Пьетранжело о броске Костина: «Мне нужно пойти в русскую хоккейную школу»
Капитан «Сент-Луиса» Алекс Пьетранжело поделился мнением о форварде Климе Костине. В трех выставочных матчах россиянин набрал 6 (3+3) очков.
«Он бросает как Влади (Тарасенко). Возможно, мне нужно пойти в русскую хоккейную школу. Потому что они бросают очень хорошо», – сказал Пьетранжело.
«Сент-Луис» – «Коламбус». Костин забил победный гол и сделал ассист, став 1-й звездой матча
Источник: твиттер журналиста Джима Томаса
Good pass? Yes. Luck? No. Look at the skill level in kicking the puck from his right skate to his forehand and then his backhand.
“Not many guys can do that,” said Blues forward Sammy Blais, who also played with Kostin in San Antonio. “He’s only 20 years old, and he’s a tank. He’s big, he’s got good hands and he can be physical too. He’s going to be a really good player for us here.”
But how soon? Kostin’s discipline has been a little lacking in the preseason, taking three penalties (one holding and two tripping) Friday against Winnipeg and another (tripping) Sunday against Columbus. He agreed it’s been too many.
“Yeah, last game,” he said.
That shouldn’t spoil Kostin’s chances of making the Blues’ roster, if they like what he’s bringing at both ends of the ice, but the question becomes, “Is there is a spot for him?” The club assigned five more players to San Antonio on Sunday, trimming their camp list to 36, including 17 healthy forwards.
Jordan Kyrou (knee) is not practicing with the team, which would seem to enhance Kostin’s candidacy, but it’s still likely a situation where the Blues would prefer Kostin be playing significant minutes in San Antonio instead of potentially sitting in St. Louis.
“Whether there’s spots up here or not, unfortunately in this business there’s going to be injuries and things are going to happen where you’re going to need guys to step up,” Pietrangelo said. “Whether they’re playing for a job or not, that’s up to the coaches and management, but we like what we see with (Kostin).”
If Kostin were sent to the AHL after the terrific start he’s had, how would he take that news? For that answer, The Athletic turned back to Thorburn and Butler.
“I think he would be OK,” Thorburn said. “The competitive part of him might not make him OK with it. But as long as he has people who explain exactly what’s going on, just making sure he understands where he’s at. He needs someone to be like, ‘Listen Klim, it’s not that you have to do anything more special, just keep progressing the way you have and you’re going to get your shot.’ He’s only 20 and not many kids make this league at 20-21. He’s got a bright future, and I’m a big fan of him. I think everything is going to be fine for him.”
“Unfortunately, he may be a casualty because he’s on a two-way deal, but I think that this is a year where Klim is going to go down, he’s going to play that 17-19 minutes a night, and he’s going to be getting a lot of touches,” Butler said. “He knows he’s knocking on the door, and this is finally his year to play in the NHL, whether it’s a game, five games, 20 games, or whatever it may be, he knows that he’s right there. And I think Blues fans are going to be really happy with the Klim Kostin they get at 20 years old versus the kid that came over at 18.”
Kostin can’t put his finger on why the results are now coming, only that he’s more confident.
“I don’t know, I just feel more comfortable,” he said.
He certainly looked that way Sunday, when he put five shots on goal — a game-high for either team — in just 14:22 of ice time. He also had five shots on goal in Friday’s 4-3 overtime win over Winnipeg, giving him 11 attempts in three games.
“He shoots the puck like Vladi (Tarasenko),” Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo said. “Maybe I need to go to a Russian hockey school because they shoot the puck really good.”
“I try to do this in the practice,” Kostin said. “I see how Tarasenko did this in the practice, and I try to do the same.”
Pietrangelo added that Kostin has the unique combination of being able to shoot the puck well and play strong down low in the offensive zone.
“And that’s the same thing when you watch Vladi,” he said. “People see a big body and don’t expect them to be able to skate and make the plays that he makes, so it’s a tough combo to handle.”
After assisting on a second-period goal by Tyler Bozak on Sunday, Kostin scored one of his own in the third period, putting the Blues ahead 4-3. He went to the net not once but twice on the sequence, taking a feed from teammate Jaden Schwartz the second time to set up a backhander roofer.
“It was a good pass from Schwartzy, and just was a little luck for me,” Kostin said.
“Klim came off the ice and, just hugging him, I’m like, ‘Klim, how you doing man?’” Thorburn said. “He’s like, ‘Good, I’m doing good. I’m working hard. I’m just hoping to get a couple of games this year.’ I’m like, ‘Dude, go in there and make the team!’”
Kostin netted two goals at the prospect tourney, and it has carried over into the NHL preseason, with a goal in each of the three games he’s played and five points in his past two games.
Still, Butler couldn’t get himself to remind people he saw this coming.
