A Salad in Dallas
Dmitry Kulikov has been given the chance to stay with the Panthers and continue his development on the big stage. He impressed during his initial nine game tryout with the team—and now get’s to celebrate his 19th birthday in Dallas; whilst preparing for his eleventh match tonight in the NHL.
Not bad for someone recently picked 14th in this summer’s draft…
And well, hopefully the young man will get more than the salad for his birthday—when the guys take him out to celebrate in Texas. But, no Vodka obviously, which I presume would have been the main course in Russia for such a salute.
Dmitry is continuing to live his expressed dream by playing in the NHL with the Cats. Hopefully he’ll do that for a long time yet.
Kulikov is an exciting prospect that is likely to only get better with time. He’s already quite competent however and is regularly clocking 18 to 19 minutes of game time. In addition he’s already on the first powerplay unit and clearly has the ability to become something quite special for Florida.
Dmitry Kulikov defends the crease. The young Russian has already become a staple in the Florida team, playing important minutes and will celebrate his 19th birthday with the team in Dallas.
A couple of other young players getting a chance to shine; is the recent call-ups of Kenndal McArdle and Michal Repik.
Both played well, albeit not for very long in the last match against the Senators. McArdle in particular has earned his coaches praise for the abundance of energy, speed and grit he provided. Not to mention the fight.
Whilst clocking only a paltry 4+ minutes, thus he sat more in the penalty box than he saw action on the ice, Kenndal can be expected to see some more opportunities to impress against the Stars tonight.
Kenndal McArdle attacking the net vs. the Sens. McArdle played a good game, despite not clocking many minutes, and will likely be given more ice-time in Dallas tonight.
To add to Repik and McArdle, the Panthers have also recalled C Jeff Taffe from the Rochester Americans of the AHL. The reason is that Dominic Moore will require nasal surgery to repair that broken nose of his that the Flyers gave him.
Having impressed for Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate last season, Taffe has started equally well in Rochester this term. In nine games he has 7 points (4 goals + 3 assists) and also has a team high of 27 shots on goal for the Amerks.
It’s going to be a tough game tonight against a Dallas team—that has gotten off to a good start this season. However, things must start bouncing our way sooner or later, right?
If the Cats can limit those turnovers out of the zone, play hard and shoot more frequently: then this could be an interesting game.
Maybe a couple of tricky away games might be exactly what the doctored ordered to turn things around.
After some whining of late, I’m trying to stay positive, OK, so pass me that salad and let’s stuff it to those Texan’s tonight!
