It’s hard to take much away from a game where everyone’s running around playing unstructured hockey. This was a very different game from the previous two, and my impression is that it was dictated largely by the Jackets approach of looking for “gotcha” hits and using all-out forechecking pressure that you would never see in a pro game. A fight, penalties all over the place, guys getting their legs swept out and crashing into the end boards. The Canes top line noticeably reduced their ice time in the third period when the risk of injury became intolerable. Now the game is a bunch of grinders pressuring camp invitees into sloppy mistakes. It’s a weird thing to see a game like that in a summer rookie tournament, and tbh something I’d probably not be too happy about if I were a GM sending my top prospects to this thing.
I did like Bean’s game a little more tonight. He had an absolute ****ton of time with the puck and mostly made good crisp decisions. He’s got a deceptive little 3/4th slapshot that visibly whips his stick and causes an odd off-speed shot. Also, he’s going to get absolutely obliterated one of these days trying to back-step an NHL forechecker. Hammered into next week, possibly dead.
It’s been a while since I’ve been enthusiastic about one of our goalie prospects, but Helvig showed very well in this tournament. His lateral movement and play-reading are fantastic. I only recall one goal beating him cleanly in these three games, and that was a beautiful snipe. He’s definitely going to have to develop his puckhandling, because it’s pretty bad and will be exploited, but generally he seems like he has the potential to come into camp and show us something. Maybe a couple of years out, but he’s promising.
Other notes: Saarela shot a lot in the first period, like a guy who’s aware he’s being passed on the depth chart. Kuokkanen continues to not impress. Geekie/Matteos/Henman were generic roster filler, this being a missed chance to make their mark before the tourney ends. Roy and Gauthier were present but not very effective. Fora got walked a couple of times which is unsettling. Svechnikov continues a very uneven level of play, and it’s getting harder to tell if he just doesn’t want to turn it all the way on yet. Necas also had his ups and downs. None of the invitees have made an impression on me at all.
