After spending a couple of weeks in southern, Ontario I was able to reconnect with some friends who know & have watched Roger & Romeo for a few yrs. I also liked what I saw in Roger, he is quite mobile for a big man & plays with some poise & grit. Romeo had a couple of tough moments but played well on the PK, blocked some shots & for a very young guy had a decent debut. He is suppose to have a good hard shot although I can't say I noticed it.
Guennette could be a dark horse, he skates well, finds teammates in shooting lanes, plays a more cerebral game & has some good offensive skills, needs a little work in the defensive zone. Ostapchuk seems to have the speed & skill of a top six player, but just needs to be a bit more organized in his shot selections & vision to find teammates, not sure how good a playmaker he is. Greig looked much bigger to me but was rather quiet & Kastelic played exactly like he should play if he wants to win a 4th line centre spot with grit & physicality. Crookshank played exactly as advertised, but it would have been nice to see more offensive skill from him in the offensive zone. Sokolov was okay, but he clearly needs a setup man & playmaker on his line like L. Brown for him to excel at the next level. The biggest disappointment IMO was Thomson who doesn't seem to know what his role should be or what kind of game he needs to play to advance. He was okay, but nothing special in any area or facet of the game.
I thought JBD played very well, very steady, made a few good passes controlled the tempo at times & got the puck out of trouble a few times. Sogaard had an impressive outing, but it was Merilainen with the save of the night. I thought they controlled the game most of the night & when the Habs tied the game they came right back & played even harder for the go ahead goal. Remember these are all very young guys, some haven't even played junior yet & were still able to hold their own in the first game some have played in over a year. Monday should be even more interesting without Pinto or JBD & I expect more from a few guys who are pushing for spots.
The object of hockey games is to win the game & they did that which is better than losing & we would have to read through pages of negative posts. Let's not forget that these are all very young guys, most of them still on junior programs who haven't played in over a year & still have yrs of development time left. It was a bit rusty, but got better as the game unfolded, I expect the next game to be a bit better & faster, there may only be one player from this tournament who has a shot at making Ottawa this yr & I would put my money on JBD.
