TORONTO — Who has the most goals of any American-born player in the National Hockey League since Nov. 29?<\/p>\n
Not Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews<\/a>, who ranks second on the list in that span with 16 and will play for Team USA in Italy.<\/p>\n Not forwards Alex DeBrincat<\/a> of the Detroit Red Wings, Cole Caufield<\/a> (Montreal Canadiens) or Jason Robertson<\/a> (Dallas Stars), each tied for third with 15 and were passed over to represent their country in Milano Cortina.<\/p>\n The answer: Brock Nelson<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yes, that Brock Nelson, the former member of the New York Islanders now entrenched as the second-line center for the Colorado Avalanche.<\/p>\n Believe it or not, no American goal-scorer is hotter heading into the Olympics than Nelson, the 34-year-old who is playing the best hockey of his career at a time when many players begin to slow down.<\/p>\n Not Nelson. Anything but. In fact, the only player who has scored more goals over that period is Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid<\/a>, who has 22.<\/p>\n Nelson was at it again on Sunday, registering the fifth hat trick of his career in a 4-1 victory against the host Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>. He has 27 goals this season and is on pace to surpass his career high of 37 set with the Islanders in 2021-22.<\/p>\n In the process, he\u2019s muzzling any suggestions that he doesn\u2019t belong on Team USA, a common theme among critics when the full roster was announced on Jan. 2.<\/p>\n Any doubts about his inclusion should have been erased by now. Argue for the likes of DeBrincat, Caufield, Robertson all you want if you feel that way, but not at Nelson\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n He\u2019s earned his spot. And then some.<\/p>\n Just ask Avalanche coach Jared Bednar.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing with Brock is, he does a lot of things away from the puck too that are pretty special,\u201d Bednar said after Colorado\u2019s win Sunday. \u201cHe\u2019s a big, long, strong guy (6-foot-4, 205 pounds) that can skate and covers a lot of ice, so we rely on him in a bunch of defensive situations including penalty kill. So, when you\u2019re talking about well-rounded players that can score, he\u2019s scoring this year. And his checking game is impeccable, so that\u2019s a guy I don\u2019t see how you can leave off.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of goal-scorers out there who are still rounding out the rest of their game. But he certainly deserves to be there; there\u2019s no question for me. And I think he\u2019s going to have a great Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar<\/a>, a member of Team Canada, wouldn\u2019t be surprised if he does.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of confidence in his game right now,\u201d Makar told NHL.com. \u201cHe\u2019s a shooter. And when he\u2019s shooting, he\u2019s going to find a way to connect and score goals.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to see the way he\u2019s playing right now. He\u2019s finding good spots, guys are getting him the puck, and he\u2019s putting it in the back of the net.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, it\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Nelson said competing against superstars Makar and Nathan MacKinnon<\/a>, who will also represent Canada, at Avalanche practice almost every day has helped him elevate his game. So, too, was the confidence he gained by being selected to play for the U.S. at the 4 Nations Face-Off last season, which raised eyebrows at the time.<\/p>\n Despite being held off the score sheet in four games at that event, Nelson said the experience he accrued playing against some of the world\u2019s best players was invaluable.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was obviously unbelievable to see all those guys up close and personal, trying to just learn and soak it all in as much as you can,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cIt definitely makes you feel good about the state of your game for sure, just to be part of that. And any time you get named to a team like that, not to mention it happening again, I mean, that\u2019s such an added bonus.<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing (MacKinnon, Makar) on a regular basis and what they do, it helps your own game. And on the American side, getting to practice with them last year, seeing a guy like (Zach) Werenski, seeing how he moves, Jaccob Slavin<\/a>, Brock Faber<\/a>, how they defend. And up front, too, watching Matthews, (Jack) Eichel, a number of those guys, how they command the game and how they play. So just trying to learn.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pace and execution is clean and at a high level. So, you have to do that at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n With the Olympic tournament start date of Feb. 11 quickly approaching, Nelson is doing exactly that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO — Who has the most goals of any American-born player in the National Hockey League since Nov.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-438585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}