The World Hockey Championship is where Canada will do it’s best to win gold. Edmonton Oilers forward Taylor Hall will be there. It’s a golden opportunity for him to show he shouldn’t only represent this country at the Worlds but also against the rest of the world at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.<\/p>\n
It’s something I started thinking about on April 3 when Hall had a career high five points in one game and jumped from 14th in the NHL in scoring to seventh. It was only one game but it was in the midst of a six-game point streak where he piled up eight goals and just as many assists for 16 points. For those two weeks he was right near the top of the talent list in the NHL.<\/p>\n
Eventually he would settle for 9th in the scoring race. His stat line reading 16-34-50 in 45 games. He led the team in game-winning goals and shots. Hall wasn’t afraid to be on, be active and be expected to make a difference. Pressure that some players, no matter their talent level, don’t like to have. Hall thrives on it.<\/p>\n
I may have a biased opinion. It’s not something you do consciously but more subconsciously. It happens because I saw every one of Hall\u2019s games this season and have seen nearly every one of his 171 NHL contests during his three-year career. I have seen the growth and maturation process of the 2010 first-overall pick.<\/p>\n
He’s now 21 and by the time the Olympics roll around he’ll be 22. A little on the young side that’s for certain, but I think he looks, plays, and on the ice, acts beyond his years. It wasn’t always like that in years one and two. A decision to fight cost Hall the final 17 games of this rookie season. Any chance of a Calder Trophy went bye bye. Season two and the final 21 games were lost after he suffered a concussion. It was a reckless part of his game that was doing more damage to himself more than anyone else.<\/p>\n
It was also revealed that throughout his pro career Hall had been playing with a shoulder that was not 100 per cent. He had it operated on and then eased back into hockey in the AHL during the lockout. The lockout gave him a chance to catch up at his pace. It worked because once the NHL resumed so did Taylor Hall’s coming out party. After respectable 42 and 53 point seasons in year one and two, respectively, in year three he almost equalled his season two point total and yet he played 16 less games.<\/p>\n
For those who don’t see him often one would look at his numbers and might suggest he\u2019s good player on a bad team who had loads of ice time and opportunity. That’s why his point totals were so high. However, three Edmonton forwards (Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Sam Gagner) averaged more ice time per game than Hall. He made the most of what he was given. Also Hall’s 50 points were 12 more than Gagner’s 38. It’s the second widest margin between a team’s number one and two scorer. The biggest gap was 13 between Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf and his 49 points compared to Corey Perry’s 36.<\/p>\n
If you kept track of the scoring race on a nation by nation basis Hall was sixth in Canadian scoring. Martin St.Louis, Steven Stamkos, Sidney Crosby, Eric Staal and Chris Kunitz outpointed Hall. The Oiler had more points than 2010 Olympians like Getzlaf, Perry and Jonathan Toews. It is about more than just points, but it’s not a bad attention grabber if you’re Hall.<\/p>\n
Injuries meant no World Championships the last two years. This season was his first real \u201cnotice me\u201d moment, which Hall will try and carry on at the current World Hockey Championships. If he wasn’t on Steve Yzerman’s radar, or was just a small blip on the screen in a far away corner, that must have changed this season.<\/p>\n
Hall plays with pride, passion, determination and heart. Qualities we love in our Canadian hockey players and in a player who might be \u201cTaylor made\u201d to represent Canada at the Sochi 2014 Olympics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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