How was Little? I've always been a big fan of him and I see that he scored two points. How was his overall game? God knows we need him to make a comeback now that Kovy is gone.
OK children, go get some kool-aid and cookies and come back in about 15 minutes.... I have tons of notes, I wonder if they match up to the professional writers?
HOCKEY IS BACK! We lost on the scoreboard, but I'll let you know what things looked like in a few minutes.....
In the meantime, go watch Toronto get hammered on NHL Network..
just got back...don't worry about the score guys, it's just the preseaon
kulda and zubarev both looked decent. they both made some good plays and some less than stellar ones. i'd say kulda is nhl ready, zubarev could use a little while in the ahl to get acclimated to the NA style.
pettersson was absolutely fantastic. nothing but good things to say about him. wherever the puck was, so was he, either handling it or making a play on it. even his penalty wasn't that bad, easy mistake for a guy playing for a job to make. he's on our team this year.
machacek was pretty physical but didn't really wow me as much as i hoped
paquette was a nasty *******. he was in peoples faces all night.
valabik was god awful. you could tell he hadn't played for a while.
little was our 2nd best player next to pettersson. their line was the only one that consistently did anything.
burmistrov made some good plays and showed some heart but i gotta believe he isn't sticking this year. just not totally ready to play with the big boys yet.
kane seemed pretty frustrated all night. seemed like he was having a hard time getting the puck to do what he wanted it to.
those are the guys i payed the most attention to, nobody else really wowed me much.
just got back...don't worry about the score guys, it's just the preseaon
kulda and zubarev both looked decent. they both made some good plays and some less than stellar ones. i'd say kulda is nhl ready, zubarev could use a little while in the ahl to get acclimated to the NA style.
pettersson was absolutely fantastic. nothing but good things to say about him. wherever the puck was, so was he, either handling it or making a play on it. even his penalty wasn't that bad, easy mistake for a guy playing for a job to make. he's on our team this year.
machacek was pretty physical but didn't really wow me as much as i hoped
paquette was a nasty *******. he was in peoples faces all night.
valabik was god awful. you could tell he hadn't played for a while.
little was our 2nd best player next to pettersson. their line was the only one that consistently did anything.
burmistrov made some good plays and showed some heart but i gotta believe he isn't sticking this year. just not totally ready to play with the big boys yet.
kane seemed pretty frustrated all night. seemed like he was having a hard time getting the puck to do what he wanted it to.
those are the guys i payed the most attention to, nobody else really wowed me much.
I agree with this. Was really pleased with Pettersson and Little. Kulda was solid. I did not notice him to much, which I believe is good for a defenseman. I noticed Boris and Hainsey a lot. Both disappointed me. I was hoping to see more from Dawes.
OK.... you could see things as early as warm-ups. Pavs was very rusty. Terrible low stick side. Burmistrov and Pettersson spent a lot of warm up time puckhandling thru all the big bodies. Was kind of cool and I'm sure the bigger guys wanted to squash them.
Kane, Little, Hainsey wore "A's"
Eager wore #21 instead of 55.
Pettersson reminded me of Marty St.Louis when I first saw him. Small but you could tell he could handle himself. Burmistrov was bigger than I expected to see. Dawes looked like Jordan Tootoo sizewise. He's a tank.
Rissmiller is bigger than Boris. Not taller, but "huge-r." Same with Aliu. Boris looked skinny.
More on them later.....
Pre-game attendance was similar to last yr. regular seasons Sadly tho, we counted 89 people in the club side 10 mins. before gametime and about 50 upstairs behind the goals. It probably filled to about 2500-5000 tonight. I'm not good at est.
OK.... now for the game run-down...
Burmi won the opening face off and we dumped the puck in the zone. Then it was all Columbus for the next 10 mins. They came right down and tried to cycle....but Pettersson said, "THIS AIN'T YO DADDY'S THRASHERS" and he put an end to the cycle by clogging the boards and coming away with the puck. Awesome to see after last year.
We couldn't get the puck over their blueline with control. Had to dump but it seemed we were dumping before their guys were even on us so it really didn't amount to anything. Then the forwards and a D-man would chase and they had breakout after breakout. It was a shooting gallery on Pavs. He made 2 good saves but got beat twice in like 20 seconds.
Boris was VERY weak. He gave up pucks and lost puck battles. He gave up a 3-on-1 by not clearing our zone. Everyone else took off. Zubarev had to clean up his messes often.
Their first goal, Aliu fell down and the point man stepped up and fired a shot that was deflected down and in. Goal 2 was a Kari Monkey shot from the corner. Their guy rode a weak Hainsey into Pavs and the puck dribbled in from a terrible angle.
By now, our new system looked worse than JA's system because they were taking Ramsay literally when he said he wanted 4 guys rushing. We gave up TONS of odd man rushes and it was also a mess because the guys were really concentrating on making shift changes every 30 seconds regardless of where the puck was!
Commodore owned Pauquette and could have beaten the crap out of him but he just ragdolled him around and gave him some nuggies. Looked like Pauquette asked for the bout, but it was useless.
