The family and I took in the first practice and the scrimmage this morning. It was very exciting as it was my baby girls first hockey experience.
Thoughts:
Team C
Hamilton fits right in with what the Flames want from their defensemen. Big, fast, moves the puck quickly, not afraid to jump into the play, uses his body to separate the man from the puck.
Gio look's no worse for wear but, as others were saying, his wrister looks like a muffin out there ATM. I think he's just working his way back into it as he doesn't seem to be laboring or favoring it.
Nakladal and Wilson looked solid out there. I also thought Kulak played pretty good. Riley Bruce surprised me. He has some positioning gaffes but he is a much smoother skater then I thought he would be.
Andersson looks really good moving the puck forward and playing in the offensive zone. He played a 2 on 1 poorly in the scrim which lead to Monahan's goal. Also during practice they were doing a drill where the defenders had to skate backwards through the neutral zone and try and separate the attacker from the puck. Andersson looked very awkward skating backwards at full speed while the other defensmen seemed to have few troubles with it. He got beat wide both times.
Stajan and Jones were as advertised. I don't think that shocks anyone.
Klimchuck played with Stajan and Jones and fit right in. Smart 2 way player. Good speed. Sniped a goal past Hiller for Team C's first goal.
Arnold was OK today. He showed his strong 2 way game today. Nothing over the top, just solid.
Hudler and Bennett looked like they were having fun out there today. Bennett had a nice snipe from basically the same spot as Klimchuck to give team C their other goal.
Raymond played on a line with Bennett and Hudler and he looked out of sync with them. I was going to use the term "coasting" to describe what I saw from Raymond but that's not fair because you can see he's trying. He's just fighting the puck and making the wrong reads. Same stuff as last season, he's a square peg in a round hole.
Team A
Brodie was the best defender out there for team A. He was all over the place.
Engelland had some power play time. It was good for a laugh.
Johnson played a solid and simple game today. Didn't notice Wotherspoon much which I guess is probably what you want from young defenseman.
Monahan and Gaudreau were in fine form this morning. These 2 look like they're ready for the season to start. Monahan had a goal on a 2 on 1 and Gaudreau sniped one top shelf past Schneider I believe.
Ferland was very physical today. He almost put Hamilton through the boards at one point. Looked very good with Monahan and Gaudreau. Has the speed to keep up with them and uses his size to create space.
Granlund was OK today. Just a solid 2 way game. Tried to create a couple things but nothing ended up from it.
Jooris was flying out there today. He stripped a player in the neutral zone (didn't see who is was) and made a nice cross ice feed to send Agostino in on a break. Agostino deked Ortio out of his jock strap and slid it into the net. Poor Ortio didn't stand a chance.
Smith, Burke, Marchment, and Karnaukhov all played a very similar north/south game and did a great job of playing with energy and taking pucks to the net. Smith was playing very physical today. Karnaukhov is a pretty good stick handler.