Ek’s goals are hopefully a sign of him figuring out who he is in the NHL. He’s using his strength to get himself and pucks to the net and just hammering away.
Kaprizov has not been the player I expected at all… I was expecting a pure finisher who just scored goals and not much else. Joe is dead on with the ODR analogy, seems like he has the puck on his stick twice as much as any other forward in the game. His ability to create time and space for himself has been very impressive. He’s certainly not fast, but his edge work looks elite and the fact that scouts were saying his skating could hold him back in the NHL is laughable.
Something not said yet is how good Greenway looked again last night. He’s playing every shift with tenacity and grit. He’s forechecking like Ericksson Ek but with more speed, size, and reach he is an absolute menace on opposing defensemen. He has a heavy heavy wrist shot too so hopefully he can turn that into some goals this year. Really glad Kunin and Donato were traded instead of Greenway, and I would not have said that last summer.
I really hope I have to eat crow on Johansson.
