Alright lads, here are my thoughts on day 2.
- Jersey situation still not fixed.
- MVP of group 2 was Mikko Rantanen and MVP of group 1 was easily Tyson Jost. Rantanen is becoming more like Blake Wheeler every day. His physical toughness with the puck was unbelievable, he out-muscled dudes with one hand in some of the drills. His mobility hasn't lost a step and his two-way game is up there with Landeskog's. Jost though was freckin' amazing and this isn't a hyperbole. He looked stronger, faster, and even more creative than I have ever seen him. I see that there were some tweets by Dario above about him walking EJ and yes he absolutely walked him. Not only that, but the guy has a snipe of shot that he could realistically be a 25 goalscorer in his prime. Tyson was absolutely fantastic today, easily the best player out there.
- Calvert was more flashy today and showed why the Avs brought him in. Actually that line of Compher/Calvert/O'Connor was very good.
- Which brings me to my next thought, I might seriously have to eat a crow on O'Connor. I don't know how Avs saw some talent here nor am I saying he will ever be an NHLer, but I have been extremely impressed by him since day one of prospect camp. He was one of the better players again.
- Compher was good.
- Kaut was also wonderful and showed why Avs grabbed him in the 1st round. Again there is some rawness to his game, but the offencive awareness is definitely up there with Jost's. Not only that, but his defencive game is so underappreciated.
- Shvyrev is looking a tad raw as well. He makes all these fantastic plays with the puck, but always does something wrong in the final third. He has a good shot, but fanned on some glorious opportunities today. Surprisingly, him and Greer have been by far the two most physical players at TC beside the defenders.
- Quite liked Barberio today and Alt made some nice plays.
- Wow, this team with Barrie is so different without him. Barrie is a wizard with the puck and definitely makes our team better (and I say this as not a huge Barrie fan). That D-pairing with Zadorov was very fun to watch, however it might be fun for other teams as well. Had absolutely no issues about big Z; it's hilarious because he's dishing out hits in a orange sweater, but nobody else can touch him (so unfair).
He got Rantanen on a good one today
- Kamenev was meh, better than yesterday though.
- Also not sure if Toninato will be on the final roster. Not saying he's a bust, but he hasn't really shined out at all and we have some legitimate players eyeing for that position.
- Do not like Nemeth - Cole pairing, however Johnson - Girard is very fun to watch. It's weird, but they compliment each other so well.
- Kevin Davis was quite good today.
- Ryan Graves should be one of the first cuts, complete AHLer for life.
- Josh Anderson could realistically have worse off puck skills than Duncan Siemens.
- The Nantel/Dickinson/Boucher line is definitely the worst line at training camp.
- The Jost/Kerfoot/Kaut line is so much fun.
- Lindholm was night and day out there for the better. Actually looked like an NHL defender.
- Now for the goalers; Varlamov was very good today (got hit like three times in the mask though) and would say he was tied with Martin as the best ones. I love Francouz compete level and Cannata is still cannon fodder. Grubauer was awful I thought, it looks like he's not really taking TC seriously IMHO.
- Everyone else was meh that they were not worth mentioning.
- Not sure what happened to Meloche, Warsofsky, or Boikov, but none of them have been here the two days.