nikkurri17 109 Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 (edited) Niklas Kurri has always possessed the natural ability to score goals. During his time in the VHLM, Kurri was captain of the Saskatoon Wild and relied upon to be one of the teams offensive leaders. Kurri scored at a very high rate in juniors and never hesitated to put the puck on net. After transitioning to the VHL, Kurri seemed to become more passive. Perhaps part of the reason is that Kurri has always had a fair amount of talent surrounding him. Kurri has never been relied upon to be his lines main contributor of offensive production. Through the first two season's of his career, Kurri has scored 37 goals and fired 411 shots on net. Kurri's shooting percentage increased significantly last season, but remains below the 10% mark. Helsinki, Finland Before signing as a free agent in New York, Niklas returned home to Helsinki, Finland and spent some time with his family during the off-season. It was the first time Kurri had been back to Finland since his rookie season in the VHLM. During the visit Niklas had a chance to spend some time with his famous uncle, National Hockey League Hall of Fame forward, Jari Kurri. Kurri expressed frustration with his lack of goal scoring at the VHL Level. The Victory Hockey League is an extremely offensive league. Niklas had yet to put up very good numbers despite playing for the Quebec City Meute last season, one of the leagues most offensively talented teams. Jari told him he needed to rethink the way he was playing the game, "You need to reinvent your game Niklas! Go sign with a team that is a transitional stage and hit the reset button. Your too tentative out there, just shoot the puck Nik! You have a great shot but your too worried about letting your teammates handle the offensive responsibilities. Go into a situation where you can grow with some younger players and you'll be relied upon to carry more of the offense. Go watch some video of a guy I used to play with, Luc Robitaille. Just shoot the fucking puck Niklas!" Was pretty much what Jari told him. Kurri shoots Niklas came back to North America and appears to have taken his uncles advice. Kurri has fired 107 shots on net through the VHL seasons first 18 games. Kurri leads the Americans in shots and is second on the team with 7 goals. Kurri recently scored a hat trick versus Stockholm carrying the Americans during that game. Kurri has meshed well with fellow Finn Jorma Ruutu but winger Azi Ali has been a major disappointment. Ali has fired 56 shots on goal and only found the net once. Having Ali on the line with Kurri and Ruutu is probably hurting the Finnish forwards production. It will be interesting to see how long management puts up with Ali's lack of production before finding a better player for the teams 2nd line. Kurri appears very close to developing into a top offensive player. During back to back matchups versus Kurri's former team, Quebec City, Kurri fired off 11 shots in each game. The first game Kurri went goalless and missed the net in the shootout. The second time around Kurri scored a key goal and scored the shootout winner. Edited July 12, 2015 by nikkurri17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikkurri17 109 Posted July 12, 2015 Author Share Posted July 12, 2015 Finnish "You need to reinvent your game Niklas! Go sign with a team that is a transitional stage and hit the reset button. Your too tentative out there, just shoot the puck Nik! You have a great shot but your too worried about letting your teammates handle the offensive responsibilities. Go into a situation where you can grow with some younger players and you'll be relied upon to carry more of the offense. Go watch some video of a guy I used to play with, Luc Robitaille. Just shoot the fucking puck Niklas!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ahma 1,314 Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 (edited) Whoa! That finnish... No offense, but Google Translator isn't a good idea for english to finnish translation... You could have asked me or jRuutu for some help Edited July 12, 2015 by Ahma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikkurri17 109 Posted July 12, 2015 Author Share Posted July 12, 2015 My apologies, I do not speak Finnish sooo that's what I relied on. I'll just replace it with English haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tylar 219 Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 (edited) Content: 3/3 - Good media spot on how your player's progressing and some of the struggles you've had !Grammar: 2/2 - Wild and relied upon = Wild and was relied upon Appearance: 1/1 - Looks nice. Overall: 6/6 Edited July 14, 2015 by Tylar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoachReilly 688 Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Claimed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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