A linesman orders Sean Couturier out of the faceoff circle and Claude Giroux shrugs before stepping in and winning the draw.Two centers on the ice at once is a nice luxury for the Philadelphia Flyers to have.”He’s one of the best in the league at faceoffs
Alan Quine Jersey Womens ,” Couturier said of Giroux, who ranks third in the NHL. ”When you start with the puck, it’s a huge part of the game.”Beyond just controlling faceoffs, having depth at center is a growing factor for success in the NHL. Contenders like the Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Nashville Predators, Winnipeg Jets and two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins all boast depth down the middle and are spreading centers all over the lineup.The flexibility gives teams potentially game-altering matchups with the playoffs coming up in a month.”You can never have enough center-ice men on your team for lots of reasons,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.Crucial faceoffs, injuries and defensive-zone coverage are many of the reasons to load up on centers who can almost always shift to wing and not miss a beat. Philadelphia has long followed the model of drafting and acquiring centers and moving them around, and now has nine natural centers on its roster.The Penguins won the 2009 Stanley Cup going with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal and Max Talbot down the middle and captured it the past two years with Crosby
Petr Mrazek Jersey Womens , Malkin, Nick Bonino and Matt Cullen. The free agent departures of Bonino and Cullen left a void that Pittsburgh filled by trading for Derick Brassard and Riley Sheahan to again look like a championship contender.”To have the depth that we have at this point at the center-ice position is I think an important aspect of our overall game,” Sullivan said. ”We didn’t have that coming into training camp. I think our general manager, Jim (Rutherford), has worked extremely hard at making sure that he gave us what has become now I think a strength of our team.”It’s also a strength of the Eastern Conference-leading Lightning, who are overflowing with center options beyond Steven Stamkos, Alex Killorn and trade-deadline pickup J.T. Miller. The Toronto Maple Leafs also roll deep with forwards who play center or have in the past, including Patrick Marleau and recent acquisition Tomas Plekanec.”I can get a can’t-miss matchup,” Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. ”You’re not scared of any matchup as time goes on.”It’s all about the matchups in the arms race that is the absurd Central Division. It wasn’t good enough that the Central-leading Predators had Ryan Johansen, signed Bonino last summer and traded for Kyle Turris in November; they welcomed center Mike Fisher back from retirement and still have Colton Sissons and Craig Smith.The Jets acquired center Paul Stastny from the St. Louis Blues to add to an already forward-heavy roster. It paid immediate dividends with Patrik Laine extending his point streak to 13 games and Winnipeg cruising along after Mark Scheifele went down with an injury.”We’ll be putting two centers out there for D-zone draws and whatnot,” said Andrew Copp, who thinks Winnipeg’s center depth stacks up with the best in the league. ”That’s really important
Jordan Schroeder Jersey Womens , and then just depth with injuries. … Now we’ve got six, seven, eight guys that we can really lean on.”It’s an increasingly popular strategy. The Flyers are vying for the league lead in faceoffs, handling the early-season crackdown on faceoff violations and compensating for a young, mostly unproven defense with versatile forwards.”Being strong up the middle is important,” coach Dave Hakstol said. ”That’s the backbone of every line, so to have guys that are comfortable in that spot I think is important. Playing down low in your zone – there’s so much switching and interchanging that goes on from the wing to that down-low position in coverage, having somebody that’s comfortable being down there I think is a benefit, as well.”Two centers are better than one not just for faceoffs but because the extra responsibilities of the position allow for better awareness in the defensive zone, where wingers typically are only tasked with defending their respective opposing winger in man-to-man schemes. Giroux shifted to wing on the top line with Couturier after spending the past eight-plus years at center and is approaching his career high in points and playing some of the best hockey of his career.”We get a read off each other,” said Couturier, a leading candidate for the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s best defensive forward. ”It’s about chemistry and trying to trust each other out there. Guys can fill in different roles and it’s nice and it helps the team. That’s what you kind of want from having so many centermen is you want to fill in each other’s roles.”Having extra centers is a substantial benefit – if they can handle the position change. Winnipeg captain Blake Wheeler made a rapid adjustment from wing to center amid injuries
