Happy Birthday, Petr Prucha: A New Year, and Maybe a New Beginning

Happy birthday, Pru!  You turned 26 yesterday, Mr. Petr Prucha, which means that you are looking at a new year of life, and, very soon, a blank slate of a hockey season. You also escaped my pent-up frustration that would have undoubtedly been unleashed in my "25 and Under" series, which is probably a good thing. In fact, I knew your big day was coming up, and I didn't want to ruin it for you, so I let it slide. Slide. That seems to be a good word, the perfect word, to describe your quality of play. You scored 30, that's right, 30 goals your rookie season! Can you believe that? And you demonstrated serious ability in clutch situations, most notably on the power play, where you scored 16 goals to break the Rangers rookie record, set by Camille Henry over 50 years ago. That's over five decades; just about double your age. Imagine what your numbers would have been like if you had played the whole 2005-06 season, instead of just 68 games. Was 35 goals in your rookie season a possibility? ... (link)