from Travis Yost of TSN,
One thing that always fascinates me about the NHL’s modern day goal scorer is that there are an awful lot of ways to be successful.
Look at last year as just one example. Alexander Ovechkin – surprise! – was the league’s most successful goal scorer. Ovechkin is incredibly predictable in the offensive zone. He tends to sit in or around the left circle and fire blistering slap shots and one-timers past goaltenders. He can be a bit reliant on his playmaking linemates to set him up, but they are equally reliant on him to put the puck in the back of the net. To this day, no one has really figured out a way to slow down Ovechkin or his patented slapper.
Not everyone fits the Ovechkin mould, though Patrik Laine is probably the closest thing we have. He likes to manoeuvre around the circles as well, but a much higher percentage of his goals are considered snap shots. The mechanics of the snap shot are much quicker than something like the Ovechkin wind up, and are deadly when a goaltender is trying to recover his position.
Minnesota’s Eric Staal doesn’t possess the same type of shooting talent as an Ovechkin or Laine, but he still managed to add 42 goals to his name last season....
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