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Player Discussion Kaapo Kakko: Part V

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FATKAKKO.jpg


FAT KAKKO LIKES GOALSSSSSSS (and ribs)
 
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He definitely looked faster tonight. Also way more confident.
If him and Laf are no longer star struck and afraid to touch the puck then we'll be good.
 
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Last season it took a couple of regular season games for him to get his feet going. Wonder if there is still another level to his speed as he loses some of the beach muscles as the season gets going
 
I still think that Kakko and Panarin need to be separated. Kakko looked fine last night without the puck, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t look better on mika’s line with Laf.
 
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RangerBoy said:
Gerard Gallant had Kaapo Kakko on the PK last night. He said Rick Nash was used on the PK after a few seasons in Columbus. Nash excelled on the PK. Gallant is planning to use Kakko on the PK this season.
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This is great news. Kakko has shown he can play a two way game. The more ice time he sees in all situations will benefit his development greatly. Hes the type of player that needs to be relied on as a leader like he was when he played in Finland. You could see the skill and confidence oozing out of his game. Gallant understands you need to foster it.
 
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HockeyBasedNYC said:
This is great news. Kakko has shown he can play a two way game. The more ice time he sees in all situations will benefit his development greatly. Hes the type of player that needs to be relied on as a leader like he was when he played in Finland. You could see the skill and confidence oozing out of his game. Gallant understands you need to foster it.
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I am absolutely loving Gallant. Kid has the tools, just needs a vote of confidence from the coach. GG is giving that to him. He is going to have a huge year! We should sign him to an 8 year deal before the season starts.
 
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Quinnisinoverhishead said:
I am absolutely loving Gallant. Kid has the tools, just needs a vote of confidence from the coach. GG is giving that to him. He is going to have a huge year! We should sign him to an 8 year deal before the season starts.
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You're not going to see the new contract before next summer/autumn.
 
Carp had the Kakko info

Kakko, who should be miles better than Colin Blackwell was in that spot last season, had five shots on goal. Kakko later drew a penalty (a five-on-three, in fact) with his newfound speed. At least, he looked faster. Oh, yeah, he also killed penalties, and Gallant said he will get some chances to do that this season, and he mentioned Rick Nash as a guy who learned to kill penalties after a couple of years in the league, then excelled at it.
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Carpiniello: Sammy Blais could be a sneaky good pickup for the Rangers and 13 more preseason thoughts

Gallant was on the Columbus staff for the first four seasons of Nash's career. Gallant was the head coach for 2 plus seasons. Gallant was Nash's head coach in his 3rd year and he was used on the PK. He wants his players to be complete players.
 
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I'm getting super tired of late. I can consider myself lucky, if I get to watch the 1st period in an attentive manner. 2AM and I'm slowly getting done.

What I saw from Kakko last night, forces me to figure something out for myself. I need to watch every shift of this kid this season!
 
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Gallant wants the Rangers young players to be complete players.

I know this is the Kaapo Kakko thread. Gallant made these comments about Kravtsov. He is demanding the same thing from Kakko.

“It’s not about us giving him the opportunity, he’s got to earn it,” Gallant said. “He’s a talented guy, and a guy we count on being a very important player for us this year.

“I’ve watched him on TV. I know there’s a lot of talent there, I know there’s a lot of potential there, he was a high draft choice, but you’ve got to show it. I think I’ve made comments about good teams or winning teams like Tampa, you [see] their great players play a two-way game.

“That’s what we’ve got to get more from our top guys — not from our top guys, but all our guys,” said the coach. “That’s what’s what we’re demanding.”
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Barclay Goodrow’s misconduct spoils critical Rangers line test

Lafrenière was used on the PK with Zibanejad on Sunday.
 
I've said this before, but Barkov's offense came along slowly too.
 
Fitzy said:
I've said this before, but Barkov's offense came along slowly too.
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Barkov has added to his game every off season. If Kaapo can do the same he will be more than alright. In the clip above you can see that not only has Kaapo added strength this summer but his edge work is noticeably better too.

As for Gallant demanding a two way game from every player, well, finally. And not only that, Gallant has already started to address the super annoying issue with sloppy puck movement and careless positioning that plagued the team last year. Kaapo (and one or two others) stood out like a sore thumb last year for being conscientious with his game, if everyone do that the team will be so much better.
 
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"We want to find out if they can do the job and give them an opportunity to do the job," he said. "Some guys haven't played it before, but I've been a coach for a while in this league. As an assistant coach, I remember Rick Nash coming up. Rick Nash scored 41 goals in Columbus, and he never played any PK time. Then all of a sudden, Year 2, Year 3, he started playing PK. And at the end of his career, he was known as one of the better PK guys in the league.

"It takes a little bit of time, but I think you can turn Kakko and those type of players into good PK guys also."
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"Good instincts," Gallant said when asked what he's looking for. "To me, most highly talented skilled players can kill penalties. Not a whole lot of them go out there and do that, but a lot of those guys, they’ve got good sticks, they’ve got good hand-eye coordination and they read plays real well. It's the same thing offensively, you’ve just got to pay the price a little bit more defensively."
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Projecting the NY Rangers' special teams units with Gerard Gallant
 
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Ivan Drago vibes. Especially when he gets tired of being asked the same question over and over and just cuts it off and starts responding.

"If he dies, he dies."
 
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will1066 said:


Ivan Drago vibes. Especially when he gets tired of being asked the same question over and over and just cuts it off and starts responding.

"If he dies, he dies."
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Kaapo was interviewed today on a Finnish fan channel
(around the 35 min mark). Similar but different vibe in his native tongue

 
He did make some interesting comments about playing with Panarin and how he needs to go to the net a bit more. His draft year he was a guy that seemed to love having the puck, so learning to defer to a guy like Panarin is probably a bit of a learning curve.
 
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Only problem I see now is that he relies on success to dictate his confidence, instead of always having internal confidence. It’s a tough thing to fix. But he’s a bull, his vision and hands are elite, his escapability is amazing for a big man, he skates well enough now, and I would be shocked if he didn’t work hard on his shot over the summer. But that may be who he becomes. A streaky scorer based on his confidence level. Which is fine. I think he’ll overcome it though.
 
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Buchnevich89 said:
Only problem I see now is that he relies on success to dictate his confidence, instead of always having internal confidence. It’s a tough thing to fix. But he’s a bull, his vision and hands are elite, his escapability is amazing for a big man, he skates well enough now, and I would be shocked if he didn’t work hard on his shot over the summer. But that may be who he becomes. A streaky scorer based on his confidence level. Which is fine. I think he’ll overcome it though.
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That's basically every young player though. Confident players score, players slumping are not confident.
 
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