New York Islanders John Tavares worked hard to become top-level Skater -NHL Update
New York Islanders, John Tavares, is known to be one of the best skaters in the National Hockey League (NHL) today, but that sort of reputation did not come just overnight, but the All-Star rookie definitely worked hard to get where he is today.
After being drafted as the first overall player back in round-one of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft by New York Islanders, John Tavares has continued to break all barriers and has become the face of his organisation today.
With 202 points (84 goals, 118 assists) in 243 games played up until now and a better performance each and every season for the past three hockey years, Tavares continues to excel and make strides by leaps and bounds.
Entering the league, the 21-year-old certainly was well known of struggling to achieve a perfect form of skating on the ice, which obviously than hindered his full potential. No one better than Dawn Braid, Tavares training instructor since 2008, knew how
bad his form was, but overtime, the young player has been working hard to improve it.
"John had a very awkward, clunky, some might have said slow stride," Dawn Braid told NHL.com. "He was very off-balanced."
In his opening regular season back in 2009-2010, Tavares picked up 54 points (24 goals, 30 assists). He broke out the following hockey year with 67 points, consisting of 29 goals and 38 assists along with another spectacular performance last season with
81 points (31 goals, 50 assists) in all 82 games played.
"I needed to develop much better range of motion through my hips and [gluteus] strength. I was weak in those areas," Tavares said. "So we (Tavares and Clark) did a lot of exercises in warm-up and strength exercises and running and sprints -- developing my
fast-twitch muscles to become much quicker and much more dynamic. Training those parts of my body really helped on working on things like my stride and crossovers."
John Tavares definitely has a bright hockey future in front of him and for the New York Islanders, he is their Sidney Crosby and the face of the organisation for years to come.
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