Starsdude said:
Crombeen did his job, basically. He was one of the few crash-and-bang types in the OHL lineup, and he played well with Little. While it was Little who made everybody sit up and blink their eyes at his dazzling moves, it was perhaps Crombeen who subtly helped him do it with some good work on picks and generally digging in the trenches. They were very complementary out there and made that line very effective. (By contrast, Wolski seemed like an afterthough out there... he was sort of like the big Perry-Carter-McGrath line, in that he did some things individually well out there, made some nice plays, but I got the feeling you could have put anybody in his spot and nothing would have changed).
On the other line, it was Blunden who played the effective crash game that Crombeen showed. I hadn't really realised Blunden was quite that energetic or able to be quite so physically effective. He really did well, and looks like a good up-and-down winger package for the draft. That line struck gold because they additionally had *two* creative elements, with Richardson and Pouliot. This was my first time seeing Pouliot play, and he won me over much as Luc Bourdon did for the Q. He made me think of the early-days Keith Primeau, in that while he wasn't really quick or dynamic, he seemed instead to slow the opponents down all around him, and then he could sort of majestically set things up, especially from behind the net, or sweeping around to the front. I'm not saying he's slow, mind you, just that he kind of has that "control" over the tempo of the game when he has the puck. If he can fill out a bit more, he could be a really dominant player with that style.
On D, I think Syvret erased any lingering hopes any Q d-men might have had for an invite to the WJC camp. Syvret is in as the smallish skill d-man in the camp, he has to be. Kyle Quincey was probably the one who impressed me next-most. They were solid. Nothing wrong with anybody else back there, though. They weren't tested a lot, same goes for Munce in goal. Parent and Staal gave the same steady-poised-comfortable showing that Bourdon and Paquet did for the Q, but didn't really step up. Just playing solidly and effectively as 17-year olds in a game like this speaks volumes enough, I'd say.