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Herrejon: Brayden Point sidestepping sophomore jinx in second season with Tampa Bay Lightning

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By Dan Herrejon | @DanHerrejon | Like us on Facebook
October 18, 2017


It is a well-worn sports cliché. The Sophomore Jinx. Spanning the entire world of sports. For whatever reason, whether based on hard evidence or not, the calamities that seemingly occur for second-year players is real in the minds of fans of all teams in all sports.

Tampa Bay Lightning fans are no different. They were very happily surprised at Brayden Point’s rookie season last year. Coming out of nowhere before last season, he made fans do a double take by making the team out of training camp a year ago.

Point finished his initial campaign having played in 68 games while scoring 18 goals and adding 22 assists. Okay, so he wasn’t quite on par with Auston Matthews or Patrik Laine last year who scored 40 and 36 goals respectively but those two were top draft picks.

The Lightning drafted Point in the 2014 NHL draft in the third round. So, not only did every NHL team pass on him twice but so did Tampa. To call Point a “can’t miss” prospect after he was drafted would be a bit of a stretch.

Yet, there is something about the way Point plays when he’s on the ice. It has happened almost throughout his career. When Point was 16 years old, he was an assistant captain for Canada’s Under 17 team in the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, showing early signs of leadership.

The following year, as a 17-year-old, Point competed at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament for Canada in the Under-18 tournament. Not only did he help Canada win the gold medal but Point earned the MVP honors in that tourney. Spotlight doesn’t faze the kid.

He was on the team again the following year when Canada earned the bronze medal and in 2015, he was on the Canadian team Under-20 that won gold in the IIHF U20 World Junior Championships.

The fact of the matter is that not only in international play but in the Juniors as well as the one NHL season under his belt, Point is the type of player that seems to rise to his level of competition. More importantly, he continued this standard as he rose to higher levels of hockey.

The kid has a fire inside him that competes against the best in the world and he rises to meet that challenge head-on. He has done that on the international stage as well as in the Juniors and the NHL.

So, back to the talk of a jinx, whether it is Point’s second year in the NHL or not, Point does not seem to be worried one iota that he is in his sophomore year in the league. He isn’t rattled that after the first week of his second season, he was among the league leaders in total points.

Without a doubt, many Lightning fans have said that after week one, Point has been one of the best players for the team. No easy feat on a team that includes Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos and Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Despite the notion that Point will not succumb to loose jinx talk, fans shouldn’t be ready to enshrine him into the Hall of Fame just yet. Give the kid some time to grow. He is, after all, just 21 years old. He has more to learn at the NHL level to refine his game even more.

Imagine what Brayden Point will be in another two or three years? This second NHL season for Point is just a part of that maturation process. Coming out of camp, Point was in his natural position, centering the team’s second line.

For now, Point is centering his line with Ondrej Palat and Yanni Gourde on the wings. Arguably, this has been the most persistent, if not consistent line thus far in the new season. Point’s line wins week one, Kucherov led the top line to week two honors.

It is not unrealistic for expectations for Point to be perhaps 25 to 30 goals and 40 assists. Getting the minutes as the second center, playing with a veteran like Palat and another leave-it-all-on-the-ice type player in Gourde will help Point reach lofty heights.

We have more than 90% of the season ahead of us. With so much hockey left to play, there may be some fans who don’t want to voice the sophomore jinx, let along spit in its face.

Brayden Point is a different type of player. A third round draft kid that wasn’t supposed to make last year’s team let alone be one of the team’s best players down the stretch. A kid who isn’t afraid of going up against household names and more than holds his own.

I bet Point doesn’t give any talk about a jinx a second of thought or concern. He simply laces them up and skates out there game in and game out in order to do his best for the Lightning. The kind of player that looks at the fans every game knowing he left it all out on the ice for them.

Jinx, schminx. Point is on his way to becoming a top player in this league, playing for one of the league’s best teams. We are witnessing this in the present moment whether it is Point’s second NHL season or not.

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