EDMONTON, Alberta -- Pity poor Ryan Strome.
A couple minutes into overtime Tuesday night at Rogers Place, and the Oilers' third-line center, owner of zero goals and zero assists, had a chance to go from zero to hero. He'd just dashed up the left edge of the Pittsburgh zone, danced around Phil Kessel and darted to the inside for a dangerous chance ... that was denied by Matt Murray.
Within a minute, he'd be poster-ized.
Or is that statue-ized?
Part of what makes three-on-three hockey a blast is the proliferation of forwards on the ice trying -- that's trying -- to play defense. It opens up all kinds of possibilities for the player with the puck, particularly when they're alert enough to glance up and recognize precisely that. Because then, the puck-carrier can try pretty much anything and look like ... you know, Sidney Crosby.
Which Strome nearly did.
Funny thing, though ...
"I had no idea it was a forward."
This was Crosby, explaining to me that, a half-minute later, he hadn't recognized Strome as a forward when coming out of the corner and ... and ... oh, just watch:
Don't scroll down, my friends. Not yet.
Take the hand off the mouse, the thumb off the phone. Watch it again. And again. And again.
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