Thoughts of Strome In Canada vs. Finland

Thoughts On Ryan Strome's Performance Against Finland

Canada did a great job yesterday in their eight to one romp against Finland. The blowout was seen as a bit of a surprise considering the expectations of Finland being decent coming into the tournament. 

Islanders prospect Ryan Strome, was one of the many Canadian players that had an impressive outing. Strome had one goal and three assists for a total of four points, which means he had a part in half of the Canadian goals. I watched this game twice and both times I zero'd in on the 2011 5th overall selection. 

As expected I was very impressed with his offensive game. He has a ton of creativity and offensive flair, which is made more useful by his impressive hockey sense. He also displayed some nice shooting ability with a few opportunities in the 2nd and a beauty snipe in the 3rd. I was pleased to see that his two-way game has improved dramatically from the last time I've seen him play. He hustled on the back-check and on four occasions broke up the play. 

Even though I saw a lot of nice things from Strome, I was irked by one particular part of his game. His skating needs a lot of work, and it will take a while for it to reach the NHL standards. Luckily for Strome, skating is something that can be improved. We have seen it with Tavares, if he puts some hard work in I am positive his skating will get to where it needs to be, but as of right now its holding him back a little bit.

Overall I liked what I saw from Strome in this one, and I look forward to seeing him in Canada's next game.