Quick Strikes: Steven Stamkos ranked seventh-best center by NHL Network

Today’s news includes hockey in South East Asia!

The Bolts

The NHL Network has ranked Tampa Bay Lightning superstar pivot-man Steven Stamkos as the seventh-best center in the NHL right now. Despite his injury history recently, Stamkos has risen on the list from last year, where he was eleventh. You can find that article here at Raw Charge.

Top 20 NHL Centers Right Now

RankPlayer
1Connor McDavid
2Sidney Crosby
3Evgeni Malkin
4Auston Matthews
5Nicklas Backstrom
6John Tavares
7Steven Stamkos
8Tyler Seguin
9Ryan Getzlaf
10Mark Scheifele
11Patrice Bergeron
12Jonathan Toews
13Anze Kopitar
14Jack Eichel
15Leon Draisaitl
16Ryan Johansen
17Alekander Barkov
18Jeff Carter
19Evgeny Kuznetsov
20Sean Monahan

Let us know what you think of this list? Auston Matthews, of the Toronto Maple Leafs, at #4 is the first name that jumped out at me.

The Prospects

Slater Koekkoek is one heck of a salesman!

Sales game so 🔥I could sell a humble pie to @realdonaldtrump #tasteofmanotick

A post shared by Slater Koekkoek (@skoeks) on

Mikhail Sergachev at a hockey camp in Russia! (Nice jersey)

The ECHL Adirondack Thunder have renamed the street outside of their newly named arena to Bill Dineen Way, named after the long-time coach of the Adirondack Red Wings from 1983-1989. Mr. Dineen passed away last December. [Thoughts Inside the Box]

The Game

The South East Asian (SEA) Games have begun in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia and for the first time ICE HOCKEY is one of the events! Despite the ice starting to melt after the first period, the game and tournament is going well! “This is a milestone in the bigger development of this super-beautiful sport.” - Jonathan Sudharta, Indonesia's captain

The Aberdeen Linx of the Scottish National League just finished a £110,000 upgrade to their arena in Scotland. “The revamp wasn’t the only thing being celebrated as Sport Aberdeen’s Linx Ice Arena and Beach Leisure Centre were recently certified as autism friendly, making the Granite City’s ice rink the first to receive this award in the UK.” [Evening Express]

(If you’re trying to remember where you’ve heard of the Linx before, it might have been here)

Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan spoke about how invaluable having clips of gameplay on iPads placed on the benches during games, especially in the playoffs. “The main areas where we probably gained the most use out of it was special teams, because you get immediate feedback.” [Sportsnet]

Nick Bonino eating spaghetti out of the Stanley Cup, as one does.

And let’s end this Quick Strike with some quality P.K. Subban mobility training