That was a fun scrimmage. Good for the Wild to do this for the fans. Granted they have been doing it for a few years but still it was great and maybe they should try and do a night scrimmage each year. Or at the very least, a "fan" preseason game with $5 tickets or something.
Nice dinner at DeGidio's. In and out in 20 minutes. Good food and quick service. Just what you want before the game. Gotta support the businesses that hurt from the lockout.
Snagged club level side seats, near the red attack twice end. So I got to see the red players a lot more than white. Again, not bad for free.
Girlfriend took off to get some shirts for about 45 minutes. Women are weird. You get the chance to watch a Wild vs Wild scrimmage for free but you want to go shopping? Okay.
Kid loved it though. Last time I took him to a game, he didn't get the concept of clapping. This time he did. He loves Nordy too. I hated the concept when he was invented, but now I know the beauty of a mascot: he distracts your kids so you can watch the hockey game for a minute in peace.
Random thoughts.
WARNING: a lot of my thoughts are clouded by my previous judgment of the players so usually I only notice if someone reinforces them or clearly jumps out one way or another. I'm not a good visual scout of talent at all. Also I had a 3-year-old, some beer, and mini donuts distracting me.
Parise - Koivu - Heatley
Forgot how pumped I was for the Parise signing. This line is so fun to watch. Just tenacious on the puck and can hold it for an entire shift in the offensive zone and the PP. Granted they didn't score, but they were really close. Koivu looks like always, a solid #1 center. Parise is fast and LOVES to go in the corners and around the net. Good shot too. Heatley was surprising, he had some straight up SPEED coming up the ice and soft hands. He looks SO much better than he did last year. Russo said that he put on some muscle and came into camp in shape. If so, look out. I think he gets 25 goals in 48 games this year. He might get more.
Cullen - Granlund - Setoguchi
Not as impressed. Most of the guys were kind of invisible. Actually Cullen looked pretty good out there, getting a little bit of space and had some nice shots. Granlund looked excellent in his spot on the PP on the half wall. Didn't notice Seto much. Seemed like Granlund was less effective when the defenders were playing him tight. Might be an adjustment from the speed/gap of the AHL defenders?
Bouchard - Brodziak - Clutterbuck
Liked this line a lot. Like others are saying, Butch looks fantastic. One of the best players out there. I mean any time and space and he is a wizard with the puck. Looked phenomenal on the PP point. Why? Time and space. Yes he passed up at least one opportunity to shoot, but he made some great passes that could have been one-time goals if they weren't slightly off. And let's be honest, only 10% or so of shots go in and that doesn't count the ones that miss. Brodziak looked EXCELLENT. Just like always, working hard along the boards, keeping pucks in, playing physical, driving the net. If he had softer hands he'd be a great #2 center, honestly. Clutterbuck was flying around out there, didn't see much offense from him during the game, but as I've seen before, he probably has the best/hardest shot of anyone in warmups.
Coyle - Larsson - Zucker
A little disappointed. I don't think anyone played bad per se, and Zucker was fast and effective when he the D gave him a bit of room, but they seemed more like a disruptive checking line than a scoring line. Not too worried as all three are rookies though. Coyle is obviously big and strong and I did see him using straight up arm/core strength to wrestle a puck away from someone. Larsson seemed to have good positioning, not a lot else that I saw. All three could use more time in Houston, although Zucker looked close.
Veilleux - Dowell - Palmieri
The big thing with Veilleux and Dowell are that they are clearly NHL vets. The difference between them and say McMillan and McIntyre is that they were getting to the puck in time to hit the puck carrier or pressure them rather than kind of floating around. Anyways, neither were flashy but both did their jobs and could handle fourth line minutes just fine. Palmieri was very surprising to me. He was a LOT faster than I recall and this time had some purpose to his game. Also has a great shot and made some scoring chances. Definitely deserves to be on the starting fourth line and might even have a bit of third line scoring upside (like a Clutterbuck).
Mitchell - Konopka - Powe
McMillan - McIntyre - Kassian
Bulmer - Phililps - Rau
Really didn't see much of these guys or have anything stand out.
Suter - Spurgeon
Oh man, Suter. Honestly I didn't know much of his game before we signed him, thought he was maybe a stay at home guy to Shea Weber, maybe like a little better Nick Schultz. Wrong. This guy can skate, has soft hands, can move the puck, and can shoot. Basically he's a #1 defenseman. Looked pretty calm and composed out there, few mistakes, got involved in the offense, and more than capable at the PP point. Can't wait to see him play NHL games. Spurgeon was as advertised, speedy, mobile, good with the puck, fumbled it JUST A BIT at the PP point, and had a wicked shot for a goal (I left just before OT). I still think he could cut that stick down a hair and be even more effective with the puck, but maybe that's just me. We're the same height and his stick is as tall as I am in shoes yet mine is cut below my lip.
Stoner - Gilbert
With Gilbert leaving early, didn't see too much of him. Stoner looked good. Hands were a little better than I remembered. He's like a Keith Carney with a little better hands and under the age of 40.
Dumba - Genoway
Dumba. Looked so much better than expected. His skating doesn't seem to be an issue at all. If anything, he's unsure of where he should be so he is constantly looking around making sure he's not about to be burned. But lateral/backwards skating looked just fine. Can't recall if he had any straight up speedy 1-on-1's to defend though. Great shooting and had some awesome one-timers. His passes were a little off but not bad, I'm sure it's a big adjustment to anticipating where NHL's are vs juniors. He looks like he would be able to hang in the NHL now but still could use some development time to really come out of his shell. Genoway was more aggressive than Dumba, obviously a little smaller (actually made Dumba look bigger than I expected), but I was always watching Dumba when he was on the ice.
Prosser - Falk
Didn't watch them much.
Mara - Fredheim
Mara looked like an NHL defender. I would not mind him as a 6/7 guy at all. Fredheim I just kept thinking "who the hell is that? oh yeah, Fredheim." Didn't watch him play.
Kampfer - Medvec
Medvec is big but I think I saw him get burned a few times. Not an NHL defenseman. Kampfer looks like a forward trying to play D. He's aggressive and has good puck skills when he's going up ice or in the offensive zone but seems to run around and not have good position in his end.
Backstrom & Harding
Didn't really watch them much. Backstrom had some nice stops considering the talent he faced. Harding had some sick glove saves. Pretty much on all the goals my kid was distracting me so I missed what was going on.