Like the players, I need the exhibition games to get the rust of my hockey eyes, my note taking and blog writing. Trying to take notes and still watch is hard enough. Not having a game sheet to fill in the blanks doesn’t help. So this will be a brief summary of tonight’s game.
Ottawa changes:
Jamie McGinn (we now have to distinguish the McGinns as Ottawa traded for brother Tye) and Logan Couture remain at the Sharks main camp. And Radim Ostrcil and Adam Courchaine remain at the Boston main camp. Scratches for tonight were Thomas Kiriakou and Matt Ribeiro. Mike McLeod was called up as the back-up tender. Firecracker Zach Laroche has returned to his team after scoring in each of his 3 pre-season games with the club – including the game winning goal in Belleville last Saturday. There's a great story about this kid - click here to read it. Ottawa dressed 17 players including the newest acquisitions Tye McGinn (33) and Keith Wynn (25). Perugini started in net.
Kingston changes:
I really don’t know the team very well so I can’t really say how depleted they may or may not be as a result of players away at camp. Cory Emmerton (recently of Team Canada in the so-called Super Series) appears to still be at the Red Wings camp and Ben Shutron appears to be at the Blackhawks camp. (As a side note – I noted that Bryan Bickell is on the Blackhawks roster as well). Kevin Mole and Matthew Kang didn’t dress for the game. The Fronts dressed 19 players by my count. Daryl Borden started in net.
First Period:
I didn’t see the game last weekend nor did I read much about it on NOOF but some bad blood must have started there ‘cause the game sure started physical and chippy. I have no idea what started it but Justin Bailey and Kyle Bochek lasted all of 19 seconds. They started going at it at centre ice behind the play and, as provided in the rules for pre-season games, they each got 5-for-fighting and a game. And I was really looking forward to seeing how rookie camp with the Ducks (boo hiss) might have affected Jason. Oh wait – that’s it! A week with the Ducklings turned him into a Dirty Duck! Just not enough of a Dirty Duck to make the jump and he’s working on improving (!) that aspect of his game. That’s it! …. I digress. I’m not bitter…I’m not bitter…just keep repeating it…take a deep breath…move on.
The hitting and cheap shots didn’t stop there – it sure looked like Kingston was trying to settle some score. The ref was also a bit rusty and missed some obvious calls. Eventually Kingston settled down a bit as they found themselves on their heels in their own zone quite a bit.
Ottawa carried the first period – easily. By halfway through Ottawa was leading SOGs 9 – 2 although I wouldn’t call any of them real scoring threats. But the Fronts were pinned most of the period in their own end.
From my notes, Killer didn’t play too much with the lines. For the most part we saw Martindale centering Carnevale and Cowie; Lindsay centering Nesbitt and kid McGinn; and Latta centering McDougall and Methot. From what I recall, the D-pairings looked a lot like Wynn/Ryan; Cuma/Demers; and Paryzek/Gallea.
I couldn’t keep track of the penalties but Ottawa had a 5-on-3 advantage at the end of the period that they couldn’t convert. Despite out-shooting Kingston 20 – 4 in the first period, the game was knotted at 0.
Second Period:
Ottawa started the period on the power play and finally managed to score. It wasn’t particularly pretty but Tyler Cuma let one fly from the slot and it bounced around enough to go in the net – probably off a defender’s skate. Michael Latta and Keith Wynn got the assists. And then Ottawa got into a bit of a penalty hole. First Gallea was called for elbowing. During that PP/PK (depending on your point of view), Cody Lindsay and Kyle Paige got into a dust-up. While the Bailey/Bochek tilt was pretty much a draw, we gave the call to Cody on this one. Who knew he was such a testy character? As with the other guys, they were sent to the showers early. So both benches, already a bit shorter than normal, were shorter by two each. Kingston managed two shots on Perugini.
Not long after that, Michael Latta took a call for hooking and the 67s held the Fronts to 3 shots during that advantage.
Kingston finally got the tying goal at about the halfway mark. It appeared to me that the puck got carried into the net by someone when there were a whole lotta bodies in the crease. Chris was basically crowded out of any space to do anything. James Marsden was credited with the goal with an assist going to Stephen Francella. Not long after than Martindale was called for checking from behind. The PK was very strong – Demers blocked at least two shots by my count and no pucks got to Perugini during the advantage.
Tye McGinn restored the lead with assists going to Demers and Wynn. I didn’t really see it but I think it may have been another shot that pin-balled off a defender. The period ended with Ottawa up by 1, SOGs 30 – 22 for Ottawa, Ryan and Latta in the penalty box for Ottawa and Jonathan Sciacca for Kingston.
For this period the lines looked sorta like Martindale centering Cowie and Martindale or McDougall; Nesbitt largely centered McGinn with cameos by Gallea, Methot and Carnevale; and Latta centering whomever Killer threw out with him.
Third Period:
Ottawa started 3-on-4 for 16 seconds then played 4-on-4 for about 43 seconds and then 4-on-5 scheduled for about 50 seconds until Ottawa took another penalty (Wynn??) which put Kingston back on a 5-on-3 for 21 seconds and then on 4-on-5 for just over a minute. The 67s were doing a steller job of dealing with the short-handed situation – not allowing Kingston a single shot on Perugini until with 4 seconds remaining in the PK, Kingtson’s Francella scored with assists by Taylor Doherty and Cole Weedmark. It took Kingston over 3 minutes with the advantage to even get to the net but unfortunately that one got in to tie up the game.
Just as we were commenting among ourselves that Methot was trying to do too much himself, he was coming up the ice and trying to skate through Fronts to the net. He snapped one from the slot and scored! Guess we might have been wrong that time. Gallea and Cuma got the assists on that one. Then at the halfway mark, Latta capped the scoring with assists going to Methot and Demers. I stopped taking notes in the third so I could just watch the game and with all the penalties in the first part, trying to track lines was pretty pointless.
The game ended with Ottawa winning 4 – 2 and out shooting Kingston 46 – 31.
Thoughts:
- While the shots were high, there really weren’t that many real scoring chances.
That notwithstanding, the Kingston goalie looked pretty solid. Perugini looked pretty good too but I don’t think he had the same workout. - With the shortened bench, the rookies got a lot of ice time. They look like a good bunch. I expect that Martindale and Latta will land fairly regular shifts.
- Paryzek looked pretty good out there. There was one particular play, a PP I think, where there was a terrible miscue in the Ottawa zone. A Kingston player was able to step into the play and grab the puck in full stride. Paryzek read the play, put the breaks on and got back into the play to disrupt the short-handed scoring chance. I noticed a couple of other occasions where he really held his ground and stayed between the puck and the net.
- The team, even without 4 key players, is looking pretty good. Sure there were a number of miscues, fanned shots, missed passes and pucks that wouldn’t stick to the blade but there were a lot more good passes and good second efforts. And it looked like this crowd is ready to play physical. This could be a really fun year to watch.
- Wynn looked good out there too. Nice to see a big kid on the blue line who appears to know what he’s doing. I could see him giving directions to Paryzek when they were both on the ice.
So the season opens on the road with games against Barrie, Brampton and Kingston. We will be hitting the road to catch the game in Kingston. We’ll see what kind of rematch it is. Kingston will have the benefit of playing at home against Belleville on Friday and a rest day on Saturday.
Let’s see if it makes them at all better.
Good to be back!
Go 67s Go!
No comments:
Post a Comment