I was at the development camp again today & there were a lot of scrimmages that were fun to watch. I had a birds eye view from the restaurant above the ice unfortunately you miss stuff that happens directly below or in the corners. Pageau made a great rush on one play blowing right by the defender whose name/number I missed & deked the goalie for a nice goal. I missed a lot of stuff today though being interrupted by people & kids. Stone was there for the team photo than left, I assume he was training with Maidens again. Conacher took a nasty shot to the back of the leg that hurt him, he shook it off though. Maclean, Dorion, T. Murray & Richardson were all in their perch above the rink in the corner next to the restaurant.
Players who stood out today with their play: Ceci, Zibanejad, Pageau, Robinson, Prince, Puempel, Schneider, Hogberg & Brassard. I thought Lazar had another good day too as did Grant, he was skating much better today & got more involved.
Puempel - has a rocket of a shot, he will be interesting to watch in Bingo he could lead the team in goals.
Prince - see Puempel, this kid is skilled, an excellent skater with great vision.
Brassard - had a real good day, made some great athlectic saves, still didn't see Dreidger. Will be interesting to see what Ottawa does with these 4 goalies.
Hogberg - he maybe didn't do anything to standout, but did make some nice saves, good glove hand. He takes up a good chunk of net, I just keep thinking he is Lehner.
Robinson - this guy can skate, he may not be as fast as Greening but he's fast for such a big guy. If he can develp a good pair of hands we could have a real sleeper here.
Zibanejad - IMO he is the best player in camp, he' fast, he works hard & he has good vision. He's young so I expect he will have problems with scoring consistently but he is going to be a good one.
Pageau - he looked like a pro today, was skating really well, setting up plays & scoring.
Schneider - was skating well today & made a couple of nice plays at full speed. I expect he will be much better this yr in Bingo too. Bingo could have another really good team this yr with all these good young prospects & returning vets.
Note: again today there is a lot going on all at the same time at both ends of the ice so it's hard to see everything. There are some guys here who are going to be a pain in the arse to play against. They may not be as skilled as some other guys & not score as much but they are going to be hard on the opposition. Guys like Noesen, Sdao, Kramer, Grant & Hamilton are tough guys to play against they are all very good defensively. Harpur has a hell of a reach on D as does Dasilva, they both break up a lot of plays because of it. They would be interesting book ends on D, both being 6'6".