Updated:
Fresh off his stellar performance for Team Canada at the IIHF World Junior Hockey gold medal game in Toronto on Monday night, Connor McDavid reunited with his Erie Otters teammates in Sarnia and ignited fireworks.
McDavid began the WJC tournament slowly and appeared to have needed a game or two to shake off the rust that had accumulated on his game. McDavid saved his best performances for the playoff round games against Team USA, Slovakia and Russia. He accumulated 11 points in his seven games played and ended the tourney tied for the scoring lead with Buffalo's Sam Reinhart and Winnipeg's Nic Petan.
McDavid was forced to sit out 20 games due to the broken finger that he suffered in a fight on Veteran's Day.
Check out this stupendous display of virtuosity that he dropped on the Sarnia Sting in the second period. McDavid makes it look so easy to split two D and then deke the goalie all in one full swoop. Mere mortals marvel at McDavid's majesty and magic.
Click link below, Thanks The Score
GIF: Connor McDavid is back in the OHL scoring spectacular goals with relative ease. http://t.co/2cupMY2gz1 pic.twitter.com/GbfYdFPKly
— theScore (@theScore) January 9, 2015WOW!
McDavid now has 17 goals and 35 assists in just 19 games played.
McDavid will be the #1 pick in the June NHL Draft.
**
The first time I officially met NHL All Star Zemgus Girgensons was in the Buffalo room in July 2012.
Zemgus and Mikhail Grigorenko were selected by the Sabres in the first round of the NHL draft a few weeks prior to our meeting. I'll admit that I knew a lot about Grigo but not much about Zemgus other than he was the big man on campus for the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the USHL.
Back to the meeting. As I recall it, Girgensons' team had just won the annual rookie and prospects scrimmage. I asked him for a chat and he said okay. Then he proceeded to bust into a rap with his locker neighbor and line mate Nick Baptiste. They took turns spitting rhymes and then busted into an animated duet. Being the hard rocker that I am, I just sat back and ejoyed the impromptu show. Not bad at all. Several of their teammates just shook their heads and laughed. Others cared less.
The end of the rap ended and Zemgus motioned to me and said "Sorry, we had to do that".
No worries at all.
Three things struck me about Zemgus in that moment:
1). His English was spot on. Near perfect. I was expecting a language barrier but was pleasantly surprised by his command of the English language.
2). His comfort and chemistry on and off the ice with Baptiste and the other prospects in Sabres camp. Dude was cooler than the other side of the pillow. His teammates got a real good kick out of his animated personality and seemed to be magnetized by him.
3). Zemgus has unique taste in music. Admittedly, he told me that he loves hardcore rap. LOVES it. He told me the name of the artists that he digs but they escape me right now.
Flash forward to early September 2012. Cazenovia Rink n South Buffalo. Girgensons, Steve Ott, Drew Stafford and a bunch of Sabres were playing shinny and getting a good sweat on before training camp. Or so they thought. A couple weeks later, the NHL lockout would put the kibosh on all such pre-camp shinny games.
After the skate, I stuck around to speak with Ott, Tyler Ennis and a couple of vets. Ott and I chatted as he walked to his car. Gues who parked his luxury sled beside Otter's Escalade? Yep, Zemgus. Otter left and Zemgus and I started talking. He loaded his bagand sticks into the trunk of his Infinity and we talked music some more. He fired up the ignition and cranked the volume knob on his stereo.
"Sick, right?", he asked me.
Yeah whatever.
"TWO CHAINZ!!!", he said emphatically as he bobbed his head and rocked out. He's also down with Lil Tygah (whoever the hell that is).
My takeaway from that day:
Zemgus is an intense loaded freight train on the ice. Off the ice, he loves his rap.
I got a great chuckle when one of my awesome Latvia Twitter followers sent me the link to the Olas-produced "Zemgus Girgensons" rap video.
I could listen to this song all day long. In fact, I've already spun it 10 times.
Forget about the lyrics. The universal language we all speak is hockey #Latvia #Puck #BuffaLatvianLomotive pic.twitter.com/fceZH85GFf
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) January 8, 2015
All the cool kids in Latvia and Buffalo are throwing down Zemgus style!
The #1 vote getter for the 2015 NHL All Star game marches to the beat of a different drummer. And DJ/mix master.
Hey, Patrick Kane. Where's your damn rap video?
You too, Toews and Keith.
Thought so.
You guys have your bling. Zemgus has his own video.
Sucks for you. Go on and step your game up.
Zemgus and his Sabres teammates will earn their Stanley Cup rings in the not too distant future.
Props to Elvis Licitis @yofavouriteface for the Zemgus Girgensons jams!
Props to Lindy Ruff's Tie
**