Holy, he (edit: Tkachuk) just dove to block a shot and you could actually hear him scream in pain. Looked like he took it right in the hip bone. Then he got up, dumped the puck out and then went down the ice and crushed a guy into the boards before going to the bench lol.
Holy, he just dove to block a shot and you could actually hear him scream in pain. Looked like he took it right in the hip bone. Then he got up, dumped the puck out and then went down the ice and crushed a guy into the boards before going to the bench lol.
Edit: 13 goals and 31 points in his last 17 games. That's 3 points shy of 2 points per game lol.
Just looked he is on pace for 91 suddenly when a month ago I think he might have been for 60 or so. He could hit 100 points again and would become the third US born player to ever do it after Hull and Roenick.
Just looked he is on pace for 91 suddenly when a month ago I think he might have been for 60 or so. He could hit 100 points again and would become the third US born player to ever do it after Hull and Roenick.
Especially when you consider I failed at adding 3 to 29 last night lol.
Since Jan 1st (you could tell he was starting to finally get back into game shape about halfway through Dec), he's been on a 1.88 clip. Florida just played their 53rd game last night, so there are 29 games left. If (huge if) he continues at his current rate, that's another 54 points in his pocket. Adding that to his current 59 points would put him at 113 points on the season.
Not only would 113 points give him three hundies in a row, it would be his new career high and continue is incremental trend (104 -> 109 -> 113).
It would also be an astro-friggin-nomical 86 points in his final 46 games, after starting the season with only 27 points in his first 36.
It's also worth noting just how much of a legitimate playmaker he's become. Look at his two assists from last night:
- A soft-touch pass between the defender's legs from down low up to the opposite point, and then he's parked in front looking for a tip or rebound before the shot even comes.
- A look-off pass between two frozen defenders to a wide open backdoor tap-in off the rush. The look at the net and subtle movement of his stick against two guys and a goalie who all have him pre-pegged as definite shot... you can see the D turn their bodies to cheat towards him and then just freeze when they see the pass. Even the PITT announcers called out how good of a play that was. (Edit: in the highlights, one of them just called it beautiful... but I promise during the live game they showed it more times than that and then showed it a couple more times in the third, lol)
This guy is just constantly evolving his game, man. His skating is still ugly af, but his skill, compete and hockey brain are just on another level.