Milan Lucic’s Greatest Plays From The 2015-16 Season

7 years ago

We are 43 days away from the start of the 2016-17 NHL season. With the World Cup around the corner also, I’d say we are out of the bored, summer-phase and into the excited, anxious-phase of the summer. As if the thought of Connor McDavid going into his second NHL season with the chance of being captain isn’t exciting enough, I thought we could get EVEN MORE excited by taking a look at some of Milan Lucic’s best plays from last year.

We all know Milan Lucic for his size and aggression. From re-watching all 20 of his goals in the 2015-16 season I can confirm, he’s not the flashiest player on the ice. Majority of his goals are scored from being a big presence in, and around the blue paint. He goes hard to the crease, and doesn’t leave until the puck is in the net. This isn’t the most entertaining way to score goals, but it will definitely be new to Oiler fans, as we don’t see too many hard-working, garbage goals.

Don’t get me wrong, Lucic has scored some snazzy goals in his past. As you will see, he utilizes his speed well in the neutral zone, and creates excellent scoring chances for him and his teammates. Here are some of my favourite highlights of him from the 2015-16 season.

Quick Off The Draw

Watch Lucic get a quick jump off the draw to get the puck up to teammate, Tyler Toffoli. Toffoli is gone up the ice, and Lucic is not only able to catch up to the play, but sneaks past the defender to take the backdoor pass. If you ask me, this skill will work magically with Connor’s speed. As long as Lucic can half-keep up to the play and make some room for himself in from of the net, I see a perfect tandem forming. Here’s another one that shows off his speed.

Turning On The Jets

For some reason a lot of people online seem to think Lucic is slow. This clip proves he’s not as slow as everyone thinks, blowing by the two defencemen… even though one was Phil Kessel.

Flames Puncher

I couldn’t do this without including a fight! We all know how tough Lucic is, but it’s always good to know he’s already spent some time beating up on the Calgary Flames. You go, Milan!

Hard To The Net

Lucic is 220 pounds of muscle and swagger. He’s hard to move, and when you combine that with hockey smarts and good positioning it makes it easy for him to score goals around the blue paint. Here’s a clip of Lucic making it next to impossible for Filppula to knock him off his path by going hard to the net.

Snipe City

Here is Lucic picking up speed in the neutral zone and showing us that he DOES have some accuracy and power to his shot.

2016-17 Predictions

If Connor McDavid and Milan Lucic mesh as well as they’re expected to, I think Lucic will put up some excellent numbers this season. I am predicting that Lucic will score 25 goals, and put up 60 points for the year, and I’d like to open the floor to you citizens. How many points do you think Milan Lucic will score in the 2016-2017 season?

North by NorthGretz Podcast

This week the boys are joined by two time Olympic gold medal winning goalie Shannon Szabados! Shannon tells the boys about her Olympic experiences, what it’s been like breaking into the male dominated world of hockey, talks about her glorious hair, tells some hilarious stories about Kyla The Intern and more!