Ivan Demidov: Lane Hutson tries to get him to shoot more

Dose
Crédit: The Panthers don't have players like Lane Hutson and Ivan Demidov.

Ivan Demidov has shown great promise since the start of the current campaign. The young Russian already has nine points after 11 games, including seven assists.

His puck possession skills are already elite-caliber, but we’re also seeing all his playmaking talent.

That said, we don’t see him scoring a ton of goals. He’s only scored two goals so far this season, but more importantly, he’s barely taken any shots. On average, he gets less than one shot per game, and he attempts less than three per encounter.

But obviously, there’s one guy who wants that to change: according to Arpon Basu(The Basu & Godin Notebook), Lane Hutson is trying to get Demidov to take more shots on net.

Because clearly, Hutson knows that Demidov is capable of scoring.

Basu explains that Hutson, who experienced the same phenomenon last year, is trying to encourage Demidov not to always look for the passing option if he has an opportunity to score. The defender notes that Demidov has the mentality that he should only shoot when he’s convinced it’s going in, and Hutson wants to help him break that.

Even if, in reality, Hutson could shoot more too. But in his case, you can feel the confidence coming more and more… and it should eventually come for Demidov too.

Basu also explains that on the road, the two guys are roommates, so they’re constantly talking hockey and finding ways to improve. We know that the two guys have been very close since Demidov arrived in Montreal last year (the two guys used to travel together), so Hutson is in a good position to try and get Demidov to shoot a little more.

Let’s see if Demidov will listen to his teammate now.

Overtime

– Worth noting. Adjust accordingly if you’re going to see sports in town tomorrow.

– Hehe.

– Interesting.

– Love it.

– That would be something.