Ya know when I was leaving to head up to the rink, I realized, "oh man, this is a 3 on 3 scrimmage, do I really want to sit through that", knowing how little that situation transfers to real hockey. But I decided to go anyway, realizing that there would be facets of their game that you could really learn about it. Skating for sure, with that much open ice. Ability to make quick decisions. Hockey sense, and shot.
But as far as physicality goes, there is going to be no takeaways. The only hitting that was done, was basically unavoidable collisions. Whether by mandate or by nature of the open ice with 3 on 3 hockey, there was no hitting. It was basically a long drill in which they kept score.
So while I was tempted to praise Poulin for always driving to the net, I did not. Knowing that it's easy to do so when you know you are not going to be hit at all. And on Poulin, I think one of the reasons he was trying to beat so many players 1 v 1, was that early on, he seemed to always be playing against Austin Lemieux. And no offense to the big guy's kid, it was a mismatch. (which is understandable, as Austin, even in this setting, is just out of his depth). He couldn't turn and track Poulin well, and Poulin knew it and burned him several times.
So even with the praise I give Poulin, it really doesn't mean a whole lot, as we gotta see the next step, which will actually be playing in 5 on 5 situations, with real hitting. But we can only glean which was in front of us, knowing that we have snippets of takeaways, but hardly a full picture.
And for the goalies, I really didn't put much into their play at all, when they started to get lit up. As 3 on 3 is almost an impossible task to ask for a goalie.
