Marlies notes from the Boxing Day early start.
1. Officials all got new whistles for Xmas and needed to work em in…..penalties galore called.
2. Denis Hildeby with the 31 save shutout.
3. Jacob Quillan second star of the game, with a goal. Slowly hitting the scoresheet more often.
4. Steeves with his 16th goal, I think third in the A, despite missing a bunch of games when recalled.
5. Fraser Minten with a long distance empty netter.
6. Someone peed in Grebs’ cornflakes this morning.
7. Assists for Kokkonen, Abruzzese, Benning and WillyNeuve, who’s getting his points when he’s getting burn.
8. Marlies PK is pretty great.
My two fave moments of the game:
1. Sens scrambling in the third trying to get on the board, try to jam the net. Mikko Kokkonen sends a Sen flying out of harms way at the whistle.
2. Sens had the power play with about 3.5 mins to go, for some gracious holiday spirit reason, their coach did NOT pull the goalie till the PP expired. The highlight was Marlies pressure in the ozone after the kill, where Quillan had clean control of the puck in the right slot front of the net, and didn’t even look to shoot. Saucered a nice pass to Mints who just missed.
Couple quick observations:
Kokkonen is a smart AHL defender and very sound despite average size. If he were a bit more assertive with the puck clearing the zone, he’d make an okay 3rd pair guy.
Mints appears to be really working on controlling the puck in the offensive zone, carrying the puck more. Not leading to much….yet.
