Oct 14, 2015
Early season trend: Let 'Er Rip
The sample size is small, but as TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie has noticed that so far this season, players appear to be ripping the puck from quite a distance for goals.
By Bob McKenzie
The sample size is small - laughably so - which is to suggest this observation is more anecdotal than empirical, but my, oh my, it sure seems like guys are ripping the puck from a distance for goals this season.
Or maybe it's just that I've been watching a lot of the Winnipeg Jets, specifically Mark Scheifele. The Jets' 22-year-old centre scored goals in each of the team's first three games.
Check them out for yourself:
1. From the top of the circle vs. Boston
2. From above the dots vs. New Jersey
3. From the high slot vs. the Islanders
"It's an interesting theory, because the numbers, the statistical history, suggest the vast majority of goals are scored from in tight, in the red zone," Winnipeg Jets' head coach Paul Maurice said on Tuesday afternoon, while waiting for the Jets' team bus in Manhattan.
"I can tell you this, though: Mark (Scheifele) has always had a great shot, he hit so many posts and came so close on so many shots that didn't go in when he first got to the NHL, but there's no doubt he's getting off his release so much more quickly now. He'll still toe drag it sometimes but it's coming off his stick real quick. Blake (Wheeler), too, that goal he scored against New Jersey was like that."
Perhaps my eyes deceive me, but I do not recall so many goalies being beaten so often so cleanly - no deflections, little or no traffic - from notable distances, in many cases from the dots or higher.
Ottawa's Kyle Turris has been the Eastern Conference version of Scheifele in the early going. Two of his three NHL goals this season have been pinpoint lasers:
1. One came opening night vs. Buffalo
2. And the other the next night in Toronto
"(Turris) can really shoot a puck," Maurice said. "Scored one on us last year like that."
If these rip jobs aren't just an early-season anomaly, maybe it's a generational thing. So many great young players coming into the league, so many of them going bar down or picking top-corner peas.
"A lot of these kids -- Nik (Ehlers) on our team, Nic Petan, too -- they're not afraid to shoot high, pick corners, go bar down even in practice," Maurice said with a laugh. "They don't have to worry about Tommy Barrasso wiring the puck back at their head. The kids today sure like to shoot the puck.
"That's why (Ehlers, going into last night's games) is leading the league in shots on goal," Maurice added. "These kids like the idea of scoring off the rush (from far out). They don't use a slap shot like Guy Lafleur, they snap it or wrist it or toe drag it, but they do like the idea of beating a goalie on a clean shot."
As fate would have it, a few hours after Maurice said that, Jet rookie Ehlers made his coach look both good and bad.
Here's Ehlers scoring his first NHL goal against the Rangers with a pretty good (slap shot) imitation of Guy Lafleur, though he did get some help with a bit of a screen to go bar and in on Henrik Lundqvist.
Don't get me wrong. It's not as if scoring from above the dots or the top of the circle was ever unheard of. It used to be commonplace, whether it was Frank Mahovlich or Brendan Shanahan with a clapper from just inside the blueline or Phil Esposito or Tim Kerr releasing wrist-shot bullets from the high slot. It did, however, seem as though, somewhere along the line, the goalies got so big or so good that it was rare to see them beat cleanly from any distance. Remember all that talk about making the nets bigger?
In the first week of the season, though, it sure seems like there have been a lot more clean-shot goals from a distance and many of them seem to be coming off the sticks of precocious rookies who appear to think a goal counts double if you can put it in the top corner.
I'll just leave you with these:
Father's Day
As the decade-old story goes, Dave and Brian were watching their young novice-aged boys play together. They were doing what Hockey Dads do, talking hockey and what one day might be.
"What do you figure the odds are," Dave asked Brian, "of our kids making it to the NHL?"
To which Brian replied, "Well, someone has to [make it]."
All these many years later, it turns out the more fitting question would have been, what are the odds of two largely inseparable minor hockey teammates and linemates in southern Ontario growing up to face off against each other as the new standard bearers for the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames in the Battle of Alberta?
Pretty good, apparently.
"Crazy, isn't it?" Dave Bennett said.
"It's funny how things work out," Brian McDavid said.
