Tomas Plekanec - Bigger, Stronger, Faster

Seeing as how I'm fairly new to the blog scene I doubt a lot of you know I'm a prediction nut. I love making predictions on the team, players, anything to do with the sport. This year is Tomas Plekanec's year and I think you can take that to the bank and cash it. Since the first preseason game I saw him in I could tell something about Tomas was different. Sure it's the preseason and it isn't a fair time to evaluate given the opponents he's been facing. But out there I see a Tomas Plekanec who worked hard over the summer, a Plekanec who took training very seriously and it shows and I believe it will pay off.

My prediction is that Tomas breaks the 80 point mark this year. I think he has all the tools to put up 25 goals and 55 assists. He seems like the best Plekanec I've ever seen out there and yes I've seen him play in the preseason before but something about this year is different. It isn't how he makes opponents look silly that makes me feel this way, it's the way he skates, it's the decisions he makes, it's his puck possession skills. Everything that makes up a quality player this guy has aside from being a physical nightmare to play against but he does a pretty good job of being tough to play against anyways.

Here are Tomas stats for the last four seasons:

2006-07	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	81	20	27	47
2007-08	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	81	29	40	69
2008-09	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	80	20	19	39
2009-10	Montreal Canadiens	NHL	82	25	45	70

We all remember the season he had in 2008-09 but lets face it the Plekanec we saw that season definitely wasn't the Plekanec we all have come to love today. He wasn't playing with that spark in his game that year, something was definitely off. I know everyone that year was calling for a trade, even I'll be the first to admit I wasn't very happy with Tomas performance, even though he did score 20 goals regardless.

He averages approximately 25 goals a season so I don't think the 25 goal mark is too far fetched. He's averaged approximately 33 assists per season in his last 4 seasons. Take out the bad year and it's more like 37. We already know he's hit the 45 assist mark though. Taking that fluke bad season into account, the fact that he will have more chemistry with line mate Mike Cammelleri to start the season, I think he'll do better than usual if he remains healthy (Another thing he's great at doing). Once you add in the fact that he's the best we've ever seen him and the fact that we have more depth to plug the holes of our top six, it's all pretty understandable why I feel this might be Tomas' year. If Cammalleri stays healthy the whole season too I believe we could be a wild card this year for the division and honestly we could possibly have an offense that is a nightmare to play against in the coming weeks, once all the kinks are worked out and we have our line up fully in tact.

For a guy who not long ago many people wanted to run out of town, he's quickly become a fan favorite and a beast on our team. I don't think I have to say anything here with regard to my Price article, I think anyone who got this far into my blog probably has the intelligence to put two and two together. We're on the verge of being serious contenders and Plekanec is largely part of the reason why.