I was there this evening.
A few notes:
Team Red consisted of:
Visentin and Domingue in goal
Gormley, Gudbranson, Beaulieu, Pysyk, Harrington, Lefebvre, Simpson, Ceci, Oleksiak on D
Huberdeau, Johansen, Stone, Spooner, Strome, Connolly, Bournival, Freddie Hamilton, Gallagher, Lessio, Sgarbossa, Ritchie, Holland on O
Team White:
Bunz and Wedgewood in goal
Howden, Couturier, Rattie, Schwartz, RNH, Smith-Pelly, Puempel, Scheifele, Toffoli, Danault, Jenner, Thomas, McKegg on O
Murray, Hamilton, Percy, Murphy, Petgrave, Siemens, Morrow, Gauthier-Leduc on D
Team Red dominated for most of the game.
The defense, both the D and defensive play of the forwards, was much more notable than the offensive ability displayed.
In goal, Visentin wasn't tested too much, but made a handful of incredible saves, two HUGE ones with his glove. Wedgewood was the other standout. Domingue was fine, let in a couple of well-deserved goals (though he barely had any shots against, so..), and Bunz was not very good. Bunz let in 5 or maybe 6 in half a game, and I don't think he let in more than one questionable goal, but he just never made a 'big' save.
On D, the best pairing was Gormley and Gudbranson of Team Red. They didn't do anything especially noticeable, but they almost always broke up the play, covered their men, moved the puck quietly and efficiently, and the other team almost never got any kind of offensive momentum when they were on the ice. The next best d-men on Red were Beaulieu and Oleksiak. Oleksiak looked a bit raw and out of position a couple of times, but for the most part he was a rock, clearing bodies in front of the net and winning every battle he got in. He also has an incredible ability to carry the puck up the ice. 3 or 4 times he carried the puck from behind his net all the way to the other team's zone while stickhandling around and outskating the opposition's forecheck. Quite impressive for such a massive guy. Beaulieu was just rock-steady at both ends of the ice, nothing fancy. In the offensive zone, he pinched at the right times, covered for his partner(s) well, made good decisions with the puck. Defensively he broke up a lot of plays, was tough around the net making other forwards' lives difficult, and made a solid first pass every time. The rest of Red's D was either unremarkable or often out of place. Pysyk, Harrington and Lefebvre were barely noticeable. Nothing bad, but their play nor individual plays stood out. Simpson looked tentative and unconfident, not necessarily bad, but took too long with the puck, missed a few assignments, just looked very uncomfortable. Ceci just looked bad, period. You knew every time on the ice cuz he was screwing up almost every shift. That might also be why Simpson didn't look very good, cuz they were a defensive pair for most of the game.
On Team White, the standout d-men were Ryan Murphy and Dougie Hamilton. Murphy was the best by quite a margin. He was breaking up plays left and right in his own end-- reminded me a lot of Lubo Visnovsky in that sense. He's undersized but shadows his man very well, and uses his stick defensively incredibly well. And then you watch him skate with or without the puck. WOW. I can't even think of an appropriate comparison there, he's that good. It felt like he'd take two or three strides from near his goal line and he'd be in on the rush with the other forwards breaking into the offensive zone. And he carried the puck marvelously too-- a couple of times carrying it coast to coast and making nice offensive plays. To be honest, I the only appropriate d-man comparison I can think of is Paul Coffey when it comes to his skating. He was just electric out there. Dougie Hamilton's another very good skater, makes very smart offensive decisions, and was solid in his own end as well. Duncan Siemens and Stu Percy were solid, but nothing special. Petgrave, Morrow and Gauthier-Leduc were barely noticeable, so they weren't bad, at least not often, but they weren't especially good, particularly when it came to getting the puck out of their end. They had a few goals scored against them because the team simply couldn't get the puck out when they were on the ice. Ryan Murray was the big disappointment. He was pretty much invisible and on numerous occasions his partner Dougie Hamilton had to bail him out after over-committing, both on O and D, or missing assignments, etc.
