NHL 2010-11 Rewind: Bobby Ryan Destroys St Louis

The next in a series of blogs reviewing some of my favourite moments from the just-completed 2010-11 National Hockey League season:
 
One of the great things about having access to so many different NHL contests each season is getting to watch some of the great individual efforts by players on teams who're rarely featured on NBC or CBC or TSN or VERSUS. The Anaheim Ducks are certainly in that category, but their brand of hockey is sensational to watch:

(Disclaimer: The Ducks were the first team I ever saw LIVE, in January of 2008, against the Dallas Stars, an amazing night with fights and goals, so I have a bit of a soft spot!)

It's a shame there was basically no one at the Honda Centre in Anaheim on this January night to see this entertaining match-up between the Ducks and their Western Conference opponents, the St Louis Blues. It was Bobby Ryan's night. One of the best American players in the NHL today netted a hat trick and an additional assist for a four-point game, a superlative effort on a night when tempers ran high, and when the lamp was light ten times, six of those times in a wild fight-filled third period.

The young superstar from Cherry Hill, NJ - the first American to score a goal in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games - is a part of the best line in the NHL, with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf. With those two around, it's no wonder that Ryan is finding the net so easily and with so much consistency. The scary thing? He's only going to get better, and the Ducks should remain at least playoff contenders in the Western Conference for as long as this line is together and producing like they produced for so much of the 2010-11 season.

On this night, Ryan was already pretty good. Too good, for the St Louis Blues, who, admittedly, were missing some firepower. It was a one-man demolition job of the Blues, who lost the game 7-4 and late, when things got heated, they lost the fights as well. Ryan took the game by the scruff of the neck, netting three goals and the additional assist, doing what great players do frequently: putting his stamp on the contest. It was his smooth-skating brilliance that separated the Ducks from their foe this night.

Just for some further illustration as to the genius of Cherry Hill, NJ's favourite son, check out this sick deke that Ryan used to undress both Nashville defensemen to score perhaps the goal of the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs: