Winter Classic was already spoiled

Gotta love the young guys scoring when they get a chance.

First Greg McKegg, then Kenny Ryan and now Spencer Abbott

It’s too bad we couldn’t have signed Nicholls. I know he’s 20 but 14 goals in 15 games is impressive.

Hi everyone, pretty quiet on the board, tough to get excited with all the negativity coming from the NHL.
I mentioned a while ago that I would be traveling from Calgary to Vancouver in early November and was going to try to catch the Heat-Marlies game. I did manage to get the game last night. Gotta love AHL, walked up 10 minutes before puck drop, bought a ticket for $42 bucks, 8th row centre ice, see pic. Took it during a nice scrum in the first period.
Overall, pretty evenly played game, with Marlies holding the edge early and Heat gradually taking over momentum. Killer second goal from the face-off 3 seconds after Heat scored first goal of game. I took a sip from my $5 beer (:)) and missed the second goal!
Anyway, here are my thoughts regarding our prospects after watching the game, recognizing it is only one game:
DO NOT TRADE Joe Colborne, the guy is a beast, man is he big. I was surprised at how well he skates, how strong he is on the boards and how strong his vision is. The guy is a keeper, apart from Gardiner he led the majority of rushes out of our zone, hit his open man tape to tape on the pass, controlled the play down low and was generally dominant on most shifts. Unfortunately, playing with Komorov and Ashton, who are solid but have no finish, does not allow big joe to dish to a true sniper who can bury the opportunity. I have seen Joe play before and always thought his skating was a problem. Not any more, the big guy can move. Of course it is only AHL talent, but i can see him playing top six NHL centre role in the near future.
Komorov – fast, aggressive, solid player, not flashy, but gets into the mix on every shift. Looks like a good fourth line agitator, no surprise.
Gardiner – best player on either team (close second to Baertsch on Calgary). No surprise i guess, but man is he fast and shifty. He does sort of remind me of Leetch, but i think he is bigger and quicker. Anyway, man amongst boys in the AHL. Future looks bright and I don’t see much downside in him playing in AHL this year as he is on the ice a ton.
Kadri – he did have one very sweet dangle that made the Heat defence look silly, but otherwise, I was really disappointed in Naz (i am a big Naz fan for the record). He made countless silly one man rushes, trying to beat two or three defenders, coughing up the puck at bad area’s of the ice. He is also still pretty soft on the puck and gets pushed around. He is also always yelling for the puck with his stick in the air or banging on the ice and gets ignored a lot by his teammates. Not sure about Naz, great hands, not so great head I think. I was trying hard to like his game, but kept comparing him to Baertsch (who is lightning fast with all the dangle of Kadri to boot) and Colborne and thought these guys were much more likely to excel at the NHL level. I hope I’m wrong, but last night was not a good one for Kadri.
McKegg – you can see how McKegg is a player coaches love, he busts his butt every shift, plays very good position and has decent head for the game. I don’t know if his skating and skill level will improve enough to allow him to elevate his game to an NHL level but he is going to be a big part of the Marlies when the NHL eventually gets back to playing and the Marlies eventually move some key guys up to the Leafs.
Will Acton – man I like this guys game. He is big, fast and smart. Nothing fancy about his game, like his dad, he is always in the right position, moves the puck quickly, finishes his check and is solid all round. He has NHL size and speed and could definitely fill a bottom six at a higher level. No hands around the net, but a good role player with size.
The rest of the Marlie forward group was really quite unremarkable. Deschamps, D’Amigo, Scott, Hamilton etc, really did not stand out at all which I could also say for most of the Heat forwards.
On defence, the only notable surprise for me was Blacker. I watched a few Marlie games on TV and was completely unimpressed with his positional play and skating. Perhaps he was off early in the year or he just had a good night last night, not sure, but he played a really solid game, is very fast and very aggressive. He laid out a Heat forward and then got in Aliu’s face when challenged. Fraser stepped in and settled things immediately, but i was impressed with Blacker’s play all night. 
The rest of the D was ordinary, nothing too good or bad, although I did notice Kostka coughs up the puck quite often in his own end when under pressure.
Scrivens, played well until the brutal centre ice goal. That kind of goal is a game killer, i sure hope it was a blip.
All in all a fun night. What was clear is the Marlies lack a bonafide sniper. They have a number of guys that can make plays, but nobody who is a pure goal scorer (only one game I realize, but so far this season goals have not come easy). I’m sure Frattin will help immensely when he returns as he finds open ice and has a quick release.
As has been posted by many on this site, AHL is great value and very good hockey. Hope you guys can get out and see some games as I am always interested to hear what others think.
Hope you enjoyed the post.
….and yes, it has been cold in cowtown!!
P.S. I almost forgot! Reimer was in the crowd. What is with that….Vancouver bound perhaps. That dude is tall!

great Post!  Thanks

Awesome report !!  Thanks very much for posting it.

Thanks for the great recap and didn’t you have $42 to go again tonight, lol

Also, those are some pretty sweet seats. With the recent surge in Marlies interest, you couldn’t walk up to the door 10 minutes before the game and get seats like that, but if you were to order the tickets a week before, you could probably get them.

Last weekend I ordered tickets the day of the game in Hamilton and when I got there, my buddy and I noticed our seats were about 4 rows from the top in the lower bowl, so we simply walked down the aisle and sat our asses in a seat about 8 rows from the ice. It’s not like there was alot of empty seats and we did have to move a couple of times, but we ended up with a pretty great view.

As for Colborne, I hope he gets back to playing like he did to start last season and I’m sure the points will start coming a bit easier when he gets somebody with some finish (Frattin) on his line.
Wouldn’t mind seeing a Komarov/Colborne/Frattin line or maybe even throw Kadri in there.

Speaking of Kadri, I was hoping his game last Friday night was just a blip on the radar, but after hearing your poor review on him, I’m starting to get a bit worried that he’s a bust.

One last comment and that would be on Blacker. I think this kid could surprise alot of people

wow kadri lays the boom!!

Owuya sure fills the net.  He is a big kid.

hes got that Giguere like width to him

ya, we’ve been dominating this game though, just need to come out strong in the second, Ashton has impressed me so far.

Anyone have a link that works ?  TIA

Got it . Thanks.