I was at the game and boy was Ullstrom flying all over the ice,!! Grabner wasn't far behind him.... Considering Martin set the tone with his fight to start the game then scored that break away goal, he deserves it as well...... I couldn't decide on one, so i voted for all three of them... Ullstrom, Grabner and Martin!! I'm excited for all three of them typo have really good seasons!!
grabs - clocked lots of minutes when we were playing our best, great chemistry with nielsen, and much more calm and collected.
martin - how could you not love him?
aucoin - domination in the faceoff circle and how does he win so many puck battles along the boards with his size?
hamonic - what a biest, soooo confident.
ullstrom - his best game - ever!
Streit - sure he's great in the offensive zone, and i like what he does defensively at times, but he does attract bad situations around the crease.
JT- has all the skills. Points will be dropping around this guy, while he continues attracting lots of coaching attention from the other team. Good for him that he could rely on his team mates this one game. And they played as a team!
Voted for Grabner, played a great game. Ullstrom is making a name for himself, he's like a bigger, stronger, grittier Grabner. Tavares looks a big off, and still gets 2 assists and first star of the game. Once he is ON, he's gonna be the player of the game, every game.
I voted Ullstrom because I feel he did the most with the amount of ice time he was given. Grabs played VERY well, but I really like David Ullstrom's game. He's been percolating in BP, now he's producing on the Isles. Great stuff to see. Would like to see him get more ice time. I think he'd rack up goals playing with Bailey and Okposo.
Grabner easily. 4 breakaways with 1 goal and he also had a HUGE play on the PK getting the puck out of the zone when Nielsen had no stick which led to JT being able to spring a pass on Martin out of the box
I don't get how you list players, Hamonic should be an option in my opinion. Best forward the past 2 games have been Grabner and best defenseman has been Hamonic.
Grabner for sure. I noticed TB defensemen acting a little overly cautious when Grabner was out there. And on the PK, opposing power play D just can't make a lazy, careless play around him...because if he gets the puck, he's off and 5 strides ahead of you after you take 2 strides. Really refreshing to see since the Isles really have had alot of slow as molasses players over the years. And Grabner struggled last season...I suspect partly due to injury. I can remember him early in the season, playing well and generating opportunities...but then once he suffered that groin injury, he came back and just seemed to be in a funk.
Aucoin would get my honorable mention. Whenever I heard his name over the past few seasons (and of course, his name sticks since he's got the same name as Adrian), I just figured he was just some AHL scrub. But I can just see that he's actually incredibly talented. Great passer and great vision out there. It's just his size that has probably prevented him from being an NHL regular. But he looked good with Ullstrom and can definitely feed him the puck.
