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Article: Khusnutdinov's Deliberate Play Is A Product Of His KHL Roots


Bekki Antonelli
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The Athletic's Scott Wheeler must really love Jiricek and Buium, which is certainly understandable. He's listed Detroit at #5(partly due to 2 strong goalie prospects) and Chicago(who is full of strong skater prospects) at #4.

That leaves his top 3 teams in some order to be: Wild, Sharks, and Montreal.

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MaRat is an interesting player. On this road trip, I have seen him have even more instinctive offensive traits, and he looks really smooth doing it. In a small area, he is very shifty, and he makes some very nice, short passes you wouldn't really expect from a 4th liner. 

He never really has much with him. Lauko's speed helps, but he usually gears down to his linemates, and Shore simply can't keep up. He does button hook and drop pass a lot, yet if you watch him, he does this with extreme confidence, like he can lose a guy on the button hook. 

I agree with Bekki's assessment that he has played a safe, low drama game, just as he's been asked to play, but there seems to be much more in the tank. I think freeing him up a little more will produce some more offense. That spin move he put on the Montreal defender was awesome. Let's remember that he is still young and learning and has been tasked with making sure nobody scores against him. 

I'd like to see what can happen when he smashes shifts into the 5th gear a little more often. And, it's not just the 5th gear, but he has such good edges and acceleration. I think the biggest issue is nobody can skate with him. 

One just has to wonder, can Bankier or Haight keep up with him? How about Milne? Why not give them a try? Shore is not the answer.

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2 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

a safe, low drama game, just as he's been asked to play

Along with a ton of very conservative decisions by the Wild defense. They were bailing out of the offense zone early and often. They didn’t look confident to me, including Spurgeon, which took me by surprise. The only thing that makes sense is the coaches are requiring this style of play. Personally I’m in favor of playing aggressive and having the D pinch in. Too many pucks are leaking out into the neutral zone. 

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20 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

The Athletic's Scott Wheeler must really love Jiricek and Buium, which is certainly understandable. He's listed Detroit at #5(partly due to 2 strong goalie prospects) and Chicago(who is full of strong skater prospects) at #4.

That leaves his top 3 teams in some order to be: Wild, Sharks, and Montreal.

Make that Top 2 after today.

Which is either frightening or worrying.  I know it's just one guy's opinion, but the Wild are in a lot better shape roster wise than San Jose, Montreal, and Detroit.  Stuggles be damned, it's kinda weird that the team still has so many potential players waiting to break in and make impacts.

My worry is Wallstedt has had one hell of a rough year, but Gus has done enough to stick with if the price is right.  It lessens the need for Wallstedt to be "the guy," and might keep the tandem for a reasonable amount ($9-11m if they are both good?)  I wonder if Wheeler is banking on playing with Minnesota's defense instead of Iowa's.  

But if Buium's hype is real, that's the best offensive defenseman ever (Highest is Suter at 51...so not exactly the highest bar).  Even getting to Suter's pace is hardly the worst outcomes.  Faber's already a two way guy with decent numbers (35-45 per season it looks like).  Jiricek already had some offense in what little time he was here.

Add in Yurov next season, Stramel's rounding into shape, and Ohgren and Khusnutdinov hopefully finding footing, I could see the hype surrounding the team.   You would hope that Kap and Rossi staying and better support would help Boldy a bit too.  There IS a plan in place.  It's just the waiting game is so hard.

 

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Hartman suspension seems to have led to one of his best friend's being claimed off waivers and Vinnie immediately chipped in with a game winner.

Vinnie actually has decent NHL scoring numbers for a guy that's been on the edge of the AHL for years. His best years were at ages 23-24, but they weren't bad at all.  He is possibly a legitimate upgrade over Johansson if they were to just let someone take NoJo's ice time.

In the last 2 seasons, Johansson has 46 points in 124 games playing almost exclusively 2nd line and roughly 16 minutes per night. Vinnie has 42 points in his last 116 NHL games despite playing less than 13 minutes per night and not always on a scoring line.

With the minutes discrepancy, Vinnie is nearly .3 points per 60 minutes better than NoJo has been over those last roughly 1.5 seasons worth of games.

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5 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

He is possibly a legitimate upgrade over Johansson if they were to just let someone take NoJo's ice time.

 

I can't remember what constraints NoJo has in his contract but could he be waived and moved to Iowa if no one claims him? I think just the threat of that may loosen his restrictions.

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