Bo Horvat celebrates one of his three goals Tuesday in Detroit.
DETROIT —Points to ponder as the Canucks did what they often couldn’t do last season: dig themselves out of a hole. Bo Horvat recorded his first career hat trick, Quinn Hughes continued to dazzle and Jake Virtanen got his first of the season in a 5-2 win Tuesday:
THE CIRCLE GAME: ‘I don’t like to look at stats and I never have’
Bo Horvat and Jay Beagle are dominating draws. They won 65 and 54 per cent respectively Tuesday.
Part of it is their relentless drive to improve that aspect of the craft and part of it are new face-off rules. They’re good for Horvat. And they’re bad for Beagle. Which makes the statistics more striking.
With attacking teams having the option of deciding which side of the ice the puck will be dropped after an icing, start of a power play, a shot from outside the red line frozen by a goalie and when a defensive player unintentionally dislodges the net, it’s got to help Horvat and hinder Beagle.
However, while the left-shot Horvat gets the offensive advantage on his preferred side to draw pucks back, the right-shot Beagle gets the tough defensive-zone assignment on his wrong side.
So, while Horvat’s dominance included being ranked first in the NHL in power-play draws — 21-for-37 (84 per cent) — to go with being fourth at even strength and fourth overall (60.3), Beagle’s numbers are boastful. The fourth-line centre is second overall (63.4) and third in shorthanded draws.
“I don’t like to look at stats, whether good or bad, and I never have,” said Beagle. “I like to stay even and I always want to be hungry. Sometimes you can be complacent in certain parts of your game — if your stats are good. It’s just my mindset and it’s always been like that.”
Still, when you know the rule changes were implemented to increase offence, it just makes it a bigger grind for defensive-zone draw specialists.
“I’ve worked on it a lot and it was something else I also worked on in the summer because I knew the changes were coming,” added Beagle. “They’re going to be harder to win. And everything chances because it depends if I’m up against a righty or lefty. I’d rather take them on my strong side.”
Which is what Horvat gets to do.
“It’s huge,” he said. “I don’t take as many on my off side now, which is great because we have Suds (Brandon Sutter) and Beags, who do a great job. Any time I get a chance to pick, I’m going to pick my strong side and it’s been working out because I’m sticking to my backhand.”
As for the hat-trick, Horvat is out of his funk and leading by example.
“I just keeping gaining confidence and to finally get rewarded with things going in for me, it definitely feels that much better and the win is the icing on the cake.” he said. “We’re definitely a more confident group for sure. We get down and we have the guys and the talent to come back.”
Said Travis Green: “He seems to have found his stride this trip and he’s had a lot going on with being named captain and it would be shocking to anyone that it wasn’t weighing on him a bit. He has a lot of his plate but he has definitely played well on this trip.”
THE HUGHES FILES: ‘He makes everyone better, not just top-end guys’
The subject matter was Quinn Hughes and class was in session Tuesday morning.
Not so much for the Vancouver media, but more for those in the Detroit area who wanted to know how the product of the Michigan-based U.S. National Team Development Program and University of Michigan standout was progressing in the school of hard NHL knocks.
And while a lot of what Green has to say sounded familiar — the skating and smarts that set the rookie apart — the Canucks coach went further. It’s not just that Hughes has quickly evolved as quarterback of the first power-play unit, or that he defends better than expected, it’s keeping everything in perspective.
For everything he does well, he just turned 20 on Oct. 14 and that’s easy to forget because he looks so good. He’s going to have great games and others where he looks a little exhausted from back-to-back demands.
Hughes is second in average rookie ice time (20:20) and first to welcome any challenge and direction.
“He has played eight games and eight good ones,” Green said Tuesday morning. “We don’t need to over-dissect his game. Just let him play. Smart guy and a smart kid and not just offensively, but defensively. He uses his edges well and his stick well and we just have to let him to keep getting better.
“He makes everyone better, not just top-end guys. He helps our breakout and our transition game and when he’s fresh, he defends well because we’ve played him against top lines and he’s done a good job so far. And I like his demeanour — he doesn’t get too high or too low — if he makes a play or not. And that’s important for young guys with skill to have the confidence to make the play again, but also from a coaching standpoint. You want skilled guys to make plays.
“We have to try to keep expectations down. He doesn’t have to be great every night. I don’t need him to worry about getting too many points, it’s about playing an overall strong game.
“He did some special things tonight and I’ve already seen improvement in his shot on when to take a snapshot and when to take a wrist shot. The elite guys are quick learners.”
Detroit Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard (35) makes a save on Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes (43) defended by defenseman Filip Hronek (17) in the third period.
THE HUGHES FILES: ‘I had a pretty unique opportunity to see him first hand’
Jeff Blashill is beyond bullish on Hughes.
The Wings coach guided the U.S. to a bronze medal at the 2018 world championship and his roster included Hughes, the youngest competitor at age 18. He purposely roomed him with Dylan Larkin for mentorship purposed and wasn’t afraid to play the mighty mite after his fist year at the University of Michigan.
“I had a pretty unique opportunity to coach him that year, to see him first-hand,” recalled Blashill, who coached at Western Michigan. “Some things he wasn’t great at the year going into the (2018) draft, he had already shown improvement, like his shot. I thought his technique was good so as his strength improved, his shot got better.
“I really liked Quinn. I like that he cares a ton, wants to be a player, has big-time passion for hockey and is willing to get better. I’m a big fan. I thought he could be one of those guys who had a skill set that was transferable. Some guys are really good players in junior or college, but maybe there not explosive enough or not big enough or fast enough.
“He’s super explosive with the best players in the world because of his skating.”
And that allowed Hughes to be a difference-maker Tuesday with his two power-play assists to drive the comeback.
“We were going to win this game,” he said. “We feel confident and I don’t think we had a doubt.”
Said Green: “It’s hard to hold leads and it was a nice comeback. Our power play came through tonight.”
THE HUGHES FILES: ‘I was kind of told I wasn’t going to the Red Wings’
Blashill and Hughes. A Michigan native coach and a Michigan University star.
It made sense that if the Wings coach had some say, Hughes would have been the sixth selection in the 2018 draft by Detroit.
“I was kind of told a couple of days earlier that I wasn’t going to be going to the Red Wings,” said Hughes. “I just wrapped my head around that. It was awesome and I’m grateful for that (world championship) experience and to do it for two years and to play against pro guys.
The Wings opted for Czech sniper Filip Zadina and the Canucks did cartwheels at the unexpected. They were going to land the kid with the seventh pick because they coveted him and he was supposed be gone. The Canucks were expected to target defencemen Noah Dobson and Evan Bouchard.
As for Blashill, he didn’t have the kind of influence you might expect with the No. 6 pick — and for good reason.
“The one thing about the NHL draft table is coaches sit there,” said Blashill. “We hope to pick out a good suit and we hope to look good. We don’t really have a whole bunch (to add) because I saw one guy a lot (Hughes) and a whole lot of guys not much. How can I have a real grasp of comparables or things like that?
“And I don’t think you should judge drafts after two years. Judge them after five, six or seven years. That’s true across the board. I was a head coach in college and my assistants did all the recruiting. If I did, I would have screwed it up. Let the guys who see the players all the time make the judgements.”
from Sports - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/32GwuV9
via IFTTT
October 23, 2019 at 11:25AM
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar