Some Quick Thoughts On Scott Walker

I was talking with Joe Tasca earlier this evening while I was watching the Hurricanes visit the Thrashers in Atlanta, and the one player we both kept coming back to was Scott Walker. In the first period, Atlanta's Garnet Exelby stood up Eric Staal at the Atlanta blue line, sending the young center to the ice grasping an arm in pain.

While the hit might have been clean, it was only a moment later that Walker let Exelby know that he was on notice, getting into the defenseman's face before the refs intervened and dragged Walker to the box.

It was only four minutes later that the gritty Walker, in his first season in Carolina after spending seven with Nashville, took a pass from Staal and rocketed a slapshot from inside the right wing faceoff circle to beat Kari Lehtonen to the near post for his eighth goal of the season.

With winger Cory Stillman* on the shelf for who knows how long, Walker's performance is going to be critical in Carolina, as they look like the only team in the East that has the wheels to hang with either Buffalo or Atlanta thus far. As for Walker, as Joe put it, he's the sort of player you can't help but admire. Originally drafted as a defenseman, plenty of folks thought Walker was too small to make it in the NHL.

12 seasons later, he's still hanging around, and on pace for the best offensive performance of his career.
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*Jes: It's long past time that I should admit that I totally underestimated Stillman's potential last season.

Eric 10:21 PM

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Posted by: at November 1, 2006 11:10 PM

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