We went on the PP twice in the first. The first one never got set up. The second, we scored with Little-Dawes-Pettersson (FLY from now on). Fly shot a loose rebound and then Litts picked up the garbage in the high slot and wristed a high hard one for the goal. Nicely done.
Outshot 11-10 in the first, but at least we were shooting after the first half of the period.
2nd period....pretty rough around the edges on both ends. They scored when Boris couldn't get skating and got beaten on a pretty ordinary play. It turned into a breakaway goal. Only other stuff that happened in the 2nd.....the Fly was amazing on the PK. He's so low to the ground and was on top of the puck all over our zone.
Burmi almost got Kaner killed by tossing a breakout pass at him right when both D-men had closed on Kane at center ice. Terrible play and when Burm went to Kane to apologize, Kane just patted him on the shoulder. Kane worked his butt off all night and looked like a Captain.
Outshot in the 2nd....10-5. Burmistrov started making some awesome tape to tape blind passes but the receiver had no clue what to do with the puck! We had no finishers.
3rd Period....surprised that Pavs played the whole game. Maybe to save McIntyre from getting drilled. Pavs gave up 2 more craptastic goals to finish the game off 5-2.
Our second goal was a very pretty effort on the PP again. Slapper from the top center of the ice ping-ponged over to Little on the right edge of the goal. He made a cross-crease pass to wide open Pettersson for the open-netter.
Burmistrov later made a beautiful pass for a point shot and he flew in and just missed high corner for a goal attempt.
Aliu also missed a rebound tapper (whiffed). Then Pettersson was robbed low glove from Kovy's old faceoff dot shot.
Those were all of our real chances in the third.
Their 4th goal was a great Valabik screen on Pavelec
The 5th was a school session on their PP. Hainsey was the only real PK'er on the ice and they had 3 rebounds with no interference from us.
Final 5-2.
OK, next....a rundown of what we saw from players.... gotta rest the fingers a minute!
OK, I have to totally disagree on Kulda. He could not handle the puck on the blueline. Time after time he lost control or couldn't trap it in and it didn't help us. He also got beat several times in puck battles. I just don't think he looked very good compared to where he finished last year. He also couldn't hit the ocean with his point shots.
Valabik should be in Chicago getting his head screwed on. He is BABY HUEY. Big, soft, and not really hockey smart at all. He was so tentative and yet he wasn't even able to play safe when he definitely wasn't being aggressive. He was a traffic cone to the extreme tonight.
I was impressed with Zubarev. Nothing flashy but he was always back and not beaten. He had to cover for Valabik on a 3 on one and a 2 on one that I saw. He kept the puck in the O-zone a couple of times that I paid attention too also. I think he was what I expected of Kulda.
Milk Carton boys:
Holzapfel - did he even show up? Stewart - see Holzapfel. Eager - I kept waiting for a "Boulton" type effort and saw nothing from him. Dawes - He had a guy lined up for a big hit at the blue line and Dawes was the one that got the worst of it. Without Little on his line, he was ordinary. Sifers and Meyers....."Freddy's Dead.....That's what I said"
Both took simple open slapshots that lead to rebound goals, but everything else that they did totally sucked. And both are midgets......see ya.
Worth another look: Aliu - didn't lose any puck battles, tried to create a few rushes. With the newness of everyone, he didn't gel with anyone. Rissmiller - unfortunately, he was a savior in the first period. He cleared our zone, settled the game down and literally just skated over people to get to the puck or front of the net in the O-zone. Machacek - He's 4th line all the way, which we probably don't need, but he was like Jimmy Slater without the offensive chances (and without falling). He made the biggest hits all night, all over the ice.
Burmistrov - my take was that as he settled down, he made some beautiful passes but guys weren't ready to make plays off the passes because there was just no way that anyone thought the puck was actually coming to them. The guy is a stud when he has some room. I'd like to see him with a couple of regulars and Enstrom and Bogo at the points.
Pettersson - Great Goobly-Goops! I was looking forward to watching him from all the hype, but I did not expect to see what he brings! Everytime he was on the ice, you noticed and sat on the edge of your seat. Then when he went off, you could relax and sit back again. The guy is all over the ice! On his goal he was in constant motion and went with the puck, behind the net, passed to the point, back behind the net while the shot was taken, then to open ice when Little got the rebound for the pass and goal. (Did that make sense?) You HAVE to go down and see this guy play. He was like Sergi Samsonov with the puck but didn't hold it as long (tho he probly could). He is so quick with his hands! My favorite player!
Little looked great. Got to open spots and was hooked on a breakaway in the 3rd.
Kane was very strong. He was much faster than linemates and they couldn't keep up with him (mentally that is). Burmistrov started to groove late in the game but it was too late.
Hainsey was Hainsey. Nothing incredible. Nothing Captain-like.
If I remember any more stuff, I'll add it later.
Kane learned the shirt tuck from Kovy. Pettersson does it too. Strange that's the last thing I remember! And Colby Armstrong's wonderful Loafs got drilled and shut out to boot.
Last edited by ThrasherMinion: 09-21-2010 at 11:03 PM.
