AT: What a great game. In the main game we saw some fantastic play from UND's Brock Nelson, incredibly strong play from Notre Dame's Anders Lee who scored 2 goals and was going hard all night and very strong goaltending from Sweden's Anders Nilsson. The most notable for me was Ryan Strome. Strome scored 2, one on a penalty shot and another later in the game on an incredible slapshot from the right. He has truly shown why he deserved to be picked 5th overall and is going to be a major part of this organization's core for years to come. Not to mention his dazzling highlight reel goal in the breakaway competition which I will get to in a second.
The game was also rife with "Vote YES" advertisements, one of which was from Clark Gillies, another from Boomer Esiason as well as a general commercial on why losing the Coliseum would be a terrible thing for Long Island. There were also statements from Wang and Snow during the game on why we need to invest in order to grow. Great job by the Isles to be stepping up their PR campaign.
Lastly, there was the skills competition. Matt Donovan showed why he is on a quick pace to be in the NHL next year with his 95MPH slapshot. Strome had a ridiculous spin around goal in the breakaway competition and Anders Nilsson stopped 6/6 shots in the relay. All in all, all of our prospects showed their talent off beautifully and we saw some lesser thought of players show why they deserved to be picked by the team. A great game, a great job by the Isles media crew to stream the game for free, and a great night.
CH: I was at the game and was able to stay in the season ticket holder's lounge (thanks to my cousin), so I was able to watch the game right up against the glass. Obviously, from that angle it is very hard to see plays develop, but with players right in front of your face, it was very easy to see skill sets of certain players, so just going to go down the list here (mostly on the blue team, with some white):
Calvin de Haan looks incredibly more refined as a player now than he did when he was drafted. His skating was outstanding, he looks filled out, made smart defensive plays, played physical in front of the net and the boards. Though he was offensively hesitant, towards the end of the game he seemed more confident with the puck and scored a goal. Definitely needs a year (or a half year) in Bridgeport, but he's got the potential to be a very good defenseman.
Brock Nelson and Anders Lee were dominant for the white team. Both of these players have outstanding hands and an outstanding nose for the net. Every shift it seemed like they were cycling behind the net or whacking away at rebounds in front of the goalie. They really had great chemistry. This was the first time I saw Lee play, and came away very impressed by him. Nelson looked ten times better this year than last year - way more confident, more filled out. Given his size, another year or two at North Dakota and he will be able to make an impact at the NHL.
Ryan Strome has an outstanding skillset. He's skating, stickhandling, shot (as we saw on that blister), vision, and hockey sense are all high-end. He did not dominate, but rarely do we see a first round talent dominate these - Tavares and Niederreiter did not. Obviously, his move in the shootout sticks out move, but his overall skillset is top level. He needs another year in junior to fill out and get stronger, but he should be ready to go next season.
Nino Niederreiter looked decent this year, but really did not have a lot of chemistry with Ryan Strome and Kirill Kabanov. His skating improved somewhat, but he certainly is not fast. Nino is going to have to get a little stronger as well, as being knocked down on the boards by Rhett Rakhshani was really not good and against stronger NHL players, he will suffer as well. This is only a one game scrimmage, so not much to take away from Nino other than that he has great skills, but it just wasn't his night. The same really goes for Kirill Kabanov, who is a very good skater but really didn't put it all together last night.
Of the goalies, Anders Nilsson was absolutely outstanding. People have been touting this guy up for a year, and you can see why. He is big, both tall and filled out. He is extremely mobile in net, and showed it in the skills competition stopping all 6 shots from close range. You could even see Casey Cizikas skate by and say "It's impossible!" Nilsson has a very bright future ahead of him, and the combination of him and Kevin Poulin in Bridgeport next year will do wonders for that team - who sorely needs quality goaltending.
Obviously, that is just a glimpse of what we saw last night. It was a fun night that really gets you excited about the future of this team.
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