[GDT] Young Stars Classic: 5PM MDT Flames vs. Oilers (Yay for hockey!)

[BACKCHECK!!!]

As someone who didn't see any of the development camp ice times, here are my (in many cases first) impressions of several players tonight. I focused on one player from each line or pairing for each period, but made note when someone else did something to stand out.

1) Really disappointed with Monahan's skating. I was expecting a guy who could skate but had maybe awkward stride mechanics or something. But his mobility, stability, and top end speed were all quite poor for a high 1st rounder. Definitely tempered my expectations of him.

2) Ramage looks very good offensively. He is an older prospect at this tourney, but unlike some of the other older guys, he was able to leverage that into performance.

3) Speaking of older guys, Taranto and Jooris both stood head and shoulders above the most other forwards. They really delivered, and I think they made Reinhart look good too. I was trying to watch Reinhart, but his wingers kept winning puck battles and making noticeably smart plays.

4) Kanzig's offensive production at junior level is so shockingly bad, I just couldn't imagine how he could ever be considered a legit prospect. Well, he went a long way towards changing my mind today. I still think he's a (very) long shot, but there is something about him. He was able to effectively use his size, but surprisingly wasn't able to outmuscle guys very often. However, he's still very young, and that's probably the one aspect of his game that I am least concerned about. An intriguing player.

5) Granlund was the best player of the night. Hands down. Looked how a pro playing at a prospect tournament should look. Very impressive. He might be NHL ready, or very close to it.

6) Hanowski has gotten a bit quicker over the summer. We know from experience that the rest of his game translates well to the NHL level, the only question is can he improve his speed (which was absolutely unacceptable) enough to make it in the big show? It doesn't look like it yet, but at least he's moving in the right direction.

7) Seiloff was adequate. Although he did show some offence, and also did a super-man dive straight into an oilers defenceman while on the rush, so that's a plus. I did not focus on him, but he stood out for a) putting the puck on net a few times, and b) trying to play the body but being overmatched by bigger and stronger players. That's not what you want to see from a young defenceman.

8) I noticed Tyler Wotherspoon twice all game. THAT'S what you want to see from a young defenceman. Nothing interesting happening when he is around.

9) Baertschi was not super impressive. By which I mean he looked like one of the Oilers forwards. By which I mean bad.

10) Knight is sound, but doesn't look NHL ready. A guy who wants an opening-day roster spot needs to be an undeniable impact player at this level, and he simply wasn't. Especially when he's one of the oldest guys on the ice.

11) Ferland has shown moments of greatness. Great effort, good hands, strength on the puck, etc. Hes looked good at prospect events before, but he looks like he's taken the next step. I almost wrote him off as an NHLer, but he'll force to reconsider if he keeps playing like this.

12) Kulak was... not good. Hopefully just a bad game, but he stood out to me in a bad way. I noted #61 a number of times, and none of them were good

13) Brossoit came as advertised. Evaluating goalies is pretty much all voodoo and **** anyways, but he looked good to me.

That's my 2 cents.

F*** the Oilers.

[flamesrule14]

I'll give some of my thoughts on the game.

Monahan- Got better as the game went on. Would have liked him to be a bit more noticeable, but even then he still found his way on the score sheet. Says a lot about him and his game when he isn't noticeable, but still finds a way to score.

Poirer- Really impressed with his willingness to go the net. And you can't argue with the results.

Knight- Really liked his two way game. Nothing outstanding, but just a solid game from him.

Baertschi- Expect more from him in a tournament like this. Bit disappointing.

Granlund- Really impressed with him. May have been the best flame tonight. He is definitely a guy that could surprise and force his way onto the team during camp.

Ramage- Probably the biggest surprise for me today. Thought he was really poised especially in the offensive zone. Will be very interesting to track his progress with the Heat this season.

Ferland- Really liked his game. Used his size and had a fantastic pass on Granlund's goal.

