Recrutes

Recrutes: Hockey scouting from a professional perspective from Grant McCagg and Habs coverage from a 33 year veteran covering the NHL from Brian Wilde.

Call Of The Wilde: Seeing Light

October 24, 2017

By Brian Wilde

Wilde Horses

– Jonathan Drouin with his best game of the season in the first game not playing with Max Pacioretty. I can’t know if what I am about to theorize is fact but sometimes the new player has too much reverence for the top player when he comes into a new environment. It’s common for the new player to be trying to please the leader or in this case the captain that he loses his own game. It’s not a critique of Pacioretty. It’s not a Pacioretty’s fault that Drouin possibly defers to him so much that Drouin loses himself. Away from Pacioretty, Drouin looked free. He held on to the puck a lot and made the right play when he felt like it; sometimes considerably more time past before he found his linemates than before. This is the way it should be. Your highest skilled player should be possessing the puck and using his immense stick skills to beat people, to bring people to him, to either beat or pass beyond. This was a good looking Jonathan Drouin: a master with the puck and happy to show everyone exactly that.

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About Brian Wilde

Brian Wilde has worked in hockey since he was 20. He was the rink side host for the Edmonton Oilers at CTV and Ottawa Senators for Sportsnet. He was also lead reporter on the Montreal Canadiens for 17 years at CTV Montreal.

View all posts by Brian Wilde

  • k3x says

    Another great summary of the what went on Brian – Great work! I have a quick question…Does the NHL (or some other organisation you know of) track the amount of times the original centerman gets thrown out of the faceoff? I saw a stat on twitter last night that Shaw (not a centre) was 7/8 on faceoffs. And Drouin appears to get thrown out of a lot of faceoffs (and isn’t really all that good at them to start with) – so I was just wondering…

    • k3x says

      OK – it appears that no Hab except Shaw is any good at faceoffs…No one over 50% other than Mitchell (McCarron bank on 50)…

  • Serge Levy says

    Feels good to read about good performances for a change!
    On Scherbak, once Galchenyuk is traded (they have to), his playmaking ability and skating will be well suited for Pacioretty and Danault.
    Only question is can Scherbak survive NHL rigorous play?, does he have the will to compete?

  • Steve B. says

    Such a relief to see the goals come out.

    I did not feel to great when the Panthers score the first goal. I also was not convinced of Galchenyuk’s goal. Yes, a goal is a goal, and he pushed hard to the net, but it was a bit of luck skipping the puck over Reimer. I did not feel all too relived when the puck went in. Tie game, sure, but I did not feel that would be the start of four more goals for the Habs. Now those four more goals were convincing. Good to see a strong win. The Habs needed that; heck, I needed that! Nice to have a convincing win, rather than just squeezing one out.

    Hopefully this is the start of some winning ways!

  • Martin Braathen says

    Two things:
    -God I’m happy I subscribe to recrutes. I don’t have time to read everything so may as well spend time with the best. Thank you Brian and Grant
    – Weber, I just think he deserves his own section among the wilde horses. He is the pure thoroughbred on this team. There were several moments of relief for a hab fan in this game but none bigger than those powerful and even empowering slapshots.

  • Michael says

    Would you agree that Mete’s ceiling would be Ryan Ellis? I think we would all be happy with that. He’s so smart out there. He seems to pinch at the perfect time, and the odd time he’s late he has the wheels to get back.