“No, no, that’s not me,” he said. “He’s having a good camp. I saw some of the highlights, and maybe it’s his time. I kind of laugh when I see people get frustrated with these guys that are 18 and 19 years old, and they can’t believe that they’re not in the NHL. Klim works, but I think sometimes he can be his own worst enemy because he’s so hard on himself, and he almost maybe does too much.
“Every 18-year-old kid who gets drafted in his position thinks that they understand the game of hockey and what they have to do. But as you get older, you mature, and I think, ultimately, he realized that you can not do it by yourself every shift. The players are too good at that level to be able to knife through four or five guys and score the highlight-reel goal every single shift. Now I watch the way he’s distributing the puck, the way he’s creating chances, and it’s by doing it as a group.”
Recently, Butler sent Kostin a text message congratulating him on his success, and shared the exchange with The Athletic. (Note that Butler calls Kostin “Igor,” a nickname Butler says Kostin isn’t necessarily fond of, but he calls him that anyway, playfully).
With four exhibition games remaining before the club opens the regular season Oct. 2 against Washington, few beyond Blues general manager Doug Armstrong and coach Craig Berube know, but what is known is that Thorburn and Butler were right. When others were worrying whether Kostin would live up to the hype after the club took him with the first-round pick acquired in the trade with Pittsburgh for Ryan Reaves, it was those two who pleaded for patience.
After his performance Sunday, Thorburn and Butler were given a chance to say, “I told you so.” One did and the other politely passed.
“I told you so,” Thorburn said. “Klim has that old-school, Russian mentality. It doesn’t matter if it’s skill or power or physicality, he’s going to try and beat you. He’s got the skill and he’s got the speed. I’ve said this before, he might have to learn the North American game, but this kid, he’s got all the tools that will help the team be successful. You can put him wherever, as long as he understands his role. You’ve got to be specific with him because he’s got to understand what he needs to do, but he just wants to play in the league.”
Thorburn, who is retiring from the NHL and now lives in Michigan, met up with Kostin at last month’s NHL Prospect tournament in Traverse City, Mich., and gave him some advice that seemingly resonated.
“I might get in trouble with Life Time, but he snuck in as Chris Butler,” Butler said, laughing. “He went something like seven times in four days, just a ridiculous number of times. He’d go in the morning, and then go back in the afternoon. I’m happy to take the fine from Life Time if one comes.
“He just loves the game, and those are the guys you love helping out because all he wants to do is play hockey, score goals and have fun. When he’s on his phone, he’s watching clips of hockey, whether it’s the KHL, AHL or NHL highlights, whatever. He lives and breathes the game of hockey.”
After two developmental seasons for Kostin in San Antonio, Blues fans are getting their first dose of him scoring and having fun this preseason. He had a highlight-reel goal and an assist in a 5-3 win over Columbus on Sunday, giving him a team-high six points (3 goals, 3 assists) in the preseason, which also puts him near the top of the league’s scoring list.
But will Kostin’s productive preseason be enough to make the Blues’ opening-night roster? That was one of the questions asked of him during a three-minute interview Sunday, the first postgame one he’s ever done. He started it off by saying, “My English, so bad,” but did just fine.
The Blues’ training camp was just a couple of days old and Vladimir Tarasenko was conducting an interview with 10 or so reporters around him when he looked up and smiled.
Drawing the attention of the NHL star was fellow Russian Klim Kostin, a 2017 first-round pick, who was walking by and apparently stopped to take a picture of the scene.
This might sound like overreaching to some, but to those who know Kostin, it was a snapshot of just how much he yearns to play in the league.
“One-hundred percent,” said ex-Blue Chris Thorburn, who played with Kostin on the San Antonio Rampage of the American Hockey League. “You know, his era growing up is the (Alexander) Ovechkins, the (Ilya) Kovalchuks, the (Pavel) Datsyuks, the (Evgeni) Malkins and the Tarasenkos. He looks up to all these guys, and he wants that.”
This isn’t to say that Kostin is solely seeking the limelight and star treatment. He’s more than willing to put in the work, as another former AHL teammate explained.
“This is a guy who’s shooting pucks in a storage locker at his apartment in San Antonio for two hours a day in 90-degree weather,” recalled Chris Butler, who also played with Kostin on the Rampage. “This is a guy who I let use my Life Time (Fitness) membership so that he could go to the gym during the All-Star break and work out. This is a guy who is doing plyometrics after practice. He just craves being a really, really good hockey player.”
Wait, Kostin borrowed Butler’s gym membership?
У тебя есть подписка на ЗыАтлетике?
Вот седня как раз вышла нормальная статья о Костине там:
https://theathletic.com/1231688/2019/09/23/will-klim-kostins-productive-training-camp-performance-be-enough-to-make-the-blues-roster/
https://www.nhl.com/news/5-things-learned-from-nhl-preseason-september-22/c-309398332
Тарасенко с Барбашевым Костину: "Заходи, третьим будешь!"