Quote:
Originally Posted by keenan87
I will be honest, not a ton. However, I really don't believe he has all of a sudden turned into an elite #1 centre.
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He's not, but he is a very good #2 who does the hard work at both ends of the ice, gets pucks for his wingers who create offense, and he benefits from that because his wingers are really good. He's doing a LOT of little things all over the ice to help his team win. Tons of hits too. Is a key penalty killer and is being counted on to shutdown the Point line tonight.
In one case, Wennberg's line was set to start in their own zone, but instead of Wennberg, they put Sam out there to take the defensive zone faceoff. He won it cleanly and then went to change.
Clearly the coaches see what Sam is doing. It's not purely about points either.
Side note: the stats guys had to point out that Sam has covered the most ice of any player on the Panthers tonight (pure distance). The kid is hustling.