The ongoing NHL lockout has just been one huge headache. Honestly, I'm sick of writing about it. Apparently the sides have somewhat continued talks but people (including Dan Cleary) still think this thing will last a while.
So right now there are a plethora of NHLers playing in the various Europe leagues or the AHL (read my in-depth KHL post here).
While at this point, we'd only have seen a handful of preseason games, we've still missed some pretty amazing moments. This post is a reminder of what we're losing.
Rick Nash has taken his talents back to the Switzerland league on HC Davos after playing there during the 2005 lockout.
On September 22nd, Nash, a recent New York Ranger acquisition, had a hattrick for his new club. Here's the video:
So Rick Nash shows his capabilities immediately overseas and the Rangers got a taste of what could be in the future. Also, Joe Thornton, Nash's teammate on Davos, had 4 assists in that game.
Such a remarkable display of talents by these NHLers, something we may miss this year.
Now we'll shift to the Czech league where Montreal's Tomas Plekanec had a nice looking play the other night:
Pure brilliance by Plekanec. This is a truly skilled play by a fantastic NHL player, chipping the puck by the defender before deke-ing out another and putting the puck on his teammate's stick. Unreal.
Now we'll go to superstar Steven Stamkos in his biosteel camp during the summer. Here's a reminder of what amazing looks like:
Stamkos has pretty much got the best hands in the league and you can see it here on this beautiful piece of work. Yes, I'm aware he's pulled this move off years before with the Sarnia Sting of the OHL but it's still a great move.
And last, but certainly not least, we have Pavel Datsyuk in the KHL. Datsyuk has been known for not only his incredible stick-handling and evasiveness, but also his creativity. And oh my, do we see these attributes here.
Holy moly.
The goal was immediately waved off, for God knows what reason (silly Russians. Yes, this would have been a goal in the NHL). But let's look at this thing closely.
Datsyuk receives a pass in the slot, takes a shot, and while the goalie has trouble finding the whereabouts of the rubber disk, tracks the puck down like a man on a mission (notice how although his eyes are fixed on the puck which was in the air, he was able to quickly maneuver around two players and a goalie to get to it. Unbelievable). And then came the ridiculous finish.
I ask you, people of the internet. How pissed off are you from the lockout? We miss amazing moments like the ones above, we miss out on drama, and we miss out on the whole experience.
This past summer, I had the difficult task of picking my 20 favourite moments from this past season and I realized how many remarkable occurrences I had to skip over (Jagr's return, Stamkos' 60 goals, Florida's surprise season, Joel Ward's emotional OT goal, Anisimov's controversal goal celebration, and of course, Scott Gomez's humourous goal drought). During that project, I was just overwhelmed with the magic of the sport.
The same magic we're in danger of losing this season.
This must be stopped.
So right now there are a plethora of NHLers playing in the various Europe leagues or the AHL (read my in-depth KHL post here).
While at this point, we'd only have seen a handful of preseason games, we've still missed some pretty amazing moments. This post is a reminder of what we're losing.
Rick Nash has taken his talents back to the Switzerland league on HC Davos after playing there during the 2005 lockout.
On September 22nd, Nash, a recent New York Ranger acquisition, had a hattrick for his new club. Here's the video:
Such a remarkable display of talents by these NHLers, something we may miss this year.
Now we'll shift to the Czech league where Montreal's Tomas Plekanec had a nice looking play the other night:
Now we'll go to superstar Steven Stamkos in his biosteel camp during the summer. Here's a reminder of what amazing looks like:
And last, but certainly not least, we have Pavel Datsyuk in the KHL. Datsyuk has been known for not only his incredible stick-handling and evasiveness, but also his creativity. And oh my, do we see these attributes here.
The goal was immediately waved off, for God knows what reason (silly Russians. Yes, this would have been a goal in the NHL). But let's look at this thing closely.
Datsyuk receives a pass in the slot, takes a shot, and while the goalie has trouble finding the whereabouts of the rubber disk, tracks the puck down like a man on a mission (notice how although his eyes are fixed on the puck which was in the air, he was able to quickly maneuver around two players and a goalie to get to it. Unbelievable). And then came the ridiculous finish.
I ask you, people of the internet. How pissed off are you from the lockout? We miss amazing moments like the ones above, we miss out on drama, and we miss out on the whole experience.
This past summer, I had the difficult task of picking my 20 favourite moments from this past season and I realized how many remarkable occurrences I had to skip over (Jagr's return, Stamkos' 60 goals, Florida's surprise season, Joel Ward's emotional OT goal, Anisimov's controversal goal celebration, and of course, Scott Gomez's humourous goal drought). During that project, I was just overwhelmed with the magic of the sport.
The same magic we're in danger of losing this season.
This must be stopped.
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