Nikita Gusev has emerged as one of the more intruiging prospects in the KHL and North Americans are getting a closer look at him during the 2017 World Hockey Championships.
Gusev is playing for Team Russia, notching 7 points in the team’s first five games. Even more impressive, are the 71 points he put up in 57 regular season KHL games this season, ranking him fourth in the league – ahead of Evgeny Dadonov, who has received a lot of love from NHL teams this offseason.
More importantly he has a tape job we've never seen before. If you weren't aware, we're obsessed with tape jobs. It is the place in hockey that players might have the most personal touch, as everybody likes to do something a little different. Perhaps that's where some of that magic comes from.
This is a candy cane on the blade.
It’s basically like Phil Kessel’s classic tape job but done to the blade of the stick rather than the shaft.
Perhaps the KHL has some stick tape secrets that they’re keeping across the pond, because Artemi Panarin has a pretty unique tape job as well. We love to see the small differences in players’ equipment preferences, so we’ll be interested to hear if he ever gives an explanation of why he does it this way.
(H/T to /r/hockey)
