Poll: Best puck carrier

[Steerpike]

Who is the best player on the Avs at carrying the puck up the ice and into the zone? (While Duchene is unreal with the puck behind the net disregard that for the purposes of this poll)



Johnson: Huge body carries the puck with authority from the back.



Barrie
Speedy and shifty. Can't find a good video, but he's good.

Mackinnon: Insane speed forces defenders back and allows for safer zone entry.



Duchene: Scores a bunch of superstar on the rush goals but often tries to do too much and turns over the puck.





Any other strong candidates?

 

[member 116861]

EJ, love when he gets going.

yes homo

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

I actually think Landeskog is the best at it. The way he's developed his puck skills since his rookie year have been amazing.

 

[landy92mack29]

redo poll and add landeskog. he is so tough to knock off the puck and has underrated hands and speed. Duchene and mackinnon are more fancy though

 

[InjuredChoker]

duchene atm imo. might be mack soon. landeskog isn't bad choice but i think duchene's speed will give him the edge.

avs in general are pretty good puck carrying team. what is excellent and one reason why i think they can be above average sh% team.

 

[Bubba Thudd]

I added Landeskog to the poll since it seems like a popular choice.

I then took 2 votes from "Other" and added them to Landy -- For Mars and Landy92Mack29

 

[Avs71]

Tough choice because for the most part they're so different in how they do it. Went with EJ because his size and reach gives him such an advantage when he's moving his feet.

 

[Steerpike]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-KoOOXX438&list=UU3O3yVqTKyG_svaSYc3fa0Q?

Barrie shows off his spin movez


EDIT

I guess I can't link to a specific time.... but if you are interested, 45 min 50 sec

 

[Lonewolfe2015]

Voted EJ. There's no one on the team that can carry the puck as smoothly and as successfully as EJ when he tries. Everyone else needs to hit the afterburners, physically brute force it through the neutral zone, pull some finesse moves. EJ just glides through it like butter untouched.

 

[henchman21]

I'd venture to guess that Landy would lead the Avs in carried zone entries by a significant margin. He isn't the be puck handler (that probably goes to Duchene currently, but will be MacKinnon), but I would consider him the best puck carrier.

 

[StayAtHomeAv]

If all we are talking about is carrying it up the ice then It's got to be EJ.

Overall, it's Duchene, and it's not even close.

 

[Freudian]

Landeskog is the best at it since he has both the skating and physical ability to protect the puck, but Duchene and MacKinnon have the blazing speed to catch teams by surprise for very easy zone entries.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Barrie and EJ are certainly great at it but the answer is Duchene. Even though it isn't his greatest strength, it is still better than anyone else on the squad.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

It's Duchene, even though we'd like to highlight how good the other guys are at it, too. It's still Dutchy.

 

[Tweaky]

(Shameless not-quite name drop incoming) I went with MacKinnon, as he is the one that was named specifically and spontaneously when asked an open-ended question about who is hard to defend against, by a guy that let me wear his Stanley Cup ring at the bar a few weeks ago. He said after his first shift against MacK, he and his D partner went to the bench and talked about the need to change how they played against him.

 

[Foppa2118]

It's Duchene, even though we'd like to highlight how good the other guys are at it, too. It's still Dutchy.

Exactly, it should be pretty obvious. Though I think Tanguay's close, we just didn't see him much last year.

Nate is great too but he needs to work a bit on maintaining possession of the puck when he stops after entering the zone. He'll be so much more dangerous when he gets this down. He loses a second or two trying to corral it.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

Went with Duchene. MacKinnon will probably end up better but I don't think he's there yet.

Also, EJ would've probably won this thing for me but he simply doesn't go beast mode often enough. When he does though...my god it's a thing of beauty.

 

[Freudian]

 

[Foppa2118]

I can't watch that without making a bunch of sound effects in my head. A beastly "agggghhh" and then the slide whistle, "woooop" "woooop."

Now I know how Michael Winslow feels.

 

[Shaggy88]

I believe the correct answer is Duchene, but EJ is a very close second.

 

[Avs For Life]

This is actually pretty tough but Im going with Duchene. Not only is he great with the puck but the puck seems to stay with him. I remember a couple plays where you just thought, how did he keep that puck?

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Those Duchene highlights man....


Forgot how good he was. Hurry up hockey season.

 

[tigervixxxen]

I don't even remember that EJ moment against the Devils, that was great. My favorite is when he did that against the Oilers. It has to be EJ but he needs to go for it more.

edit: Read my mind!

 

[zxcvnm]

For those backing EJ, how has this not been linked yet:

 

[The Kingslayer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-KoOOXX438&list=UU3O3yVqTKyG_svaSYc3fa0Q?

Barrie shows off his spin movez


EDIT

I guess I can't link to a specific time.... but if you are interested, 45 min 50 sec

Did 2 spins only to give it to Ryan Wilson to give it away. Wilson sucks