Team Red's forwards were much more dominant than Team White's. They were creating things offensively most of the night. Surprisingly, the best line both offensively and defensively was Lucas Lessio, Sgarbossa and Brett Ritchie. Actually, Lessio and Ritchie were the best forwards on the ice. Ritchie was in on scoring chances almost every time he was on the ice and netted two goals, and Lessio was creating turnovers, being physical, and was making plays out of the other team's mistake all night too. Sgarbossa was less impressive, but he was also playing conservatively in that he was in position to backcheck sooner than he needed to be in most offensive situations. Huberdeau, Johansen, and Stone were another line. Johansen is a special player. He clearly has the most offensive talent and is most NHL ready of any of the guys out there. Didn't do TOO much on offense, but was constantly swarming when on the ice. Huberdeau played solid at both ends and was just doing all the right things, though nothing spectacularly. Stone was being carried by those two. Didn't look out of place, but didn't look like he was contributing much. Spooner, Strome, and Connolly were another line until Connolly went down in the second half of the game with a leg injury. Connolly stirred the drink on that line. He looked fantastic. Strome had a few moments where he looked just like Todd Bertuzzi in his prime. Big guy who carries the puck very powerfully in the o-zone and near impossible to knock off the puck. But his speed was a problem. He looked like one of the slower guys on the ice, and it was especially evident when he was given a head-start breakaway (they did that instead of penalties) and Dougie Hamilton caught him as he was crossing the blueline. Hamilton's a strong skater, but it was night and day. Strome just looked slow as molasses. Though once he gets going he's alright, I noticed. He just needs a big wind-up to actually get going. Spooner was carried by the other two on that line too. Patrick Holland was rotating on every line, but filled in for Connolly after he went down, and he kept plays going and played positionally well while out there. Spooner looked out of place. The next line was Bournival, Freddie Hamilton, and Gallagher. They were okay. Kind of disappeared for half of the game through the middle, but in the beginning and towards the end Hamilton and especially Gallagher were doing lots of good things. Hamilton was solid at both ends of the ice, always in position, picking up his man, making good passes, and had a couple of scoring chances of his own. Gallagher was outstanding in the offensive end. Can stickhandle as good as anybody and has speed to burn. Always looked dangerous. Bournival didn't really contribute much.
White Team's offense was big time disappointing.
One line had Howden, Couturier and Rattie on it. Rattie looked slow and didn't have any hands to speak of. Howden was pretty much invisible at both ends of the ice, and for such a big, highly-touted guy, Sean Couturier was also pretty quiet out there. Made a few decent plays, but this line didn't have much of anything. Pretty disappointing with the hype around Couturier and Howden as a WJ Team vet.
RNH played with Schwartz and Smith-Pelly. He was absolutely invisible. Made a few crafty plays, but his linemates outshone him, especially DSP. RNH lost almost every draw, almost every battle for the puck, was separated from the puck almost every time in the o-zone, and looked lost on d, though that was probably the best part of his game tonight (defense). Based on what I saw, he looked and especially played too small for this team, let alone the NHL. Schwartz made a few good plays offensively, carries the puck well, but is soft and got knocked off the puck any time somebody decided to physically challenge him. Smith-Pelly was probably the best player for Team White, though. He played like a bat out of hell. Knocked Oleksiak (who's 6'7, 244 according to the camp roster) on his ass while on the forecheck, and made it look easy. Created probably a dozen turnovers just by his strong skating and stick-work. Created another few turnovers by taking the body...and then back on d, he looked like the centre, as he was picking up extra guys down low and in the slot all night. Actually, now that I think of it, RNH wasn't bad on D, so Schwartz must have really been missing his defensive assignments a lot, cuz there always seemed to be an open man against this line, and RNH and DSP looked like they were overcompensating quite a bit-- the defensive pairings were also subpar to Team Red's though, so it could be a combinationg of things. Next line was Puempel, Scheifele and Toffoli. Scheifele was a solid two-way centre. Created some offense, was the only reliable defensive player on the line, and overall looked pretty good. Toffoli was a pretty good skater and did a reasonable job on the forecheck and providing some offense with Scheifele. Looked pretty lost in the d-zone though. Puempel was pretty quiet out there. Didn't notice him much, but he wasn't helping offensively much at all. Last line was Danault, Jenner and Thomas, with Greg McKegg as the utility player rotating on each line. They were a good energy line. Danault was outstanding on the forecheck, a good skater, and played well defensively. Won lots of puck battles too. Thomas has some incredible wheels and a great release. Had a few nice shots, and carried the puck very well...also positionally pretty sound. Jenner was the one who didn't look too comfortable out there. He was tentative offensively, and was dreadful defensively. It was like Danault and Thomas just quietly agreed between each other to start picking up Jenner's assignments. McKegg wasn't really noticeable at all.
If I had to pick a team based on this lineup and the one scrimmage I saw, it'd be this:
Visentin
Wedgewood
Gormley-Murphy
Gudbranson-Beaulieu
Hamilton-Oleksiak
Extra: Siemens
Lessio-Johansen-Ritchie
Huberdeau-Scheifele-Connolly
Danault-Hamilton-DSP
Thomas-Strome-Gallagher
Extras: Couturier, Toffoli
I recognize that it seems pretty crazy to cut RNH, but he was one of the weaker players tonight (even more painful for me to see cuz I'm an Oilers fan).
Hope this helps