huberdeau had a great game. pestered the guy on the first one, i thought it was a clean strip but i think the guy accidentally handled it into his teammates skate, but huberdeau definitely helped. then had a very nice deke for the goal. the 2nd was very nice, far corner, perfect placement, with his shot not being strong he needs to be very accurate like that so hopefully we can expect more of that. his skating didnt look any better imo tho. its just his skating style is too weird, he makes really wide strides and his acceleration is really slow. still had a great game though.
that whole line was just incredible to watch. they just all know where each other are. its incredible. huberdeau brought it down the wing in the 3rd, put on the breaks, held onto it a little longer and barkov came outta no where and dished it off to him for a quick slap shot and barkov really leaned into it. really riffled the thing, love seeing barkov's shot.
crouse was pretty unnoticeable overall, i still expect him to get a few games in though.
bjugstad with a really nice pp goal, just wide open, walked in, walked in, and ripped it over the shoulder. very nice. he also looked more physical than he usually plays imo.
matheson really did look incredible. he whiffed on a slap shot when he had a pass coming straight towards him from the front, but one of the early pp he had 2 consecutive one-timers and they both had a lot of velocity on it. nice to have a d being able to set up in the pirri region just above the face-off circle and can riffle in one timers like that. his speed looked good, he didnt get pushed around, very good offensive instincts. so far I'm wanting him to play some games with kulikov and see if he sticks. i really think he can. its not like he isnt developed, he's played 3yrs of D1 hockey at one of the best if not the best college hockey program in the country. weegar looked solid too, got to play with campbell.
campbell looked very solid imo. its a contract year for him so i expect a good season from him. had a spinorama, and one stint in the offensive zone where he was just everywhere with the puck, looked very good overall imo.
mike mckenna kinda sucks lol the first goal was lousy, tried to catch a long snapshot and missed. the other one ill assume got tipped, looked bad initially. nothing he could do on the 3v3 tho, when barkov went to the bench after his stick broke it was just 2v3 and he just walked into the slot and walked some more closer and closer and just picked a corner. you could see it coming.
luongo looked good, 0 goals in 2 periods.
i know the competition wasnt all that great today but we really dominated them overall. grimaldi also looked good, think he just sprained it ankle, i doubt its anything major. gudbranson didnt look as bad as some are saying, but he wasnt that great or anything. just kinda there, had some nice hits. petrovic also had some solid hits as well. booth looked fast, overall not bad.
ps. for the people saying the pa announcer sucks, I'm pretty sure he's on the boards here, just fyi. i know who he is, i like him, he has the voice for it, but he is a tad on the monotone side, could speak with just a little more enthusiasm.
