BronxBruin
Registered User
Figured I'd share my thoughts on Jake after watching the Memorial Cup:
-- The thing that surprised me the most was his passing ability. Having scored 40+ goals last season, I assumed he was a shoot-first sniper but that was far from the case during the Memorial Cup. There were several times each game where he made real nice passes to teammates in the offensive zone to set up scoring chances.
-- I believe some others commented on it but he just seems to have a real good feel for possession in the offensive zone. He seems to have good patience in waiting for a play to open up and not force things. There were numerous times where he had the puck and a defender was all over him and I was expecting him to turn it over but he would make a nice little stickhandling move or calmly chip the puck to a teammate to keep possession. This isn't the type of thing that'll show up on highlight reels but they're just smart plays that can lead to good things for his team.
-- I tried to pay attention to his skating since some folks have raised questions about it. From my view, his top gear is pretty good...there were a couple rushes up the ice where he really turned on the jets and his speed was noticeable. However his other gears seemed average to me...there were a few times where there were loose pucks that I thought he could get to but was a step slow to them. I don't think his skating will be an issue in the NHL but I think he could use some work on his non-breakaway quickness.
-- Defensively I thought he was just OK. He played on the PK which alone shows what the coaches think of his defensive prowess but there were a number of times I was expecting him to block a pass/shot or put a body on a guy and dislodge the puck and it didn't happen. Not surprising for a junior player who has been relied on primarily for his offense so I'm not too worried about it but just something that caught my eye. To his credit though, he does seem to have a knack for picking defenders' pockets...he did it twice against RN (in two different games) which led to good scoring chances (one resulted in a goal).
Overall, yes it would've been great if he lit it up like Marner is doing but he was arguably Red Deer's best player against superior teams -- so I walked away encouraged by the abilities he showed. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do in Providence next year.
-- The thing that surprised me the most was his passing ability. Having scored 40+ goals last season, I assumed he was a shoot-first sniper but that was far from the case during the Memorial Cup. There were several times each game where he made real nice passes to teammates in the offensive zone to set up scoring chances.
-- I believe some others commented on it but he just seems to have a real good feel for possession in the offensive zone. He seems to have good patience in waiting for a play to open up and not force things. There were numerous times where he had the puck and a defender was all over him and I was expecting him to turn it over but he would make a nice little stickhandling move or calmly chip the puck to a teammate to keep possession. This isn't the type of thing that'll show up on highlight reels but they're just smart plays that can lead to good things for his team.
-- I tried to pay attention to his skating since some folks have raised questions about it. From my view, his top gear is pretty good...there were a couple rushes up the ice where he really turned on the jets and his speed was noticeable. However his other gears seemed average to me...there were a few times where there were loose pucks that I thought he could get to but was a step slow to them. I don't think his skating will be an issue in the NHL but I think he could use some work on his non-breakaway quickness.
-- Defensively I thought he was just OK. He played on the PK which alone shows what the coaches think of his defensive prowess but there were a number of times I was expecting him to block a pass/shot or put a body on a guy and dislodge the puck and it didn't happen. Not surprising for a junior player who has been relied on primarily for his offense so I'm not too worried about it but just something that caught my eye. To his credit though, he does seem to have a knack for picking defenders' pockets...he did it twice against RN (in two different games) which led to good scoring chances (one resulted in a goal).
Overall, yes it would've been great if he lit it up like Marner is doing but he was arguably Red Deer's best player against superior teams -- so I walked away encouraged by the abilities he showed. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do in Providence next year.
