I'll eat my crow. Hall looked garbage to start the tournament but like he said, he was out there with 40 seconds left playing centre in the gold medal game up a goal.
He improved defensively by leaps and bounds as the tournament went on. He went from turning pucks over constantly to making the right reads. Playing it safe and letting the offence come without risking chances the other way.
If he plays how he did in the elimination games back in Edmonton next year, he could be the best LW in the NHL next year. He just needs to keep focusing on that two way player. I honestly did not think he had it in him to backcheck that hard and play intelligently with the puck.
Although I preface this by saying this was not really NHL calibre teams for the most part I agree Hall looked overall pretty decent especially on defensive end and not making as many boneheaded plays as he normally does.
I think this is showing us he excels much better as more of a secondary player or sidekick player on the line/team rather than a driver. I just don't think he has it in him to be a control and driver player. When he tries to, that's when he starts to do stupid things and actually hurt the team. His hands, processing skills and edge work just don't quite allow him to be on that very very high level as of yet. But a very very good winger he could be with a smart veteran driver center who controls the puck on his line.
I noticed he started shooting the puck low more too. Smart. Gives goalies troubles. He's always been known to just rip shots high glove 2 feet wide. Really still needs to work on his sniping abilities. He has the ability to get open shots but now he really needs to bury more or at least put way more dangerous shots on goal.
