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August 19, 2004

Bryan Bickell

Yesterday I mentioned Bryan Bickell in my posting. This guy has all the skills to be a dominant power forward in the OHL. He's got the size, and he's got the hands. It was good to see him score his first OHL hat trick last season against Mississauga. Unfortunately, he styles himself as a bruiser and he just likes to run around hitting people. He takes a run at defensemen after they've made their pass up the ice, which means that Ottawa players who pick up the puck and try to come back into the offensive zone have to wait for Bickell to get back on-side. He gets caught like this at least once per shift. If he played a little smarter he'd help himself and his line mates rack up some big points.

The great thing about junior hockey is that you see players progress and get better. So hopefully with an extra year of maturity, Bickell can fulfill his potential and show everyone why he was picked in the second round of this year's NHL draft. He should be getting people's attention with his scoring, rather than just relying on intimidating with his size.

1 comment:

Sid said...

I'd really like to see Bickell do well. He's from Orono (close to Kendal, where I grew up), and it would be great to have him get as far as he can. I agree that he needs to work on his hockey-smarts: he has the size and skill, and if he can overcome the Testosterone-poisoning (T-poisoning is seen in most of these guys, heck most male athletes . . .) I think he may do it.