Hope you don’t mind a Wild fan stopping by on Game day, just catching up on Casey a bit, I’ve always been a huge fan, I think I had a few posts about him in topic #1.
To this day I have never seen a better stretch of dekes, at any level of hockey, as I witnessed this player perform as a senior in high school. Unfortunately he rang the post with his shot so it didn’t even make it into the 1 minute highlight video archives but I still clearly see it in my head to this day.
Section Finals at Mariucci arena (UM gophers rink) in front of a packed crowd, tie game to advance to the state tournament, the whole reason he stayed in school with his teammates is on the line. Receives a pass in stride at his own blue line, bursts up the middle, been shadowed by two guys all night, series of 6 perfectly executed micro touches with the puck across back hand forehand just as the defenders are leaning and he has both of them turning 360 degrees opposite direction of each other and falling down, one defender left to go at the opposing blue line and it’s a one handed backhand drag through his own legs and he’s in the clear and on his forehand. Snipes the short side high post.
The crowd reaction was telling and memorable, these are his schoolmates, family and people who have watched him for years, and you could hear audible gasps over what he did, most of the crowd just went quiet, I remember people looking around like “did that just happen?” I was one of them.
For a visualization, think of the Rick Nash goal with the double deke, imagine adding Connor McDavid smoothness and speed to it, and there’s 3 guys instead of two and that’s a rough comparable for the level.
His innate creativity as a junior player was phenomenal, in that category alone, he graded out on par with Draisaitl and Vanek for me, and it’s a “trait” I value highly. I believe I mentioned there was some Datsyuk in this player and with time and the needed physical development, I am glad he has found a strong role for himself. If his speed differential was the same against the best in the world as it was against junior players, he may have been truly great.
Sorry for the long story… rant… whatever you want to call it, hope that you all can enjoy this players career in the NHL, it’s a very hard league physically, best in the world for a reason, but he brings something unique to the sport in my opinion.