Sunday, October 29, 2006

Musings: Matt Stajan is Playing Great

Captain Obvious here for anyone who has been paying attention lately, but Matt Stajan has probably been the Leafs best all-around forward for the past few games. He is taking charge on the second powerplay unit, and is winning more than his share of battles on the forecheck. He is also starting to look like a real 'NHL center', in that he is finding his linemates with regularity and has vastly improved his face-off skills.

His production to date, eight points in 12 games, is nothing to sniff at, and his line with Steen and O'Neill has done a great job as of late generating scoring chances. Honestly, he seems to be improving game-by-game, right before our eyes, which is always great to see.

4 comments:

mike said...

One rush in particular on Saturday was awesome. No scoring on the rush, but he just flew past two defenders. And the best part is he is making those around him better.

Anonymous said...

Couldn't agree more. Matt's skating has been the most impressive aspect of his game I think. He moves well and it allows him to make plays on both ends of the ice. One play against Montreal stuck out. With the puck in the neutral zone he evaded his markers, dumped the puck well, and then carried his momentum into the zone and proceeded to retrieve his own dump and chase. Nothing came of the play, but it just struck me as a sign of a player really coming of age, one who is now able to really stamp his authority on hockey games.

Shame about the bald spot though.

The Mad Hockey Blogger said...

And what is wrong with a bald spot?

I noticed the same play by Matt in the Habs game too. Very impressive. He is quickly turning into the two-way 2nd line NHLer that we all hoped he could be.

Alyn who?

Tara said...

Good poost

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