Hanowski- I really thought he looked good. Looked like he has worked on his skating and he didn't look awkward out there like he did to end the season with the flames.

Reinhart- Typical solid game that we expect from Reinhart. Looked most NHL ready to me today.

Taranto?- For an invite I thought he was pretty noticeable. Seemed to work hard and that line was a force all night.

Always nice to beat the Oilers. Shame I'm going to miss tomorrow's game.

[Cain]

Watched the whole game...a few things stood out to me that seems different than the previous few posters.

Knight: I thought he was one of the best players for the flames tonight along with Granlund. Smart player, and both he and Granlund seemed to win every draw.

Monahan: Looked ok. Not great. Not bad.

Granlund: Awesome game. Would like to see him continue this into the main camp and maybe turn some heads.

I agree Kanzig looked intriguing. I think he was trying to do a bit much sometimes but will probably settle down over the next year or two. Ramage, Sieloff and Wotherspoon all looked pretty good as well.

Reinhart also deserves a shout out. Solid game from him.

[Drury18]

Originally Posted by kingkahuna

I didn't see him on the ice at all at all in the third. He's proven himself against this level of talent already so it seems like the coaches are giving the other prospects a closer look which is exactly what they should be doing.

He has 25 NHL games under his belt, I'm not convinced that's "proof" at this point. Shown potential maybe, but not proof. When he's played 60+ games in a season showing consistency and growth, then yes it would be proof. I think the coaches are still making a decision about him as he's playing in this tournament. He could have been excused much like the pass they gave to Horak if he was a sure fire NHL'er going to be in the starting lineup. I don't think his spot is secured yet.

[Wastedyouth]

Originally Posted by Drury18

He has 25 NHL games under his belt, I'm not convinced that's "proof" at this point. Shown potential maybe, but not proof. When he's played 60+ games in a season showing consistency and growth, then yes it would be proof. I think the coaches are still making a decision about him as he's playing in this tournament. He could have been excused much like the pass they gave to Horak if he was a sure fire NHL'er going to be in the starting lineup. I don't think his spot is secured yet.

Sven has about as guaranteed a spot you can get.

[Freeway]

Horak's played too many games to be eligible to play here. He wasn't given a free pass.

[bc-chris]

hey guys

just got home and had a chance to go thru some pics.... enjoy....


looks like Ortio gets Leland's sloppy seconds...









































it was soooooooo sweet to see flames hockey again!!! i'm looking forward to tomorrow night! i hope the flames CRUSH the canucks!!!

for anyone wondering about seat availability - there were TONS of empty seats!! the sides were maybe 2/3's full and the ends were pretty much empty

for other cp-ers at the games - please feel free to come up and say, 'hi' - i'll be rocking an '04 regehr jersey at the games (i didn't see anyone else wearing a rege!) and i'll be doing my best to get lots more cool pics! the first period i'm usually in my actual seat (section 108, row 13). for the 2nd & 3rd periods we usually have the freedom to move to the ends behind the nets (so i can get some cool pics there!)


...oh.... a couple differences i noticed when comparing game 1 (flames/oil) and game 2 (nucks/sharks). for game 2, they had 2 zambonis - so the ice was cleaned a lot faster and was able to setup for probably 10 minutes before anyone skated on it (game 1, the ice had maybe 5 minutes to setup). i don't remember music at every stoppage in game 1. it seemed like in the canucks game there was a ton of really loud, really bad, music all the time. i might have been just more focused on taking pics in game 1 - who knows!

anyways - GO FLAMES GO!!!!!!!

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Great pics. Thanks!

[JurassicTunga12]

Awesome pics, bc-chris! Thanks for posting them!

[bc-chris]

no problem!!!

i hope to get my camera in for all the flames games.

[dieHARDflameZ]

Anyone else see the Shinkaruk cross-check on Mueller?

[StrykerSteve]

Ferland looked great out there.

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

Yeah, those are great pictures bc chris. I like the Granlund one especially. Just before his goal.