Just got back - My ratings for our players on a 1-10 scale.
Pavelec - 5 looked a bit jumpy, defense was terrible in front of him though, was screened all night. At least 2 goals were deflections.
Hainsey - 4 Got better as the game went on but looked like he was fighting the puck all night.
Valabik - 2 Slow, out of position, behind the play, nervous.
Meyer - 3.5 very rusty but showed some heart.
Sifers - 2 kinda lost in the shuffle.
Kulda - 6 pretty solid but made some rookie gaffes. Positionally played well.
Zubarev - 4 looked ok but needs some AHL time.
Holzapfel - 3 Lousy on faceoffs, Seemed very tentative about shooting
Burmistrov - 5 had some flashes but still needs some seasoning.
Machacek - 5 Decent game but still looks like AHL material.
Rissmiller, Dawes, Eager, Aliu - 4 They were all on the ice but did nothing to stand out
Paquette - 2 Pretty awful all around especially that fight with commodore.
Pettersson - 7 Bright spot of the night, solid all around game
Kane - 6 played tough, nice passing, definitely not afraid to shoot. Looked like he just didn't gel well with anybody else out there tonight.
Little - 7 Spirited solid game, looked more like his rookie year around the net. Seemed to be chatting a lot on the ice, looked like future captain material.
We were definitely outworked 90% of the night. The defense was terrible with the 1st pass out of our zone which led to turnovers a plenty. The Ice looked very bad. The Ice girls looked very good.
Hainsey: The same constant liability he has been since he showed up here. Constant pinching, weak in his own end, shooting into shinpads, took a terrible penalty.
Valabik: Somehow worse than Hainsey. Lost the puck to the forecheck twice, didn’t throw his body around, very little agility.
Kulda: Decent game, probably the best D on the ice. Surprisingly good shooter.
Zubarev: Possibly the most fluid skater I’ve ever seen, pretty good out there.
Sifers: Weak in his own end, but paired with Hainsey so he gets a pass.
Freddy Meyer: Definitely a 6 or 7 dman in the NHL, showed he was a veteran but nothing too spectacular.
The G
Pavelec: Still flopping around and giving up huge rebounds, tons of holes in his coverage, bring on MacIntyre. The D didn’t do him any favors, but he was terrible in his own right.
The F
Pettersson: Great game, had instant chemistry with Bryan Little, absolute rocket of a shot, quick reaction times, almost a lock to make the team.
Little: Absolutely FLYING out there and effective in all ends. He’s due for 60+ points in a big way.
Stewart: Looked pretty good, had a few big hits, very responsible player.
Aliu: Looked snakebit, not very sharp about responding to the play in the offensive zone, kind of got in the way more than he helped. Did not throw the body around.
Dawes: Great when he had the puck, terrible when he didn’t. Demolished himself when he tried to hit a big guy at one point skating full speed.
Machacek: Very noticeable when he was on the ice, solid neutral zone forechecker but not a lot of offense.
Eager: Tons of speed and a couple nice hits, decent with the puck as well.
Burmistrov: Good speed, innate ability to avoid getting squashed, couldn’t break through the forecheck.
Rissmiller: Didn’t notice him.
Paquette: A year in the AHL and he’ll be ready. Quick, angry skater with solid puckhandling. Will be a super pest someday.
Kane: Great top speed, solid shot, masterful along the boards in the offensive zone. Was pushed awkwardly into the boards in his own end, seemed to injure his shoulder. Got up slow, stormed off the ice, slammed the door and headed down the tunnel. Came back and finished the game without missing more than a shift or two. Maybe dislocated his shoulder?
Holzapfel: Didn't notice.
The Blue Jackets
Tenacious, energetic forecheck with size to boot. Pushed the smaller Ds around all night, especially on the late powerplay goal.
Game was uptempo and their neutral zone forecheck was almost impenetrable… dump the puck or lose the puck were the only options for Atlanta tonight, and we mostly chose number two.
None of their players seemed to stand out in particular, just a very solid, cohesive system of quick skaters that never stopped moving their feet.
Great to hear Little and Petterson looked good, sounds like they should stay together to start the year. Do not get all worked up about it like some people have, it is the first pre-season game, we lost without most of are good players, big deal. I am a little nervous that Pavs was terrible, hopefully Mason is in form, because Pavs is not right now forsure. I would predict the only players that played tonight that will be on opening night roster is, Little, Petterson, Kane, Eager. Daws, Machacek and Rissmiller are all on the buble. The main point being only 3-4 of are top 9 forwards dressed. Hainsey sounds terrible, Boris may loose his 7th spot to Kulda, Meyer, Zubarev, although a lot of you said all 3 of them did not look like anything special either. It's one game lets see what happens Saturday, and more importantly around the end of the preseason when we have close to are team playing in games.
i am not too worried about bad performances due to how long guys havent skated in a game. it makes a huge difference. Guys looking really good however is great to hear.
Sadly tho, we counted 89 people in the club side 10 mins. before gametime and about 50 upstairs behind the goals. It probably filled to about 2500-5000 tonight. I'm not good at est.
