Rasmussen with a goal and assist on the winning goal in OT last night. Both on the man advantage.
I had my first viewing of the season on Tuesday night as I watched the Americans get walloped 8-2 by Victoria. Rasmussen finished -3, winning 68% of his face-offs with 1 sog and I’ll tell you that stat line alone would leave you with the wrong impression of Rasmussen. Opening face-off, he wins it clean to his Dman who moves it up to the winger who subsequently turns the puck over creating an odd man rush. The final outcome was a goal 10 seconds into the game as the Americans Dman knocks the puck into his own goal. Later in the period an Americans forward skips the back check for a late change sending Rasmussen out behind the play and the Royals pot one. The third goal against left me wanting to see more commitment on the defensive side. He had himself in position to break up a play off the rush but ultimately failed to take the man or successfully intercept the puck. I felt a little more effort to take the body could have cleaned the whole sequence up.
On the other side of the ice he came exactly as advertised. Tri-City’s scored 2 PP goals with Rasmussen parked at the front of the net causing havoc. At net front he was extremely effective at stealing body position from the D and making life hell for the goalie. From there his size combined with a strong first stride allowed him to quickly get on loose pucks in corners and behind the net. One play really stood out where he took the puck from the half wall and beat a couple defenders as her crashed the net with possession. Unfortunately Victoria’s goalie made a nice save stopping Rasmussen in tight but it was an impressive sequence.
Watching him off the rush was interesting. There was one play were he over skated the puck while trying to exit the D-zone while receiving a pass. He nearly did it again but then he pulled a Datsyuk-esque play where he reached like 8 feet behind himself to corral a loose puck and gain possession. He ended up dumping the puck in deep after a long shift. He had a nice rushing beating one defender outside and again crashing the net. He tried to use his size to reach around the goalie and tuck the puck in but the other defender got back and broke up the play with a well-timed stick check.
I thought he showed some flashes where he could dominate but he is a big guy in Junior and I need to see more consistency.
I had my own hockey game last night so I unfortunately missed Wednesday nights game.