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.
I remember when Walker broke into the league with Vancouver, and he wasn’t expected to make much of an impact. Most of what he’s accomplished in his career has been the result of hard work, and it’s great to see him getting a big-time chance to flourish with the ‘Canes.
I never could understand those that said the Predators won out in that deal (Vasicek for Walker).