A bit late but I managed to get out the game on Friday and, with it being a slow hockey weekend (does the all-star game even count?), I thought people might like a recap. Plus it lets me cosplay as a scout and who doesn't love that.
First a little about Texas, on paper they don't look like they should be that good a team, the only players that really seem to have NHL potential are Mavrik Bourque, Matej Blumel, and Thomas Harley, but the rest of the roster is solid AHLers and the team seems well coached with everyone buying in. They're playing good hockey right now, first in the division, have a good forecheck, and active defensemen who contribute a bunch of points. That all makes this a pretty nice win for a GR team that hasn't been great this season.
(I realized after writing out this next bit that the highlights basically cover it all so if you just want a link here are the
highlights, but I already wrote it out so it stays!)
GR started out a bit slow. It wasn't too bad, but the opening goal was a defenseman who skated in from the blue line down to the dots unchallenged with a clear lane to goal and beat Ned's glove with a slapshot. Someone must have lost coverage and instead of someone else shifting to challenge the Stars player they all just followed their men and actually opened the shooting lane. That was followed by a pointless hook at center ice from Hirose and then a trip from Hirose about 30 seconds after he stepped out of the box. The plus side is that the GR PK looked good. In particular the forwards did a good job of pressuring the puck both in defensive zone and the neutral zone. I thought Pearson had a couple really good shifts and then Czarnik and Hanas did a great job to get a shorty with good O-zone pressure (and a bad Khudobin turnover). GR had a bit of momentum after that and got a second goal a few minutes later from a rebound off a shot from the top high slot (Elmer did a good job screening the shot and was very quick to the rebound to get the goal). That made it 2-1 after 1. Texas tied it up in the second off a bad D-zone turnover and a nice high blocker shot. The Stars were generating pressure, but Hirose did a good job forcing a Stars turnover and then finished off a nice goal by that forward group. GR started the 3rd up 3-2 with a powerplay. Hirose had a nice quick shot off rebound to open the period and GR didn't look back, chipping in 2 move empty netters to end the game.
So the more fun part, thoughts on players.
Edvinsson: Didn't make a whole lot of flashy plays or passes (though there was one nice move when Texas was being too casual in the neutral zone). What did stand out was that he seemed to be on the ice a ton (I wouldn't be surprised if he was 25+ minutes) and that the team seemed much more stable when he was out there. He was also the player who jumped in with some aggression when Hanas was hurt because of a boarding penalty. This GR team doesn't seem to have a ton of grit and Texas was definitely taking liberties in the 2nd, so seeing someone push back was nice.
Vrana and Zadina: They were pretty much invisible. I think this was Zadina's first game back and they got on the scoresheet a few times the next night, but neither had a great (or really even good) game Friday. Only thing that did standout was that Vrana is still a next level shooter. He had one play where he got a little separation and just ripped a wrist-shot, quick release, lots of pace, and decent placement (I think high glove, but my memory's a bit fuzzy here), just better than 99% of the wrist-shots you'll see at the AHL level.
Soderblom: Did a nice job on the goal but not great otherwise. He's obviously noticeable just for his size and he's clearly got good hands, but seemed to struggle to generate possession. I can remember one play along the boards where the Stars player took a wide path to the puck to avoid him and Elmer did a good job to position himself and win the puck, but otherwise there wasn't much forecheck pressure and there was a lot of poking and hoping to pickup a loose puck. I think I'd like him to engage more physically.
Nedeljkovic: Had a pretty good game. Struggled a bit with puck control, but positioning seemed pretty solid. One thing that stood out was that he seems to give up a ton of space high glove and he seems to trust his glove a bunch. He did get beat glove side once , but also made a couple nice glove saves. The Stars were definitely shooting glove, though I'm not sure if that was the plan or if they just saw the space and went for it.
Johansson: Didn't have a great game. Nothing too bad but only really noticed him a couple times when he was stuck in the D-zone, so not great.
Hirose: Deserves a mention, though we've all seen him a bunch. He seems like a bored 'tweener to me. He's clearly a little too good for the AHL but not quite good enough to be a skill guy at the NHL level. I think this leads to things like taking a couple sloppy penalties (I think he got stapled to the bench for a good bit after that), but then from the 2nd on he had a solid game, and a few really good shifts.
Otherwise not much notable, except that Newpower, who was paired with Edvinsson and also had a solid game, hates having to wear a cage. I'm not sure what happened that he has to wear one, but he was constantly annoyed with it.