That was fun. You definitely get your money's worth with this Marlies team and the size and atmosphere of the Coliseum.
That last period was way better than the second. The Marlies dominated, and kept their foot on the gas.
Impressive:
- Colin Smith: he's a bit feisty, but very focused and no nonsense in his approach.
- Viktor Loov: the Leaf stint went straight to his legs. He was on the whole game, blasting a nice goal in the first and picking up a semi-flukey second goal in the third when the Americans went with the extra forward on the powerplay. The play went on after the penalty expired and Loov banked a cross-ice dump in the neutral zone as he was heading for the bench to a winger who was too slow to pick it up and it drifted into the net. Very nice non-celebration on that play.
- Sam Carrick: had some nice brotherly moments with D'Amigo between whistles, and then some more aggressive jousty moments during play. Used his speed to good effect setting up Smith and Frattin with many chances. Assisted on a nice alley-oop play that Frattin backhanded out of mid-air for his goal.
- Rinat Valiev: lots of clean takeaways and shutdowns of rushes
- Zach Hyman: I think he's the Marlies Komarov. Kind of pesky and sneaky about it too.
- TJ Brennan: shooting on AHL goaltenders is too easy for him, and he is a smooth skater and handler. Not the greatest at positioning and muscling people off the puck though.
Not Impressive:
- William Nylander: first period was good, but he was uninterested after. His line was hemmed regularly with lost draws. His wingers were fine and there were several chances for the line, but I expected more from him. He carries the puck well and that wrister is pretty much unstoppable once he's below the dots, but seemed to have trouble at even strength. His assist came on a 4-3 power play snipe by Brennan.
- Andrew Campbell: the foot speed isn't there. Took a couple of costly penalties.
- Antoine Bibeau: it was a shakey two periods for him, and he couldn't seem to buy a scramble save on top of giving up a lot of rebounds early on. Settled in the third, but that was mostly because the offence put the game out of reach. Started soaking up the shots better in the third. Some of the goals were not on entirely on him though. One was when the ref allowed a Rochester player to literally shove him and the puck into the net. And three of them were on the powerplay on scrambles.
Other notables:
- Kasperi Kapanen: plays bigger than he looks
- Rich Clune: he has crazy eyes and his forecheck frightens me, expecting certain disaster for the defender.
- Tobias Lindberg: not really noticeable and kind of shy to go hard on the 50/50 pucks, but had a really good chance in the slot go just over the net.
- Frederic Gauthier: as advertised. Big and strong. Quiet game.
- Connor Brown: the foot speed does hold him back. He played on what appeared to be the 3rd line with Findlay and Lindberg.
- Nikita Soshnikov: solid mucker and skill option on Gauthier's wing.