I really like Tyler McCracken’s two-way game, he is intelligent in going about preventing scoring opportunities at his end but he also has the offensive instincts to jump up into the counter attacks the other way and provide an extra option. He always has himself in a good position to make a play, he sticks to his man well and gets in shooting lanes effectively to block shots, and he does an excellent job using the stick and body to tie players up at the back post to prevent them from getting an easy tap in chance. He’s strong and able to win his battles, coming away with the puck and skating it out of trouble with good leg work and a simple pass into the neutral zone. He offers an offensive threat as well, maneuvering well at the point and displaying good hands on the puck to get around bodies and find himself a bit of space to fire the puck on goal or set up a teammate. He’s fundamentally very sound and there are not many holes to his game, he’s got plenty of tools and he should be able to fill a role on any team.

I thought McCracken had a great start to this game by playing an aggressive and assertive style of hockey. He did a great job defending in one on one situations by keeping the opposing forward in front of him at all times and taking the body rather than focusing on the puck. He was scanning well on his retrievals as well, which allowed him to have a proper mental mapping of the defensive zone and get pucks out of danger quickly. There were a few times where he was caught being too aggressive, either in his pinches in the neutral zone or trying to jump into a passing lane too early, but I thought it was a solid performance from McCracken, nonetheless.