I've been to many OHL games this
season but this was my first time really sitting down and watching certain players,
rather than just sitting back and enjoying the game. On a whole this game was a
lot closer than the score says. The Petes won 5-2 but were outshot 45-30 and by
my count out chanced 19-15 at even strength and 22-18 overall. There were a few
players I wanted see going into the game. On Peterborough I was interested
draft eligible players Nick Ritchie and Eric Cornel, as well as third overall
selection in the OHL draft Matt Spencer. On Saginaw I was interested in draft eligible
players Dylan Sadowy, Blake Clarke and Brandon Prophet.
Every player played which was nice,
however I wasn’t able to focus on the Saginaw players as much from a lack of familiarity
of what they looked like and their numbers. Despite that Blake Clarke still managed
to stand out for me. He is ranked 93rd on Central Scouting’s list of North
American skaters. With only 7 points in 23 games this season it is not
surprising he has such a low ranking. He did not record a point in this game
but did have four scoring chances at even strength. Sadowy had three even
strength chances one of which he converted on, giving him 22 goals on the
season (with just 8 assists). He is ranked just above Clarke at 89 on Central
Scouting’s list. Prophet was someone who I didn’t notice at all. As a
defenseman it is not unusual to not have many scoring chances, but I think the
big issue was that he played predominately against the Ritchie, Cornel line
which had most of my attention.
For
those of you who haven’t had a chance to see the Petes play, they are not a
great team and it showed early. Saginaw dominated the possession game against
every line but the Ritchie-Cornel-Hunter Garlent line. When those three were on
the ice they really swung the possession game back towards the Petes. They
started the game getting some offensive zone starts where they did a good job
cycling along the boards and keeping the puck away from Saginaw. After that I don’t
think they saw another offensive zone start the rest of the game. Even with the
tough assignment they were able to clear the defensive zone and generate chances
at the other end. Ritchie-ranked 7th among NA skaters and 7th in Bob McKenzie’s
mock draft- was very good at using his great size (6’3, 229) to protect the
puck. He also appeared to have good hockey sense making good passes leading to
one assist. He obviously got quite a bit of power play time but did not kill
penalties, which is something I would have liked to have seen. I don’t think
this is an issue where he can’t kill penalties. I think all the d-zone starts show
that the coach trusts him in his own end. This is more a matter of your our
best player we cannot afford you to be hurt blocking a shot. For the record he
was out at the end of the game when Saginaw pulled their goalie. But if I was
to draft this player I would like to see him on the PK because if he never
scores at the NHL level he could settle into a third line shutdown role.
Cornel is in the same position as
Ritchie as he also plays in the defensive zone against the toughest competition
but a lot of his success (21G, 31A) could be from playing predominately with a
guy who’s likely going in the top-10. I know it is possible to do with you and
without you charts for the OHL I’m just not sure how yet. It is something I definitely
want to look at and something GM’s should want to know before they waste a
second round pick on guy whose stats may be a by-product of someone else.
Spencer is an OHL rookie, not NHL
draft eligible until 2015. He did make some “rookie mistakes,” where he pinched
too far when he shouldn’t have, but those are plays he will hopefully learn. It
was good to see him pinching, in that he was trying to create offence, only problem
is it hasn’t worked to date. Spencer only has 13 points (1G, 12A) in 54 games,
which is far below the 0.6 you would like to see. He also looked bad defending a 1 on 2; he was
defending Sadowy and went to engage him with a hit or poke check and Sadowy
just slipped around him and scored. He was consistently getting second
defensive pair minutes, with little to no time on special teams, which maybe a
reason for the low point totals. He did get a few shifts with the Ritchie line
late in the game, but this was when they were defending the lead. He is someone
I'm going to have to watch more of to get an idea of what type of player he
is/can be.
Overall
I felt this game was a success. I got to see everyone I wanted to, and feel I did
an ok job at gathering at least a little information on each player. Next game I
attend I definitely need to focus on fewer players as I tended to get lost as I
followed just one guy. This will allow me to get a deeper understanding on certain
guys rather just a blurb on multiple guys.
Comments are always appreciated as I am still learning this
and looking for feedback, thanks.
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