Last night's contest was certainly sloppier and choppier than the Sunday night affair against the Panthers. Five fights and over 100 minutes in penalties marred the contest (or made it more interesting, depending on your perspective). The Canuckleheads dressed a lot of hopefulls who gathered a lot of penalty minutes in the minors last season, so the rough play was hardly a surprise...
Anyways, on to the good stuff.
Rookies I noticed:
Dustin Boyd - A fast and crafty player, Boyd oftens looks pretty close to NHL-ready. He gets clobbered occassionally, but it never seems to slow him down. The trio of Ritchie, Boyd and Amonte generated a lot of scoring chances over the course of the match.
Warren Peters - I wasn't expecting anything from Peters, but he showed a penchant for solid boardwork down low and even made a couple of nifty moves at the opposition's blueline. The rookie unit of Peters, Maki and Couture actually managed to apply decent forechecking pressure during certain points of the evening, partially due to Peter's solid body work.
Andrei Taratukhin - Wasn't spectacular but wasn't bad either. Was able to frequently find open ice and the puck seems to follow him around. Not the fastest guy on the ice, though.
Mark Giordano - Making a big push to be the #7 d-man on the team. Was typically solid defensively and made a great move along the blueline during the powerplay in order to get off a shot.
Tim Ramholt - Still needs some seasoning as he occassionally seems a step or two behind the play in his own end. However, showed great presence of mind to hop into the play during a penalty-kill to create a two-on-one. Hit the outside of the post on the ensuing rush.
Adam Cracknell - Solid on his skates and has a nose for the net. Not the swiftest guy around, but seemed to get better as the night went on. While he hit the post on an empty net in the first period, he made up for it with his seeing-eye snapshot goal in the third.
Vets I Noticed:
Tony Amonte - Scored one, should have had three. Nothing I saw made me think he's in line for a major resurgance, however, he may very well thrive on the 3rd line.
Phaneuf - Scary.
Robyn Regehr - Was involved in both ends of the rink. Crushed some hapless Canuck in the 3rd.
Damond Langkow - Was going at about half speed all night, but still quietly managed 2 points AND asserted himself well in a scrap.
Andrei Zyuzin - I was pleasantly surprised by how mean Zyuzin was in the corners. Cleaned up after Ramholt in the defensive end when they were paired together. Not as slick as Leopold, but probably more physical.
Players I didn't Notice:
- Maki and Couture gave it their all but never really made any impact.
- Byron Ritchie just tries so hard but is just so mediocre.
- Jeff Friesen did nothing to impress me against a squad made up almost entirely of rookies. Didn't seem all that fast to me. Got in a couple of scraps.
- Eric Nystrom was equal parts poised vet and nervous rookie. Would make an obvious gaffe one shift and then look totally comfortable the next. In the end, didn't do anything in particular that would set him apart.
- Nilson looked kind of rusty.
- Warrener played a tiny bit and then injured his knee, apparently. I bet Giordano was secretly pleased.
Anyways, here's the official gamesheet and a write-up from the Flame's site that includes the line combos.
Next up - The Oil!
