>“So happy for him, proud of him,” said Matthew Tkachuk, whose line Rodrigues joined during the Eastern Conference final series against the New York Rangers. “Playing with him the last few games, he reads the game so well. That’s two games in a row scoring some big goals for us. He’s a super smart player and I’m really happy to see him get rewarded right now.”
>“He’s super underrated and can do a lot of different things in a lot of situations,” said Vegas Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel, who played with Rodrigues at Boston University and in Buffalo.
>“He’s a bit of a chameleon,” said Kyle Okposo, who also played with Rodrigues in Buffalo. “If you look at the teams that he’s played on and who he’s played with, it’s not an easy thing to go play with some of the top players in the world.
>““He has a unique confidence about him where at times when guys are playing with those top guys, they just want to give him the puck and get out of their way, and Evan is a guy that he makes a lot of plays and he has the confidence to keep it on a stick and make the right play at the right time. And I think that that’s why he’s had so much success everywhere he’s gone.”
>Monday night was an example of that. He started on the second line with Sam Bennett and Tkachuk, then was elevated to the top line in the third period with Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart until Barkov got hurt midway through the period.
>Coach Paul Maurice has said this postseason that he likes to play Carter Verhaeghe next to Barkov in short spurts of games, but they usually have an expiration date. Maurice saw something during Game 2 that made him elevate Rodrigues.
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>“So happy for him, proud of him,” said Matthew Tkachuk, whose line Rodrigues joined during the Eastern Conference final series against the New York Rangers. “Playing with him the last few games, he reads the game so well. That’s two games in a row scoring some big goals for us. He’s a super smart player and I’m really happy to see him get rewarded right now.”
>“He’s super underrated and can do a lot of different things in a lot of situations,” said Vegas Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel, who played with Rodrigues at Boston University and in Buffalo.
>“He’s a bit of a chameleon,” said Kyle Okposo, who also played with Rodrigues in Buffalo. “If you look at the teams that he’s played on and who he’s played with, it’s not an easy thing to go play with some of the top players in the world.
>““He has a unique confidence about him where at times when guys are playing with those top guys, they just want to give him the puck and get out of their way, and Evan is a guy that he makes a lot of plays and he has the confidence to keep it on a stick and make the right play at the right time. And I think that that’s why he’s had so much success everywhere he’s gone.”
>Monday night was an example of that. He started on the second line with Sam Bennett and Tkachuk, then was elevated to the top line in the third period with Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart until Barkov got hurt midway through the period.
>Coach Paul Maurice has said this postseason that he likes to play Carter Verhaeghe next to Barkov in short spurts of games, but they usually have an expiration date. Maurice saw something during Game 2 that made him elevate Rodrigues.
Perfect complementary piece for their team