There are goal scorers, and there are assisted men. Players like Guy LaFleur, who will always be remembered for charging on the right, and guys like Joe Thornton, who constantly hit you with taps like a surgeon. Or magician.
For every Wayne Gretzky, a legendary scorer but a man of better food in the eyes of most, there was an issued curry to pull the trigger. For each Brett Hull and Adam Oates, for each Alex Ovechkin and Nicholas Backstrom.
But what will happen to Leon Drysitel, who turned just 24 years old on SundayM The second 50 goals of a player’s career in the history of the NHL, 100 points?
What’s DrySittle, we ask, in Edmonton’s fourth consecutive ‘W’ Anaheim to win a decisive 6-1?
Is he a good traveler? Or a better scorer?
“I don’t know if you really can … I don’t know,” began Oilers goalkeeper Mike Smith, who was just staring at a night when there was no need to be spectacular. “I have never seen a player pass like him. His vision on the ice is incredible, and he can pass it on both his forehand and backhand. But he also got incredible shots.
“The goal he scored tonight, there aren’t too many people who can score from that angle and in the NHL goaltender.”
Like a mix between Mike Gartner and Dave Andreichuk, Drysitol scores from a distance but saves a puck and is extremely strong in his skates around the net. He leased his goal-scoring office from Mike Bassey, when his backhand wizard Oilers fans forgot about Doug Waite, who learned to handle sticks with a ping pong ball in the linoleum kitchen as a child.
Since becoming a full-time NHLer in 2015-16, this considerable skill has made DrySittle one of the top 3 points leaders in the NHL.
When DrySittle joined the Oilers from Junior in the 2014 draft, the No. 3 overall pick, he was a center. But when he arrives, Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins both enter the center. While working in Boston, then-GM Peter Chiarelli transferred both Phil Kessel and Tyler Seguin to the wing and was ready to experiment with dry sitel.
“Maybe Leon (Cassell and Seguin) are not suitable for the wing, but he does something that is better for them than Dana. He defends Pak, and he can make plays in the small space, “said Chiarelli at a 2015 rookie tournament in Pentecost. It was fair to Seguin.
“Those guys were shooters,” Chiarelli added. “Leon, he shot well, but I don’t think he’s a shooter. He regularly plays well.
Even then we weren’t sure what he was. Three years later, Darnell Nurse seemed pretty sure he had found it.
One day in 2018 the nurse said, “He has the ability to analyze the game in his own head and can create the little plays that you can see from the press box.” , He had the ability to do plays. Now, every night he’s making a jaw dropping pass. ”
The best goal scorer in today’s game is DrySittle with Aston Mathews, the Leafs star has trailed by 124 goals to 139 in the last three seasons. But he surpasses Matthews every year (295 to 234 in that span), and also kills penalties. He is the most dependent of his team on Face of Man.
Sorry Lifs fans, but he’s a better, more all-around player than Matthews, the last two times as a 50-goal, 100-point player. Connor McDavid had one goal and two assists to pad his NHL scoring lead at 105 points, while DrySittle was just behind him at 101, the only two 100-point players in the National Hockey League when we enter the final month of the season.
“I’m proud,” said DrySittle of Milestone. “I am just happy to be free. But it also shows how great my teammates are. You know, they put me in this situation, they can fix me at the right time. ”
Brett Kulak was in the pool to score the 50th goal, a nice cross-ice feed from Kulak’s spot on the left point. It was a patented one-timer for number 50, injected fatally into the back of goalkeeper John Gibson from the edge of the right circle. It came about four minutes after Kulak’s first goal as Euler, one night where Stony Plain Product Plus-5, partner Tyson Barry (goal, two assists) Plus-4.
But this night was about the great German, who firmly shattered the description that he was somehow a lucky planet to surround McDavid. There are only four 50-100 men in Eulers history: Glenn Anderson (once), DrySittle (twice), Zari Curie (four times) and, of course, The Great One have done it eight times.
All but one of these players have won the Stanley Cup. Even on a night of historic personal achievement, DrySite’s head is still there.
“You know, we’re all getting bigger,” said Dresital, 26, whose Eulers have lost 10-2-1 in their last 13 games. “We have all reached a point where we all want the same thing. This group has gone through a lot of negative things, but you know, we seem to be moving in the right direction. “