Wednesday, April 16, 2008

What's Right With Luke Schenn

I'm actually beginning to rethink the limited upside consensus on Luke Schenn. It's such a widely held conventional wisdom - every NHL scout says the same thing about him. "What you see if what you get." But he's so good with the puck when he touches it - and I think he's capable of more, as he seems to intentionally play a conservative game. But what's most intriguing is the handful of dazzling rushes from him that leave you wondering, why doesn't he do THAT more often?

Case in point, 5 minutes left in Kelowna's first round Game 7 in Seattle, Rockets down by 2 goals. Kelowna had been pinned in their own end and needed a line change and desperately needed to score soon. Schenn got the puck with just a little room inside his own blue line - and zoom, he was end to end - I could hardly believe the rush he made. Beat the entire Seattle team with speed that I rarely see from him, and rang one off the crossbar. The NHL scouts sitting near me just looked at each other and shook their heads, with "where did THAT come from" looks on their faces.

But even if he never does the Bobby Orr impression again, he's still so good at moving the puck and has such a hard, accurate shot from the point that he's at least going to be a very good second PP unit guy. So I think there's more offensive upside than everyone's been giving him credit for this season.