First Scrimmage of 2009/2010 Season

Team B defeated Team A 3-0 in the scrimmage this morning at the Mellon arena. Play was fairly even, but the goaltending kept the white team off of the board. Scoring for the black team included Jordan Staal as he jammed it home from the paint. Also, Matt Cooke deflected a slap shot by Robert Bortuzzo from center point. And Wade Brookbank added an empty netter to seal the victory. Fleury and Thiessen kept the pucks out of the nets, as white did apply some significant pressure at times, especially Malkin’s line.

::Black::

Cooke-Staal-Dupuis
Tangradi-Smith-Connor
Brookbank-Vitali-Veileux
Bayda-Moon

Gonchar-Orpik
Lovejoy-Strait
Depres-Bortuzzo

::White::

Fedetenko-Malkin-Kennedy
Rupp-Adams-Goddard
Haddad-Zabotel-Peterson
Sill-Boogard

Eaton-Letang
Lee-Engelland
D’Aversa

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Quick Hitters:

- Kennedy looked really good on a line with Malkin and Fedotenko. He is relentless, and his play seems to keep on improving from year to year. I know it’s been only two days into this year’s camp, but his addition to that line has been tremendous. He is a tireless worker and understands how to play with Malkin and Feds. This could be a great line combination.

- Can you imagine? We are going to be discussing ‘Can we get a winger for Staal?’ by the end of this year…

- Speaking of Staal, he certainly put on weight over the summer and is looking to improve on his past performance. His line with Cooke and Dupuis looked pretty good together, scoring 2 of their team’s 3 goals today. Maybe this is the year that Staal has 30 goals.

- Scary collision with Cooke and Letang. It looked like an inadvertent knee on knee with Cooke applying pressure on the forecheck. Luckily, Letang was able to get up and skate fine after staying down for a few moments.

- Eric Tangradi looked solidly average today. He is a great presence in front of the net when he has a chance to get there, but he remained a peripheral player today. He just had a tough time getting anything going.

- Kevin Veilleux has a lot of people who believe in his talent, myself included. He has great shot and scoring touch. But including the prospect games this past week in Kitchener, and today’s scrimmage, he just isn’t getting himself in scoring position. He has definitely sealed his fate as to going to the AHL. At this point, he needs to show that he deserves playing time down there.

• Gonchar/Orpik definitely looked like a top defensive pairing out there.
• Bortuzzo continues to impress with his defensive zone play and his scoring
• You know, Rupp Adams Goddard didn’t look all that bad…
• Just don’t see the veteran Brookbank making the team. A step slow.
• Tomorrow’s scrimmage is at 12:15 at Mellon. Well worth the price of admission (free)!

Posted in: pre-season