Cole Caulifield
Registered User
- Apr 22, 2004
- 27,967
- 2,465
I went to the game last night, mostly to watch McCarron but also of course to check out a few other top drafted and prospect players.
Regarding McCarron,
- he played Centre the entire game. No RW at all.
- his lack of scoring on the Generals since his trade there is not because he is on the 3rd or 4th line with scrubs. His left-winger all game long was Tobias Lindberg, Oshawa's 2nd leading scorer (4th-round pick from Sweden by Ottawa Senators in 2013), and his right winger was Brent Pedersen (5th round pick by Carolina in 2013). He also got a lot of 4on4 or 4on3 time with Dal Colle late in the game.
- he got a lot of ice time, especially in the 3rd and overtime. In the 3rd period when Oshawa was down 2-0, the 67s had a run of penalties and I'm pretty sure Dal Colle and McCarron both played the entire first 2 minutes of the first penalty before McCarron (first) went off for about a minute before coming back on again when the next powerplay turned into another 5 on 3.
- I was impressed by his hustle all game long. He had "jump" in his game, especially on the forecheck. Guy moves really well for a big guy. I recall reading that he dropped a few pounds for this season, and it looks like that has helped.
- his winning goal in overtime was a nice shot. He was set up all alone on a 2 on 1 by Dal Colle, and he took his time to snap a shot low glove side from about 15 feet out.
Overall I was pretty impressed by McCarron. I saw him play live once last year with the Knights against Kingston and there just wasn't much to take notice of back then other than his size. Last night was watching someone being far more involved and consistently contributing to the play, especially in the offensive zone on the forecheck, moving the puck along the boards, and going to the front of the net.
Thank you for taking the time to write down your thoughts for us.