Matt Calvert Jersey Womens , but just about everyone agrees it’s much easier to go the other way.”There’s a real quick adjustment to going from center to the wing: figure out how to work the walls and find your point men,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. ”That’s a very difficult change.”— RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers just kept throwing the puck on net over and over. It was a sound strategy, considering just about every shot they took seemed to be going in.Draisaitl had a goal and three assists and the Oilers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 7-3 on Tuesday night.Drake Caggiula, Matt Benning and Ryan Strome scored in a span of 4:24 in the first period after Carolina jumped to a 1-0 lead, and Edmonton led the rest of the way. Pontus Aberg, Yohann Auvitu and Jesse Puljujarvi also scored as the Oilers got six goals on their first 22 shots. Cam Talbot made 30 saves for Edmonton.”We started well and that gave us confidence,” Draisaitl said. ”We kept going after them. Kept shooting the puck, kept getting the puck back. That was our game plan.”Brock McGinn, Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen scored for the Hurricanes, who have lost six of eight. Scott Darling allowed three goals on his first nine shots and six on 22 but was left in the game. He finished with 23 saves.As the final buzzer sounded, the Hurricanes were booed off the ice by the sparse group of fans still in the stands.”We have to come to work
Cale Makar Jersey Womens ,” Carolina forward Jordan Staal said. ”We play in the NHL. We have this privilege to be here. We can’t lay eggs like that. We can’t just not work. It looks like that when we don’t and it’s no fun to play. It’s no fun to let each other down like that. ”The scoring began early in a wild, five-goal first period, including a few unusual tallies.McGinn opened the scoring with a no-look, through-the-legs backhand pass that was accidentally pushed in by Auvitu.Caggiula tied it 23 seconds after McGinn scored, and Benning gave the Oilers the lead with an extraordinary goal two minutes later. After his initial shot went off Darling’s leg pad and up onto the glass behind the net, Benning waited for the puck to come down, swung his stick like a baseball bat, and hit the puck off Darling’s back and into the net.”I just kind of tried to wait until the puck came down so I didn’t get high sticking and then just tried to throw it at him,” Benning said. ”It’s just kind of reactionary.”Strome finished the burst with another atypical goal. Darling stopped Strome’s stuff attempt, but the puck wiggled free, and defenseman Justin Faulk pushed it into his own net.Aho kept the Hurricanes within one with a power-play goal late in the first, but the Oilers scored three times again in the second period to turn it into a rout.Just 1:32 into the period
Riley Nash Jersey Womens , Faulk inexplicably backhanded a no-look pass from the corner to the front of his own net. Draisatl took the free puck and sent a pass to Aberg, who buried it along the inside post for his first goal as an Oilier since being acquired at the trade deadline.”We weren’t playing good from the start right through the end,” Hurricanes forward Jordan Staal said. ”It wasn’t a good effort from anybody.”Auvitu got in on the scoring midway through the second when he finished a 3-on-2 rush with a wrist shot past Darling’s glove, and Draisatl joined the party with a one-timer from the right faceoff circle, his 23rd this season. Puljujarvi provided the finishing touch when he gathered his own rebound and pushed a backhander through Darling’s legs.Carolina is still technically alive in the Eastern Conference playoff race, but its hopes are dwindling. The Hurricanes are nine points back with nine games to play.NOTESDraisaitl surpassed 200 career points. … Aberg also had two assists for his first career three-point game. .Aho and Teravainen extended their point streaks to six games. … Oilers F Connor McDavid played in his 200th NHL game. … Hurricanes D Noah Hanifin missed his second straight game with a concussion. … Oilers D Andrej Sekera and F Zack Kassian both missed the game with undisclosed injuries.UP NEXTOilers: At the Ottawa Senators on Thursday.Hurricanes: Host the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday.—
