Maxim Afinogenov dominates pick up game

[iceholes19 0]

Maxim Afinogenov

[Gummer12 134]

A bit of a dickish thing to stay on the ice the whole time..but I understand his reasoning. What a thrill for the other guys though, eh?

I always wondered whatever happened to Cheeser..Used to play for LSSU back in the day.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=26113

[RiSeOnFiRe 0]

lol who is going to tell him to get off? if he were on my team he could play the whole game for all i care, just being on the ice with a pro would be cool enough. I like that he hung around to sign for the kids too. He might dog it sometimes in the NHL, but at least hes a nice guy.

[LivHockey84 0]

Thats pretty neat...

[Hradsky 1]

Wow this took like 3 days to finally get over here...old news!

[chippa13 1844]

Not sure which is more dickish, staying on the whole second and third periods or lighting up both goalies.

[Balzinsker 0]

Couldn't help but be reminded of this gem;

“He’s a flashy player. Fans who don’t see him every night could watch him and say ‘He’s the best player on the ice.’ Yeah, well, if you had a game of shinny every night in the NHL, Afinogenov would win the Hart Trophy.”

- TV analyst Harry Neale on Buffalo's Maxim Afinogenov who has one goal in 19 games this season.

It was true then and rings truer now.

[n3ss 0]

wish there was video....

and he only had 17 goals at a pickup game in alabama? lol

[HattrickSwayze 3]

There's video of the whole game here.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BestTimesNow

[n3ss 0]

what kind of pickup game has a ref and score keeper? lol

[Krev 86]

I was wondering when video would show up. That must've been a mixed bag of feelings for everyone. Getting the score up that high, but playing with an NHLer... Damn.

[Hradsky 1]

what kind of pickup game has a ref and score keeper? lol

It wasn't just your average pick up game. Apparently it's like "Super-Awesome Shinny", where you get jerseys and refs and all that.

That's why it's $10/person.

[furlanitalia 1]

That's insane. I pay $15 for drop in and we don't get refs or a time keeper. Or NHL players for that matter.

[Balzinsker 0]

It wasn't just your average pick up game. Apparently it's like "Super-Awesome Shinny", where you get jerseys and refs and all that.

That's why it's $10/person.

Its usually $10 here as well, but that just gets you the privilege of the arena people shouting at you to get off the ice after you've played instead of before. :lol:

[furlanitalia 1]

After watching the videos I would relate his play to that of Semin over the past couple days.

[tro 4]

Oh Snap!

He actually skated with some effort for an NHLer at Shinny, I have played with a couple of pros at shinny and I don't think they ever came back into their own zone, Heatly was an absolute bum and would never come off the ice.

[furlanitalia 1]

Oh Snap!

He actually skated with some effort for an NHLer at Shinny, I have played with a couple of pros at shinny and I don't think they ever came back into their own zone, Heatly was an absolute bum and would never come off the ice.

But that's cause he's an allstar.

[n3ss 0]

$10 will get you to pick up here.. . if you like playing alone. lol

[westcoastsniper 0]

After watching the videos I would relate his play to that of Semin over the past couple days.

except that he's scoring goals.

[Hradsky 1]

Shinny over here is $2.00.

You go about 20% effort for about an hour because only helmets are mandatory, so nobody wears equipment, so nobody plays competitively.

[Jarick 5]

Wow that's cool. I'll bet he was going about 10% and he such great agility and stick handling. And I'm sure it was a blast for the guys who could say "I dangled Afinogenov".

Around here it's $5-10 for drop-in, no refs or scorekeeper, most of the guys take 10 minute shifts, and I still can't keep up with them. I know a couple drop ins with former NHL'ers...had some friends that played with them and obviously got smoked. It was crazy last time I saw the old timer NHL'ers play pickup a couple months back...some of the guys weren't even wearing helmets!

[BenderHockey 127]

Wow that's cool. I'll bet he was going about 10% and he such great agility and stick handling. And I'm sure it was a blast for the guys who could say "I dangled Afinogenov".

That would infer he played some sort of defense at one point. Highly unlikely. The only reason he even skates back to the defensive zone is so he can get the puck and rush it up.

[s75 0]

The article is a little confusing with some mistakes. He actually scored 12 goals in the game.

He played pickup one night and in the organized game on a second night while in Birmingham. Pickup sessions cost $10 at this rink and the the game costs skaters $15. Players can't just drop in and play for these organized "Bash" (Birmingham area select hockey) games. They have to sign up and pay as if signing up for a short season.

[dsjunior1388 81]

Am I the only one who thinks it's pathetic that he apparently shot the puck pretty much every time he had it? 12 goals? I mean come on, when you come into a game far beneath your level, I think you should try to help the game along a little bit, move the puck around, not just run up your one man highlight reel. Maybe that's just me.

[s75 0]

No, he didn't look to shoot whenever he had the puck. He always looked to pass first and set others up. A lot of the game is not shown on the video. He passed up several chances throughout the game to shoot even when he beat the dman and was 1-0 to the net.

Only one of his 4 goals in the first period are shown iin the video, and on the one it was a 2 on 1 and the dman took away the pass so he took the shot. The other 3 goals that period were from a 2-0 where he received the pass on the backside and snapped it upstairs; a backdoor one timer, and a 1-0 where he beat the dman and was forced wide of the net by an attempted pokecheck but he still managed to reach from behind the goal line to tuck it in.