Ice wizards: NHL stars are embracing their creative side

Matw Tkachuk watched Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov from 20 feet away and knew something special was about to happen.

Svechnikov picked puck up behind net, crled it on end of his stick and rammed it past goaltender from behind net. Someone in NHL actually pulled off lacrosse-style move me famous by Mike Legg in a college game in 1996.

Tkachuk was impressed.

“I h best seat in house,” Calgary Flames’ forward said. “That was a sick, sick goal. You see a lot of guys try it around league, but body’s been able to perfect it yet like him.”

Tkachuk knew what Hurricanes’ forward was going to do because he has practiced move many times before and tried it in games. And two nights later, he one-upped Svechnikov by scoring an overtime winner through his legs at full speed.

highlight-reel goals seem to be piling up. Thanks to an infusion of talented young players motivated to raise bar with GIF-worthy goals, coaches willing to encour risk-taking in name of offense and revamped rules designed to light lamp, re is more freedom than ever for players to express mselves creatively in NHL. Svechnikov, for example, routinely gars 10 pucks behind net to work on his ntritional move at practice.

“A lot of se kids w, y’re growing up trying se moves, practicing se moves,” Vegas forward Cody Eakin said. “Skill work has been such a huge part of kids’ development, w that when re is opportunities or time or , y can get creative. When re’s room and guys have skill to make plays, re’s some fantastic plays being me out re.”

Some players think goals like Svechnikov’s happen once a dece. Maybe t, t with players around league watching and er to figure out next cool way to go viral.

Arizona’s Clayton Keller and Montreal’s Nick Suzuki check out highlights every day and take those inspirations to rink.

“I try to watch all of m every morning,” Keller said. “When you see different goals and stuff like that, maybe you try it in practice. It’s something I did as a kid, wher it was watching (Sidney) Crosby or (Patrick) Kane, seeing ir breakaway moves and I would do it next time in practice.”

Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov is a little bit older but still turns to YouTube to get his fix of beautiful plays across soccer and hockey. When he’s one making highlights, leing scorer from Washington’s 2018 Stanley Cup run appreciates green light from coaches and very quickly calculates risk/reward of doing something unusual.

“You actually don’t have time to think about it out re,” Kuznetsov said. “You just do it naturally. I feel like every player is different. I was like that since a kid, and for me, it’s kind of what hockey’s about.”

Mostly gone are days of a star player getting stapled to bench for trying and failing on something on offense. Play within team structure, don’t turn puck over in neutral or defensive zones and it’s all good.

“Coaches like when players use ir creativity, but you’ve got to pick your spots,” Suzuki said. “You can’t be doing it to cost your team. I think you can be pretty creative down low on or team’s net and trying to create offense.”

one is creating offense better right w than Boston’s David Pastrnak, a playmaking wizard who les NHL in goals. One game, Pastrnak tried a drop pass on a breakaway and often keeps opponents and even his Bruins teammates guessing.

“He’s so confident you never kw what he’s going to do with puck,” linemate Br Marchand said. “Even we don’t kw. ... He feels like he can do anything.”

Confidence is a big reason for some of this newfound offensive creativity. Svechnikov asked his bror Evgeny four years ago for help on a lacrosse-style goal but only tried it after scoring two goals in his previous game.

“When you’re t really confident, you kind of try just to chip puck or do something,” Svechnikov said. “When you’re confident, you can do anything.”

It helps that league has taken steps to give skilled players more and leeway. A generation after cracking down on hooking, holding and or obstruction, re has been a push to eliminate slashing and big hits that can slow down some of game’s best.

“From when I came into league, re’s a lot less of those big defensemen that can grab you and t get penalized,” Capitals forward T.J. Oshie said. “From top to bottom, players can play. It’s t surprising that se days you’re seeing more scoring.”

best part is it’s t just greasy goals or from scoring from dirty areas — a time-hored hockey cliche that becomes more prevalent come playoff time. skill level in hockey is so high that each game is ar chance to see something different, which begs question: What’s next?

“Ooh, I don’t kw,” Tkachuk said. “I’ve seen a couple guys try it — and sometimes I try it — behind back goal, kind of through legs. That’s hard. I don’t kw. That might be next one. But that really takes a lot of cour to do.”

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Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Why on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhy

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