Penguins/NHL
Tyler Kennedy scored the game winning goal tonight and his game offensively has been evolving over the past 4-5 weeks.
The primary reason Kennedy is evolving into a consistent goal scorer is because of the patience he is showing around the net.
In game 1, Kennedy showed great poise on a 3-on-1 and beat Martin Biron 5-hole.
Tonight, was a similar situation for Kennedy on his second period goal as he was patient, kept his head up and had Biron guessing as he buried the puck behind him.
Kennedy nearly scored his second goal of the game, late in the second period as he froze Biron on the right side and tried to tuck the puck in.
Kennedy is no longer rushing pucks to the net which is why he is burying pucks that he wasn’t in the past. Kennedy had zero goals in 20 playoff games last season.
Team officials tell me
the organization is encouraged with Kennedy’s development from year 1 to year 2. Some in the organization believe he will develop into a top 6 goal scorer.
Kennedy has a very low cap unit (under 850k for the next two seasons) and there were a lot of teams calling about him at the trade dealdine, including the LA Kings who wanted him as part of a package for Alexander Frolov.
Penguins general manager Ray Shero was very reluctant to involve Kennedy into any deal because at age 22, the Penguins don’t feel Kennedy has reached his potential yet.
While Kennedy will likely never be a 30+ goal scorer, he is showing signs in his development of becoming a consistent 20+ goal scorer for years to come.
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