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Prospect Info: 2018 NHL Draft / Pick #9 - Vitali Kravtsov (RW) - Part V

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romba said:
Naaa,more like Pionk's style of covering no one. Provided he were given 2 weeks advanced notice, Staal would have been in position in front of the net, he'd just be spinning around half a second behind the puck and it would have gone through his feet in the process. And I'm a Staal-Warrior-Blood-Guts-Eyeball-Buried-Under-The-MSG-Ice, type of guy lol
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This is painfully accurate.
 
romba said:
Nice catch, I was too busy marveling Kravtsov's awareness. Who's that defender? Unacceptable. 'It'll probably be fine if I circle around' doesn't work at the NHL level. Even if you lose track of your man, head to/stop at the front of the net and find a body, stick check/crease clear and reorient. No fly bys. If you're trying to prove your worth against potential NHLers you need to up your game to stand out.
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Probably Robertson, right? I see Fox was on the ice, and he was listed as his partner.
 
It's terrible D, but I dont think any defender is going to risk making a hard stop in front of the net and risk going in to the goalie during development camp. He was chasing Kravtsov to try and harass the breakway and didn't get there, but if he kept going full speed with his angle he was barrelling down the goalie.

Just a development camp people. No one is looking to hurt anyone else...
 
SnowblindNYR said:
I still don't love the Kravtsov between the legs shot. Seems predictable.
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If you consistently can get the puck over the stick it's a very hard shot to stop.

Just as a reference, while these players have other moves, TJ Oshie and Troy Terry pretty much use this as their go-to and they're both shootout beasts.
 
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I have to think it's something about his release being unpredictable for goalies. Even if you know he wants to go there, it's not like you can commit to the shot early or he'll just do something else, but if you can't predict when the shot comes off his stick and he's very accurate with it, then it's tough to stop. You have to guess a bit more.
 
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SnowblindNYR said:
Will it work at the NHL level?
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Kravstov has a very funky release. I actually think there is a video floating around of Valiquette talking about why goalies have such a hard time reading it. He can put pregnant pauses into his shots that makes goalies second guess his placement.

Five hole shots are usually snap-shots with hands out in front of the body to catch goalies off guard, but Vitaly brings it back like a traditional wrist shot which signals “upstairs”, before following through with the actual release by his wrists at the end of the shooting motion. He either puts it five-hole(if it’s available) or low blocker.

Ultimately, I think Kravstov will not be able to lean on it as much as he did in the KHL, but at the end of his NHL career, Loffen will be able to make a 3:30 second tribute to him shooting five-hole, set to a Metallica song off of Re-Load or something.
 
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CaptTennille said:
Kravstov has a very funky release. I actually think there is a video floating around of Valiquette talking about why goalies have such a hard time reading it. He can put pregnant pauses into his shots that makes goalies second guess his placement.

Five hole shots are usually snap-shots with hands out in front of the body to catch goalies off guard, but Vitaly brings it back like a traditional wrist shot which signals “upstairs”, before following through with the actual release by his wrists at the end of the shooting motion. He either puts it five-hole(if it’s available) or low blocker.

Ultimately, I think Kravstov will not be able to lean on it as much as he did in the KHL, but at the end of his NHL career, Loffen will be able to make a 3:30 second tribute to him shooting five-hole, set to a Metallica song off of Re-Load or something.
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Great post. It's not usual wrist shot where he's flicking it... it's more of a swing of the stick with the puck still on the tape. Like he's using his forearm muscle as an extension of the stick when he's releasing it. If he can do this accurately (he can) then he's going to frustrate a lot of goalies by picking those spots.

What I love about it is that we can protect the puck with his reach while he's doing it. As he gets stronger, this is going to be even harder to contain.
 
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I watched him a bit while he was playing in the KHL in the playoffs 17-18 and came off really impressed. Glad to see this kid hasn't trailed off from how highly he was projected back then (at least from reading all the observations and watching these clips). Although I'm not sure what to make of his numbers from last year since I have no idea how he was utilized, what kind of line mates/team he had around him since I really didn't focus on/watch KHL much at all last season.

While I don't really put a whole lot weight on these scrimmages where everyone is playing careful and trying not to hurt anyone out there, his skill level seems pretty evident though. Looks to have pretty good vision on top of everything else his got going. Also I would probably add that if a young player who comes in from Russia and learns to speak relatively good English this fast, that's a sign of commitment and definitely not something that I'd expect from youngster coming in from the Eastern Europe countries. Couldn't find any interviews to confirm this but nonetheless.

Having someone like him growing and playing along with Kakko could turn out just priceless in the long run if they both lived up to the hype.
 
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CaptTennille said:
Kravstov has a very funky release. I actually think there is a video floating around of Valiquette talking about why goalies have such a hard time reading it. He can put pregnant pauses into his shots that makes goalies second guess his placement.

Five hole shots are usually snap-shots with hands out in front of the body to catch goalies off guard, but Vitaly brings it back like a traditional wrist shot which signals “upstairs”, before following through with the actual release by his wrists at the end of the shooting motion. He either puts it five-hole(if it’s available) or low blocker.

Ultimately, I think Kravstov will not be able to lean on it as much as he did in the KHL, but at the end of his NHL career, Loffen will be able to make a 3:30 second tribute to him shooting five-hole, set to a Metallica song off of Re-Load or something.
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This. Not to bring up the “people who haven’t played the game don’t get it” argument, but believe it or not, there is more to shooting than just power and placement. Good goalies pick up on “tells” prior to a player shooting to help them predict where the shot is going. Good shooters don’t have any tells, or are good at bluffing.
 
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Synergy27 said:
This. Not to bring up the “people who haven’t played the game don’t get it” argument, but believe it or not, there is more to shooting than just power and placement. Good goalies pick up on “tells” prior to a player shooting to help them predict where the shot is going. Good shooters don’t have any tells, or are good at bluffing.
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Anyone using this should be banned for a week.
 
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