Hitmen camp day 2

Cuts were made last night and they're now down to 44 players:

Forwards:
Cody Beach (92) (*), Cole Brunet (91), Keegan Dansereau (88) (*), Ian Duval (88) (*), Tyler Fiddler (90) (*), Ryan Fox (90) (*), Taylor Gal (90) (*), T.J. Galiardi (88) (*), Bostjan Golicic (89) (*), Devon Kalinski (90) (*), Matthew Knoll (90), Brandon Kozun (90) (*), Ryan Letts (89) (*), Carson McMillan (88) (*), Jesse Mireau (91) (*), Adam Ross (87), Brendan Rowinski (90) (*), MacKenzie Royer (92) (*), Chase Schaber (91) (*), Ian Schultz (90) (*), Craig Simchuk (89), Brett Sonne (89) (*), Martin Stepan (89) (*), Graham Telford (89), Ryan White (88) (*)

Defencemen:
Karl Alzner (88) (*), Erik Bonsor (91) (*), Chad Crawford (91) (*), Eric Frere (88) (*), Curtis Gedig (91), Ryan Gillen (87) (*), Mitchel Kaufman (91), Dustin Korlak (89), Matt MacKenzie (91) (*), Dan Mercer (87) (*), Alex Plante (89) (*), Brett Plouffe (89) (*), Keith Seabrook (88) (*), Michael Stone (90) (*)

Goaltenders:
Jordan Dreger (90), Martin Jones (90) (*), Chase Komistek (92) (*), Mike Snider (91) (*), Dan Spence (88) (*)

Of course Alzner is not actually there, and Mercer has a broken wrist. Also, Tyler Fiddler went home after the morning scrimmages today due to a death in the family. They are not sure if he'll be coming back to camp but he was certainly in the mix for a job so if he wants to come back, he's welcome to.

The morning scrimmage wasn't really worth watching, as nobody had numbers on their jerseys and thus it was pretty well impossible to tell who most players were. What can I say? "The guy with the red socks was pretty good, the other guy with the red socks and full cage was really good, but the guy with the black socks ran the show"? So, we'll leave that one alone.

The Black-White game was the afternoon - three 20 minute periods with stop time and refs, the whole works. The intensity level was cranked up for sure as this was the last chance for many hopefuls to impress the coaching staff. White beat Black 7-6; here's the scoring summary.....all goals and assists as compiled by me so take them with a grain of salt. Goals are probably all correct but I likely missed a couple assists:

First Period:
1. White: Cole Brunet (Keegan Dansereau, Ryan White) 11:37
2. White: Brandon Kozun (unassisted) 13:00

Second Period:
3. Black: Martin Stepan (unassisted) 2:01
4. White: Keith Seabrook (Ryan White, Keegan Dansereau) 3:09
5. Black: Ian Duval (Carson McMillan) 6:11 (PP)
6. Black: Mathew Knoll (Jesse Mireau) 10:04
7. Black: Martin Stepan (Ian Schultz) 11:53
8. White: Cole Brunet (Ryan White) 12:07
9. White: Devon Kalinski (Brandon Kozun, Adam Ross) 14:43
10. White: Ryan Gillen (unassisted) 15:29
11. Black: Brett Sonne (Ian Schultz, Curtis Gedig) 16:15

Third Period:
12. Black: Ian Duval (Bostjan Golicic) 11:00
13. White: T.J. Galiardi (unassisted) 14:57

Splitting time in net for White were Michael Snider and Martin Jones, each allowing three goals. For Black it was Jordan Dreger and Chase Komistek, with Dreger allowing three and Komistek giving up four. Snider and Dreger started and were swapped out for Jones and Komistek at 10:02 of the 2nd period. Dan Spence did not play in the game. Not injured, just didn't play in favour of the younger guys.

There were no fights and nothing close to one although the level of contact was stepped up in this game from previous scrimmages and there were some decent hits. You still get the feeling that most guys are letting up on hits because they don't want to hit (or injure!) friends/teammates.

Anyways....I'm going to mostly not comment on the veteran players since it's no surprise to anyone that they were mostly the better players on the ice. The real interest lies in how the rookie hopefuls are doing. So....

In goal, I was quite happy with Jones and Snider on the White team. Dreger also did well for the Black team, while Komistek got off to a terrible start but settled down in the third period with some decent play. Watching the goalies over the last two days (including this morning's sessions), I think that with continued development, Snider and Komistek have good chances to play in the WHL some day. Neither of them was clearly over their head here like some younger goalies are.

On defence, Keith Seabrook was excellent, and I also liked the play of 16 year old Curtis Gedig. 18 year old Dustin Korlak wasn't too bad either. And once again I can't say I was blown away by Matt MacKenzie. Maybe I was expecting far too much from him but for a guy who many thought was the best bet to make the team on the blueline, he hasn't really stood out like I think a 16 year old should if he's going to make it.
Erik Bonsor had some good moments.....Mitchel Kaufman and Chad Crawford join MacKenzie in the hard-to-find-them category.

Up front, the two Euros continue to impress. This time it was Martin Stepan who might have been the better of the two, with two goals. On one he beat Kaufman wide and cut in to beat Snider 5-hole, and the other saw him take a breakaway pass and beat Jones top corner. Very nice goals, although I have to point out that he's looking like a one-way player. Not since Pavel Brendl have the Hitmen had a guy who hung out high in the neutral zone this much. Bostjan Golicic also played well again today and between the two of them I'm feeling much better about the loss of Robin Figren in the expansion draft.

Brandon Kozun was also very, very good today and IMO has all but cemented one of the open spots up front already. He had a beautiful goal today where he roofed a shot over Dreger from right in close, and also set up another goal with a nifty pass. And I also liked Ian Schultz quite a bit today, he was going to the tough areas and throwing his weight around. Also had a couple assists including a nice cross-crease feed to Brett Sonne while falling down. Another guy who should make the team. Overage candidate Adam Ross was so-so.....I think O/A's should really stand out and he didn't, but he'll get more chances in the exhibitions to prove that he deserves a spot ahead of a 17 or 18 year old. The 15 year olds - Beach and Royer - were not so noticeable. Beach was probably the better of the two. It remains to be seen whether either of them will get into exhibition games. Jesse Mireau had some good shifts and so did Taylor Gal and Ryan Fox. Fox was the best of that three.....another year of midget won't kill Mireau and he looks like he could have a chance at this league in a year. And again not enough from Chase Schaber....like I said last night, if I'm picking the team right now, he's not on it. Another year of midget won't be a bad thing for him either.

Mathew Knoll (17) and Cole Brunet (16) impressed me for tryout players, especially since neither of them had strong scoring numbers last year in midget. Graham Telford did not; he'll probably get into some exhibition games but if he doesn't clearly outplay Letts (or somebody on the team anyway), he can't make it.

Amongst the vets, 17 year olds Stone, Rowinski and Kalinski were very good, much improved from their 16 year old seasons last year. Rowinski looks like he could definitely help out the offence more this year. White and Dansereau also looked very good, along with McMillan.

Anyway, I think that about does it. First exhibition game goes right away on Tuesday against the Rebels, so we'll see who gets kept around to play in the preseason. With nine players headed to NHL camps, they'll need to keep some extra bodies around in order to fill out a preseason roster, so look for the roster to be pared down to about 30 either tonight or tomorrow.