Pats won 3-2, Klimchuk with 1 assist and Reinhart with 1 assist
Klimchuk is a very well rounded player, he plays all three zones very well. Has very good speed and is never caught out of position(at least last night) His speed and positioning led to some decent penalty killing as well as some scoring chances. Is he going to be a high end NHL talent? No, I don't think so, what he will be is a very good 3rd liner with offensive upside who could be called up to the 2nd line. He will be a PK specialist imo with speed and positioning that is top notch. These types of players, although underrated are a very necessary part of any successful team and I don't feel he will be looked upon as a wasted pick by any means. we have all heard about how his teammates feel about him, this is something that cannot be taught but is inherent and he has this which will make him a good leader in and out of the room. He was on the Pat's 1st line PP, 1st line PK and was out there what seemed like the whole last 5 minutes of the game as they were holding onto the lead.
Reinhart, well I see many good things in his game and a few things that really bug me. First, he sees the ice very, very well, can find his teammates with ease. He has good speed, not high end by any means but will not be slow either. Of course we all know he is very sneaky and can find open ice to get off a good shot, this was evident last night. He seems to play a very good offensive game that should translate to a 1st line player or very, very good 2nd line at the NHL level. I don't see high end "elite" talent here though.
The bad that I saw. Some horrible giveaways trying to be way too fancy, two of these giveaways led to 2 on 1s and had they not been messed up by the Pats(Klimchuk) the score would have been very different. He tries at times to be too fancy with the puck where a more simple game is required, I saw a lot of this on the pp, times where he should have maybe used a teammate he tried some dipsy doodle plays that did not turn out and led to giveaways. These were not something like a guy getting in the lane and blocking a pass or shot, this was playing around with the puck too much and the turnovers were glaring!
I don't know if this is a regular occurrence for him but not succeeding at these types of plays tends to have me think he should stick with a simpler game and use his ability to find his mates as well as find the open ice. He should also know the PP requires a simple puck moving game. I mean if he thinks he is going to translate this type of play into the NHL I really think he needs to reassess his skill package. He is not high skilled in the way of a Crosby, Malkin, etc so hopefully he realizes this and works more on a simpler game. Maybe once he matures he will figure this out, he after all only 17 right?
I will note that I have been very firmly in the camp that thinks we should be doing whatever we can to get our hands Ekblad so was I tough on Reinhart? I don't think so and would be happy to have him on our team if he progresses and learns when he should be doing the dipsy doodle stuff. I think he does it so often that some teams are wise to it now and expect it, do it less and you catch the other team off guard and your chance of succeeding will be that much higher, especially in the NHL. My reason for wanting Ekblad over Reinhart hasn't changed because of this game, in fact it probably solidified my view, but more so because I think we need that high end stud d'man and the draft next two years will be filled with players who I think will be much better that Reinhart. And in all likelihood we will be drafting higher next year than this year and still be a high pick the following year thus getting us some pretty high end forward(s). We all agree that d'men take longer to reach their potential and is reason why I think we should be trying to get that top end talented d'man now so he can mature as we get our forwards in place the following two years.
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