Watching the Owen Sound@London Knights Game on Sports Net.
Within the first 3 minutes of the game your boy, Ryan Merkley, has already made a highlight-reel play defensively, diving to prevent a break-away when his D Partner made an ill-advised cross-ice pass that was intercepted. Fast feet and a perfect stick sweep knocked the puck away without tripping the attacker. Then on his next shift, he broke up a 2 on 1 with another great play with excellent patience & positioning. His play in his own end is looking so much better than at the beginning of the season. I see what Mark Edwards was talking about.
6:30 left in the First and Ryan with a nice block at the bottom of the circle and then breaks up a pass & clears the zone with a good outlet pass. Note that London is playing their 17-year-old rookie goaltender tonight and Ryan is also on the 2nd pairing. His regular partner is up on the 1st pairing, meaning that Ryan is being trusted to lead his pairing. so far so good.
Ryan was on for the second part of a Double Minor PK (First part was scored against). Ryan was directly responsible for 2 full ice clears, including 1 battle in the corner for a puck which he won and cleared himself against a larger winger, the other he tied up the winger and kicked the puck loose so his winger could clear the puck.
PP to end the Period, Ryan made a few nice passes which led to shots on goal and one nice rush in which he carried the puck all the way from his goal line to the opposition blue line and then set up the PP Unit. They almost scored twice as the period expired. Not to use hyperbole, but his skating with the puck looked a bit like Karlsson. I doubt he even knows what the puck looks like, he doesn't look down at all, just shifts around on his edges weaving up open ice.
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Opening the 2nd period the PP had 30 seconds remaining, Ryan set up one more scoring opportunity before it was over. Then at 17:29, Ryan sends a cross-ice knuckle puck backhand pass for a one time shot by his partner to score the Knights first of the game and the camera was filled with stuffed animals!!! It was Teddy Bear night for the London Knights, so it has taken about 15 minutes to clear the ice surface of about 10,000 stuffed animals lol.
After the ice was cleared, London spent a lot of time in the box the rest of the period. As for Ryan's play, I really watched for him to make a mistake so I could include some points for some balance in this Post. However, Ryan continued to play solid, making simple defensive plays regularly and even some smart ones when things didn't go according to plan (one situation where the ref got in his way and the winger was forechecking heavy, Ryan did a spinorama & passed to himself off the refs skate to escape the pressure - very nifty).
When Ryan was on the ice for goals against (2), 1 goal he was left to face a 3-on-1 and the Owen Sound Forwards played it well. The other goal against was an own goal where a Knight winger booted it into his own net and then tried to chop an Owen Sound Attack Forward's foot off afterwards.
Still waiting to see Ryan make a mistake defensively this game, and it's a pretty wide open pace, aside from the lull that followed the stuffed animal clean-up.
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About 3 minutes into the 3rd period, 5-2 Owen Sound and London is pressing. Ryan pinches and stays deep to hold it but his team-mate loses it and it goes for a 2-on-1 the other way and ends up in the net. It looked bad, but it's also possible that he was instructed to push being down by 3 goals, so I'll leave it for others to interpret. Another observation of Ryan from his own zone, he has a deadly no-look first pass. He regularly glances up ice as he skates back to retrieve the puck and then as soon as he cradles it, he spins and fires it right on the tape or catching a guy on the fly leaving the zone.
There's about 10:00 left in the 3rd Period & I have to take my little Gingers out to skate with their friends so my Post will have to end there.
Cheers
Edit:cleaned up some spelling & grammar.