For John Carlson, It's Been a Season To Remember

This past weekend in Hershey, I sat near and among pro scouts from the Caps, the Bruins, the Flyers, the Senators, and the Avalanche, and while a press box full of scouts rarely views any individual hockey player with unanimity of assessment, when it comes to John Carlson, I learned, they do. Early on in Saturday night's game one in the AHL's Eastern conference finals a scout from a rival NHL Eastern conference team pointed out Carlson's beyond-his-years savviness in calmly clearing a puck from a difficult spot in his own end against a fast-skating, far more experienced set of checkers from the Providence Bruins.  It was a brief moment of relatively subtle success for Carlson that nonetheless illustrated why so many are so high on the 19-year-old New Jersey native. The Bruins had floated a clearing pass behind Carlson, with a fury of forecheckers in pursuit. Turning his back to the checkers to gather in the puck near the half boards, he paused just before playing it...