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All About Resiliency PLUS NHL Competition Fierce for KHL Players |
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I talked at length the other day with an NHL scout about what is going on with clubs suddenly in HUGE competition to sign players away from the KHL while the Russian economy is struggling.
The scout said, "This isn't going to end anytime soon because money is going to be tight in the KHL next year. There are still quite a few Russian players who have offers in from multiple NHL teams. [Artemi] Panarin and [Evegeni] Medvedev are the tip of the iceberg."
If anyone was wondering why Philadelphia paid $3M for next season to the 32-year-old Medvedev, it's because they were in a bidding war with four other NHL teams and they had to pay the player almost as if he was on the NHL unrestricted free agent market. There were other teams interested, too, but the price tag scared them off in the end.
Two other players that are drawing a lot of interest from assorted NHL teams: Viktor Tikhonov and Nikita Zaitsev.
The scout also told me to look for NHL teams to be much more willing to draft Russian prospects in this year's NHL draft than they have in the recent past out of fear of the "signability factor" due to the KHL.
On to another topic....
It should not be a surprise to anyone that the Ducks-Blackhawks series has been an instant classic that, with the exception of Game One, has gone right down to the wire every game. There have been five overtime periods already played and the series tied at 2-2.
There are two different theories I've heard players and coaches espouse over the years about what true adversity is in the playoffs looks like and what is the key to resiliency. One is that a team is never in trouble so long it wins the odd-numbered games. The other is that the key is to avoid losing back-to-back games.
Of course, the two ideas go hand-in-hand. I've twice seen my Flyers -- 2004 against Tampa Bay and 2014 against the Rangers -- avoid back-to-back losses the entire series but lose in seven games because they lost all the odd-numbered games (including a 2-1 final in Game 7).
At any rate, if anyone doubts that the Chicago Blackhawks are a resilient hockey club or wonders why they've won two Stanley Cups in the last five years, just look at this current series.
Raise your hand if you were still confident the Blackhawks would win Game Four after Anaheim stunningly scored three goals in 37 seconds -- Ryan Kesler, Matt Beleskey and Corey Perry -- to go from a 3-1 deficit to a 4-3 lead in the blink of an eye. Ah, but it doesn't matter what we think.
The Blackhawks clearly have great dressing room leadership as well as one of the top coaches in the game. They got the ship righted... again. They got the series tied.... again. They won in multiple OTs.... again. And they've done despite a paper-thin blueline that forces Joel Quenneville to overuse his top four defenseman. They've done it all playoffs with Patrick Kane having come back way ahead of schedule from a broken collarbone, and yet scoring nine goals to date including the one last night that forced OT.
Great stuff!
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