[jaymac106]

Great job Bc Chris, look forward to tonights pics!

[DSIM420]

I was at the game, sitting with BC-Chris, and I actually watched the game and didn't take pictures. Reinhart was an Oiler killer last night, he was our best player next to Granlund who you could tell played against men last year.
Monahan got better as the game went on. He had great vision on the ice.
Knight is going to be good. He is kind of like Tanguay where he is a pass first kind of guy. He had too really good chances to shoot and opted to pass.
Kanzig is Huge! He was the biggest guy on the ice and wasn't a slow big man. He was constantly jumping up in the offensive zone.
Jooris and Taranto were awesome. I like those guys always winning puck battles banging and crashing.
Poirer was always crashing the next or in the crease. He looked alright wasn't sure what we were going to get with him.
Ferland looked good, He was playing very well with Granlund.
I expected more from Sven but he played alright, him and Knight seemed to have some chemistry.

Overall I was quite impressed with the prospects we have. And considering Johnny Hockey and Jankowski weren't there, the future looks good.

Nurse didn't look very good last night, it was almost like he took the summer off. When he fills out he will be a big boy though.

[strombad]

Just as kind of an aside, it seems like most people were semi-disappointed with the players they assumed would dominate. Maybe that's a little bit more telling of our expectations rather than the actual performances of said players.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by StrykerSteve

Ferland looked great out there.

Hope he has a big bounce back year.

Was a guy everybody was very high of and then he got into off ice troubles and had a horrible start to last year (not focused/ poor conditioning).

If he came into camp focused and in good shape this season he may surprise some people at training camp.

[_Q_]

Just to add to everyone's analysis.

I though Monahan looked below average at first and improved to about average at the end. He didn't look great, but started to get a bit better as the game wore one.

Poirier I thought looked atrocious in the first and looked fairly dominant by the end. I like what I saw from him at the end.

I thought Granlund was awesome. So was Reinhart.

Baertschi looked uninterested.

Knight was so-so.

Gordon was surprisingly decent.

Kulak I thought had a poor game.

Seiloff and Wotherspoon were un-noticeable, which is good for defencemen.

Kanzig needs to work on his positioning and skating, but he's not too bad.

Brossoit made the saves he needed to.

Overall, great game by the Flames and as always, Oilers suck hard.

[Enoch Root]

Some thoughts from the game...

It was clear from the first shift, the Flames were faster and more talented. Whenever the Oilers brought the puck up ice, space was simply shut down in the neutral zone. The Flames' D (as a team) was dominant.

Offensively, the Flames' speed through the neutral zone forced the Oiler D to back up, allowing the Flames to enter the zone at will.

I thought the score, and the shot clock, flattered the Oilers. This was no contest.

Players that impressed me:

1) Ferland - dominant. Good speed, constant pressure on the forecheck, set up some nice plays and was physical. I thought he and Ramage were the best players on he ice.

2) Ramage - was everywhere.

3) Wotherspoon - as someone else said, nothing interesting happens under his watch. And his first pass is really good.

I liked what I saw from Kanzig, for an 18 year old defenseman.

Overall, was impressed with the speed and the drive to the net from the forwards as a group.

So, even with no Gaudreau, an uninterested performance from Baertschi, and a so-so performance from Monahan, the Flames completely owned the Oilers last night.

I was behind the Oiler bench and completely surrounded by Oiler fans. It was very quiet! In the third period, there was a scrum and a fight almost broke out. One Oiler fan yelled 'come on, GO - we have to win something!' That pretty much said it all.

[Enoch Root]

Oh, one other thing...

It was late in the period, the score is 3-1, and there is a faceoff in the Flames end. They put out Knight and I told the wife about faceoffs and how desperately the Flames need someone who can win key faceoffs and blah blah blah - could Knight do the job when he needed to?

He wins the draw clean, back to Culkin, who then buries a beauty past Brossoit. I laughed.