When Edmonton meets Calgary Saturday night at the Saddledome to kick off the first installment in the 2015-16 Battle of Alberta, the two proud Hockey Dads will be there watching their sons Connor and Sam do something that hasn't happened often in their lives - lining up on opposite sides of the puck.
"They know each other so well, maybe too well," Brian McDavid said with a laugh.
"They've spent so much time together, on and off the ice," Dave Bennett said.
McDavid, a year younger than Bennett, grew up in Newmarket, just north of Toronto. Bennett grew up in Holland Landing, just north of Newmarket.
Connor and Sam played five years together on the York-Simcoe Express of the Ontario Minor Hockey Association. Brian McDavid was their coach for four of those five years.
He put the two together on the same line pretty much immediately and they were rarely apart, winning championships and demonstrating from an early age they were both something special.
"Best decision I ever made," Brian McDavid said. "To be honest, it was an easy decision. Connor and Sam were so good together."
"They did make a lot of magic together," Dave Bennett said.
Connor left the Express for the Toronto Marlies of the Greater Toronto Hockey league in minor bantam. Sam stayed that year with the Express before following Connor to the Marlies, where they once again played on the same team, and more often than not on the same line, for two more years.
The first time they played against each other was a tournament in minor bantam. It's a game Brian McDavid remembers well.
"I coached most of those kids and Connor played with them," Brian McDavid said. "It felt strange to play against Sam, all of them."
What Dave Bennett remembers is the Marlies beat the Express in that game. Fair to say Sam Bennett comes by his ultra-competitiveness and disdain for losing honestly.
The two players went their separate ways in the Ontario Hockey League, Connor going first overall to Erie after being granted exceptional status; Sam going ninth overall to Kingston. Nos. 97 and 93 in your program.
McDavid's Otters and Bennett's Frontenacs played each other six times over their three seasons in junior, but they only faced each other in the first three of the six (Bennett was injured for the others) meetings.
Kingston won the first, 6-5 in OT. McDavid and Bennett had an assist apiece.
Kingston won the second meeting in the 2012-13 season, 6-3. Bennett had two goals, four points and was plus-5. McDavid had two assists and was minus-3.
In their third and final OHL meeting, Erie won 7-2. McDavid scored one goal; Bennett had two assists.
Bennett went on to be drafted fourth overall by Calgary in the 2014 draft. Edmonton could have taken Bennett with the third overall pick but opted instead for Leon Draisaitl.
McDavid, of course, was taken first overall by Edmonton last June after the Oilers won the draft lottery.
Both are still eligible to play junior hockey but they're full-fledged NHLers now.
Saturday's game will be their first against each other in more than two years, their first as professionals. The first of many more to come, no doubt.
The two Hockey Dads will be there in the Saddledome on Saturday night, of course. Their kids will no doubt be all business but Brian McDavid and Dave Bennett can be forgiven if they get a little wistful about the times they shared in so many arenas over the last 10-plus years, watching their kids grow up together.
"It will almost be like I have two sons in the game, but I'm obviously cheering for one more than the other, " Brian McDavid said with a laugh.
"I used to tease Brian when he coached Sam," Dave Bennett said. "I would say to him, 'I'm with you win or tie.' "
While the on-ice battle lines may be clearly drawn for their kids for years to come, the two Hockey Dad friends have even tossed around the idea of going back to their roots and getting together to coach a minor hockey team.
"Dave mentioned it to me," Brian McDavid said. "I think that would be really cool. I'd really like to do that one day."
But first things first: the Battle of Alberta beckons.
All in the Family
Nineteen-year-old Sam Bennett will be a staying with a billet family this season in Calgary, if by a billet family you mean his Dad, Dave.
The Flames' policy for any underage junior on their roster is the player must stay with a billet family as opposed to living on his own or with another teammate.
"I think Sam is mature enough that he could [live with a teammate] but the team has its rules, which is totally fine," Dave Bennett said. "Sam could have stayed with a billet family but he asked me if I'd be interested in staying with him this season. So that's what we're going to do."
Dave Bennett is taking a leave of absence from his job. He'll fly from Toronto to Calgary on Saturday and plans to stay there for the rest of the season.
Dave's wife Diane will also be in Calgary for the first month or so to help get Dave and Sam squared away in their new place. Diane will split time between Calgary and the family home in Holland Landing as Sam's sister Kaitlyn attends school in London, Ont.