It felt so good to watch Hockey last night.  It felt even better to watch a game with an unknown outcome, a game I haven’t seen before…and like Ramon said…”a game not from 1978″. 

There were a few guys who stood out last night, as expected.  A few for bad reasons, Sheldon Brookbank, and a few for reasons that there is nothing to say.  For instance, I don’t remember seeing Maxime Macenauer out on the ice at all.  The score box says 16:04 TOI, but I can’t remember :04.  Maybe that was just me.

So here are just a few thoughts about last night’s match up.

Matt Beleskey; I know we’ve seen him play a few NHL games, 2 to be exact, but he was all over the place.  There’s a damn good reason we’ve seen him before, and if needed (now’s the time to say a quick prayer to the Hockey Gods that it’s NOT needed), he’s got a great chance at getting called up again.  He’s got speed and physical presence out there.

Peter Holland;  He’s the youngest player on the roster right now at 18 years, having just been drafted in the first round/15th overall by Bob Murray, he showed why he’s at camp.  Holland had a few break away opportunities, and played great on both ends of the ice.  Seemed to be about 50/50 with his faceoffs, but overall a great first run.  I would love to have better stats for the kid, but he’s not on the boxscore sheet from last night.  Shame. 

Evgeny Artyukhin; he came out strong, made a big hit and gave Ducks fans something to cheer about for the first time in this young season.  His speed is no joke, beating guys to lose pucks and killing off potential icing calls seems to be a specialty.  Oh, and don’t worry about him getting pounded along the boards, he easily held his ground against two guys battling for the puck.

Timo Pielmeier; The Ducks might be looking at a Hiller in the making.  He’s got a great glove hand, held his own in the brief shootout, and played a solid game.

Luca Sbisa; I wish I had something more positive to say about him other than…he didn’t shine.  I was hoping to see him come out and play well, and I tried to pay attention to him while he was on the ice, but he just seemed to blend.  I don’t know if that’s because he was doing his job, or if it’s because he didn’t spark my eye.  During camp, I definitely felt as though there was a solid, confident player in his game…and I’m not saying that was missing, but I thought we’d see more from him.  Maybe as this preseason progresses and the troops get cut down to a stronger/professional size we’ll see what he’s made of.  I just don’t think we saw it in him last night.

Dan Sexton; he’s small, but he packs a bite.  You have to give the guy credit for giving 150%.  He also had the assists on both of  Bobby Ryan‘s goals.  I’d like to say there is chemistry there, but I think I could play with Bobby Ryan and the kid would still look amazing. 

Speaking of Bobby Effin Ryan.  He continues to leave me without words.  I hope the kid continues to point at his shootout goals when they go in the net like that. Loved it!  

It’s hard to take these preseason games too seriously.  The regulars aren’t playing up to par simply because, well, they’re playing with rookies who are doing all they can to show what they’ve got.  In the meantime, the rookies were doing just that, trying TOO hard to show what they’ve got. 

One thing is for sure, hockey is back and I’m more than excited to be there watching it LIVE.

Tonight’s roster looks a lil something like this:

Forwards:

Josh Brittain – Saku Koivu – Corey Perry

Kyle Calder-Andrew Ebbett-Teemu Selanne

Ryan Donally-Todd Marchant-George Parros

Matt McCue-Brandon McMillan-Shawn Weller

Defensemen:

Scott Niedermayer-Matt Clark

Mark Mitera-James Wisniewski

Ryan Whitney-Stefan Warg

Goaltenders:

JS Giguere

Justin Pogge

See you there! 

GO DUCKS!!!

Tweet This Post