My son and I drove up to Hershey yesterday for what was our 7th annual Hershey-Hartford hockey game. Thinking back over the years there have been players that really stood out in the games we saw such as J.T. Miller, Oscar Lindberg, Brady Skjei, Ryan Graves, John Gilmour and Neil Pionk and lots of players that stunk. When I watched the game yesterday I really didn’t see a Wolfpack player who was dominating. Perhaps what we are seeing now with Hartford is a reversion to the mean after its fast start.
When I bought the tickets for the game in September I was very excited because I expected to see several prospects. But because of a couple of players going back to Europe, injuries specifically to Rykov, some players underperforming including Day, Group and Elmer, there really isn’t a lot of young talent on the Wolfpack outside of the goalies. I know you need veterans to set an appropriate ecosystem but I don’t see many Wolfpack players that I expect to be future core players. In fairness to Hartford, the team did a great job with Chytil and Lindgren so I don’t want to come off as overly negative. But II am less interested in Hartford now than I thought I would be in September.
The Teddy Bear toss was a great charitable event but ridiculous for a hockey game. I think the game was halted for about 45 minutes as bears were tossed and collected on the ice. The Wolfpack went back to their locker room. And by the third period it looked like 1/3 of the people had left. They paid a lot of money to toss a teddy bear on the ice.
Game Report
Lines:
O’Regan was checked into the boards early in the game and never came back. We saw the check numerous times on replay because it was some bank’s “Cheque of the Game.” So look out to see if this is serious and he is out for a while. With O’Regan gone the lines were:
Newell-Andersson-Belesky (Newell moved up from the third line with O’Regan out)
Fogarty-DiGiuseppe-Lettieri
Gettinger-Meskanen-Jones
Dmowski-McBride (these two hardly saw the ice)
LoVerde-Raddysh
Geertsen-Keane
Ebert-Taylor
Huska
PP1: Andersson-Gettinger-Lettieri-Fogarty-Keane
PP2: LoVerde-DiGiusepe-Newell-Belesky-Ebert
PK1: Gettinger-Jones-Raddysh-LoVerde
PK2: Andersson-Geertsen-Fogarty-Ebert
Goal:
Three of the four Hershey goals were rebounds left by Huska. The fourth goal was a shot from the point that hit someone in front and dropped right in front of a Hershey player. Nothing Huska can do. This was the first time I saw Huska and don’t know if this was just one game or if he has a rebound problem. But he made all of the other saves.
Defense:
Hartford played the game with three AHL contract players, Nick Ebert, the throw in for Namestnikov, Darren Raddysh and Joey Keane. I think the bigger news is that Sean Day was scratched again as he was the game before and I believe he was healthy. Day finished last season showing improvement and it is very disappointing to see that it looks like he wasn’t able to build on that performance this year. The defense as a whole was fine, nothing spectacular either good or bad. Ebert and Raddysh look OK but not someone I would expect to have a significant role on the Rangers.
So Let’s focus on Joey Keane. If you looked at the box score you would see he had one primary assist and was on the ice for all four goals against and none for. And looking at those statistics you would be completely mislead. Keane’s primary assist was taking the puck up the ice on a power play and dropping the puck back to Fogarty at the blue line and Fogarty scores. Keane did almost nothing on the play. At the same time while he was on the ice for all four goals I didn’t see any play where I thought he was out of position. For example, the first goal — that led to the teddy bear toss— was an odd man rush where Huska didn’t control a rebound and a Bears player was left uncovered —looked to me on the replay that Dmowski should have covered that player. Keane ran the fist power play and seemed to do a good although not great job. I really like the Joey Keane pick and think he is progressing but I am not sure I see a player who is going to be better that Truba, Fox, D’Angelo or Lundqvist.
Forwards:
I would agree that Stephen Fogarty was the best Wolfpack forward but I don’t want to go overboard oh his performance. The first goal on the power play, he picks up the puck at his own blue line and literally goes through the defense with no one picking him up. The Hershey fans around me were screaming about their lack of defense. So good on Fogarty for taking advantage of bad defense and making a good shot to score but that play doesn’t happen in the NHL. The game tying goal at the end of the third period, he carries the puck over the blue line, crosses over to the middle of the ice and losses puck control. Littierri, who is with Fogarty finds the puck and shoots on goal, The Bears goalie, Philip Copley makes the save the pushes the rebound off to the side. Fogarty gets to the puck and turns around and shoots on net. Copley is in perfect position and somehow misses the puck. Neither my son nor I could understand how he let that in. So again good on Fogarty for making the play but I don’t think an NHL goalie lets that puck in. I though Fogarty looked confident but I just don’t think he has NHL quickness. In fact to me it’s the lack of quickness that sets most of the Wolfpack forwards apart from the Rangers forwards. Meskanen is another example. He made several nice little plays but wasn’t able to react quickly enough to turn them into scoring chances.
Lias Andersson had a quiet first two periods. But he made the best offensive play for the Wolfpack in the third period where he circled the net and broke free for a good scoring opportunity. But he also took a horrific penalty with 2:30 left and the Wolfpack down a goal where he just took a Bears player in his way and threw him down to the ice. Fortunately on the next face-off a Bears players was called for roughing during the face off leading to a 4-4 with Fogarty tying the game. I see elements of a player in Andersson but he wasn’t as good as I saw him play last year in Hartford. I wouldn’t give up on him yet but I do want to see more from him.
Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions or disagree with my thoughts. Constructive conversation always is welcomed.
