The End of Pre-Season

A sluggish start, letting the foot of the gas the second half, but still came out with the win.  At one point I mentioned Connor Rankin was the only one playing all 60 minutes.

The chemistry is starting to come together which is good, but gotta keep in mind the roster is still quite bloated and changes are a-comin'.  There's still five guys at NHL camps, who knows which of them will be back.  I think it's fair to assume Grist and Yuen will be back.  MacKenzie, as we all know, could be kept by the Sabres.  Shinnimin has moved on to the Coyotes main camp, which is great for him, but now places his return to junior in question.  Same with Patrick Holland--he's had a great stint with the Flames so far.  If those three do not return to junior, it would leave some mighty big holes.  However, there's some great talent ready to fill in.

I'm less worried about the defense as I was 2 weeks ago.  Dow's been lights out.  He's logging a ton of minutes and playing fantastically.  Additionally, he's the kind of player that's got speed and a small-ish stature so he's like a TJ Fast--he can go coast-to-coast and get in close to the net to chip in some greasy goals.  That's hot.  Riley Guenther has been playing well, he's got pretty good vision and size.  Justin Hamonic hasn't been unimpressive.  I haven't necessarily noticed him much--and that's a good thing.  Means he's playing well, not making glaring mistakes.  Like coach said in the paper yesterday, these young guys are going to be works-in-progress, which is fine, that's what junior hockey is.  Michal Plutnar had the best game I've seen him in, which is good, I was nervous for a while about his play.  Mitch Topping was one of the best additions to the team in the off-season--on the blueline and the looks department.

Ty Rimmer started the game last night and played well.  Comrie played the 2nd half of the game, did fairly well.  Since I'm not privy to coaching decisions, I don't know yet how that tandem will operate--will they split the games 50/50?  I think that's probably how they'll start anyways, and depending on how that goes, give Comrie more starts the 2nd half of the season.

So many talented forwards!!  I'm glad I'm not a GM who has to make those tough decisions.  What does the final roster carry, 14, 15 forwards?  Who I'd keep (in no particular order)

• Shinnimin (or Wilgosh if Shinny stays with Phoenix)
• Hughesman
• Stromwall
• Royer
• Rankin
• Williams
• Gutierrez
• M. Messier
• J. Messier
• Feser
• Holland
• Walter
• Bosovich
• Nickles

Obviously, that's with the current roster.  Bob may still have some trades in the works.  Personally I haven't been overly impressed with Nickles, but not unimpressed either, he's just kind of "meh" right now, he's got potential, just haven't quite seen it all yet.  I've only seen Walter in the one game so far, but I thought he had a decent game.  It looks like he's got some grit and skates well, so that's good.

Herald recap of last night's game.