Late with this, but I didn’t watch the game until Saturday afternoon (son had hockey in the AM) and had a busy Sunday.
General thoughts:
I am not an avid follower of the Flames, but it appeared to me they had most of their NHL crew. The B’s were missing a number of key regulars, so I was not surprised that they got out shot by a wide margin and outplayed at times. They were opportunistic, and capitalized on the chances they did get, which is important.
I thought the kids played well for the most part. You can see Studnicka’s skills, but to me he was third on the list today of the young centers. I liked that he went after Neal and showed some jam, but he might have been trying a little too hard (boarding penalty). Both Frederic and JFK appeared more “prepared” if that’s the right word for action against NHL regulars. The toe drags and nifty moves that worked against the other prospects will not work against seasoned NHL players.
JFK has a very efficient, quiet, “Krejci-like” game. He sees the ice well and appears to be very capable of a 3 zone game. I would say that his skating is better than Krejci’s when he came up. Frederic plays a simpler straight up and down style, but he’s not without skill and scoring touch. Maybe because he’s a big kid he didn’t appear phased by the NHL players at all. He skates well for his size, was good on the backcheck and had some good scoring opportunities. It should be a good battle for that 3C spot. Hopefully, one of the kids is worthy.
I thought the new NHL guys all played reasonable well. Wagner finished every check and had some jam. Nordstrom is a good skater and appears to be sound defensively, but they probably won’t get much offense out of him. I thought that John Moore was very good except for the one turnover that ended up leading to the 2nd goal. He has size, moves very well, was good on the PK and his offensive instincts were better than I anticipated. Bakos was not bad, but there was nothing there that screamed NHL player.
I have seen a lot of people raving about Grizz and Cehlarik. I thought both were good, but not great. Grizz looks like he did last year, moves the puck very well and his positioning is good defensively, but once again, he was doing it against 3rd line competition. I’m not sure he would look as good vs Top 6 matchups? Would love to see him on the 2nd pair in some preseason games at least. Cehlarik made a couple of very nice passes, but he’s not a good skater and he needs to improve his compete/board play and use his size to greater advantage. The vision on the pass to Moore was excellent, but Moore did a phenomenal job getting the shot off because the puck was bouncing when it landed. Easily could have been a nice idea, but a failed opportunity.
I like Cehlarik, but who is he going to displace in the lineup? He’s not better than Marchand, DeBrusk, Pasta, Heinen, or Donato (imo). Then you have Backes, who will not be sitting and Cehlarik’s game is not suited for 4th line duties. When Bjork is 100% the B’s obviously think highly of him. I’m not even taking into consideration a possible Nash return at some point, which would force players down in the lineup. I just see so many guys in front of him, and he doesn’t appear to have the versatility of a Heinen or Bjork to play 4th line if need be.
The refs were pretty bad, especially at the end. That roughing call on Backes was the epitome of soft and then a bench minor for complaining about it (which was totally warranted). It was pretty obvious that they wanted the Chinese crowd to see some 3v3 OT hockey. I thought the call on Marchand was pure reputation. Hathaway appeared to be trying to instigate the whole game and he initiated this exchange as well. Marchand got his stick up (which is a bad habit), but if you watch, it’s on Hathaways’s chest, who then pushes forward to try to get to 63 and the stick rides up under his chin. Marchand had no intention of high sticking him, just wanted to waive the stick at him.
Hopefully, we see an even better effort on Wednesday from all.