was one of them at that point.
“But there’s an understanding there and he was ready to listen. For a guy picked that high https://www.vancanucksfans.com/alex-biega-jersey-c-10.html, then spending a year in the minors after he played a whole year in the NHL in his rookie season , that’s got to be tough mentally. I think Jake realizes we all want the best for him.”
And slowly it’s being brought out. The game against the Islanders, where Virtanen registered a goal, an assist, four shots, five hits and two takeaways — LeBron doesn’t fill up the scoresheet like that — represented a high water mark but, for the last four weeks, he’s been providing something on a nightly basis.
With the unfortunate injury to Brock Boeser, Virtanen now figures to see feature minutes on a line with Bo Horvat and Brendan Leipsic. His continued development, in fact, has suddenly become one of the feel good stories to this Canucks season. If he becomes a legitimate top six power forward, it changes a lot of things for this franchise because, let’s be honest, that didn’t seem very likely a year ago.
“I give him credit,” Green said. “There were times in Utica when he was playing nine, 10 minutes a night and he wasn’t scoring. He’s been through some adversity but any team that wins a Stanley Cup has to go through adversity.”
Virtanen is asked if he ever compares his current situation to last year’s.
With 3 17 remaining in the Chicago Blackhawks 5 4 loss to St. Louis on Sunday, Artem Anisimov slid the puck to Brent Seabrook https://www.blackhawkschifans.com/patrick-sharp-jersey-c-13.html, and the big defenseman unleashed a shot that bounced off Tomas Jurco and right back to Anisimov.
Anisimov faked a shot, fed a wide open Alex DeBrincat and wham! the Hawks took what turned out to be a short lived 4 3 lead on DeBrincat s third goal of the game. What many fans may not realize is that the assist was just Anisimov s ninth of the season. It s a total shared by teammates Jordan Oesterle and John Hayden, is 1 behind Connor Murphy, Gustav Forsling who is in Rockford and Richard Panik who was traded on Jan. 10 Michal Kempny Jersey, and is tied for 423rd in the league.
Anisimov isn t your prototypical center, and that s a big reason why he had just 45 assists the last two seasons with the Hawks despite playing with Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin.
Still, 9 assists in 63 games?
It s hard to figure out, definitely, Anisimov said. Sometimes you can have 3 assists in a game and it s all going to be second ary assists. Like you win the faceoff and a defenseman chips the puck out of our zone, and a guy scores 2 on 1.
Then sometimes you give nice passes and the guys don t score. But it happens. It s a game.
You just need to forget about all that, play the right way and all the stats will come.
The scoring stats certainly have come during all three seasons Anisimov has been in Chicago. He scored 20 goals in 2015 16, hit 22 last year and notched No. 20 this season when he scored against Boston on March. 11.
Once he retires, Anisimov s NHL epitaph will read something like Pain in the butt Russian hellbent on annoying goaltenders whenever possible.
That s his main job, and he s extremely good at it, especially on the power play where he leads the team by a wide margin with 11 goals. DeBrincat is second with 6, and Patrick Kane and Nick Schmaltz are tied for third with 4 each.
You know, he quietly goes about his business, being at the net, said coach Joel Quenneville of Anisimov. He has a way of finding the puck when he s at the net, whether he s tipping them or he s quick to the rebounds. He has a good way of being in the goalie s eyes when the puck s coming. …
Anisimov is signed for three more seasons and carries a 4.55 million cap hit. Beginning next season he no longer has a no movement clause, but he can name 10 teams to which he would be willing to be traded.
He says his time in Chicago has been a good experience, and although he hopes he is part of the Hawks future, he isn t going to stress about what may come.
What s going to happen is going to happen, Anisimov said. My job is to play hockey, and right now I play for the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are 3 0 in their last three games against the New York Islanders. The Penguins will try to complete the season sweep over their slumping division rivals on the road Tuesday night.
Pittsburgh Penguins The Penguins began a dominant 20 game stretch with a record of 16 4 with a 4 0 road win over the Islanders back on Jan. 5. That stretch came to an end with a three game losing streak, but Pittsburgh was able to snap that skid with another win over the Islanders on March 3, starting up a new hot streak of 5 2 over its last seven games.
Currently sitting two points behind Washington for the lead in the Metropolitan Division and two points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets in fourth place, the Penguins are in the midst of what will be a wild race to the finish line for the division title.
Pittsburgh has been far from a sure thing as a road favorite this season going 2 7 in its last nine instances as one per the OddsShark NHL Database.
New York Islanders On Feb. 16, the New York Islanders had a somewhat respectable record of 29 25 6 after picking up back to back wins over the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes. Since then Greg McKegg Jersey, the Islanders have managed only one win, going 1 7 4 over their last 12 games for a moneyline meltdown of 1 11. The Islanders have allowed 17 goals over their last three games and at least four in five of the eight games they have played this month. New York ranks 31st in the NHL with a goals against average of 3.6 goals per game.
Tuesday’s total is set at 6.5 goals. The OVER is 5 0 in Pittsburgh’s last five games as a road favorite.
There isn’t much of a reason to believe in the Islanders right now as their defense and goaltending has been in shambles. New York’s best shot at an upset these days is to outscore their opponent in a high scoring game, but that style of play just so happens to be the one in which the defending champion Penguins thrive.
21.03.2018 08:58
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