Alright here& #39;s the promised AK27 thread. A celebration of all things Alexei Kovalev.

A lot of you YOUTHS out there love to curl and drag defenders. Well, Kovalev invented it. Wooden stick and all. He could use his wrist strength to manipulate pucks and hide his release completely. Here he is dragging Ken Danekyo and then sniping Martin Brodeur.

Everything about his motion was just thorough and intentional. He& #39;d skate his way into the perfect shooting lane. Take a look at how rapid his follow-through is here. This is just fluid.

Another interesting note is the way that Kovalev bent his wrists inward when taking some snapshots. Kept it low to the ice. His blade would be facing downward on the follow through with his wrists completely bent over. You really don& #39;t see a whole lot of this these days.