Calling it like it is, Monday’s third game of the Traverse City prospects tourney was a disappointment. The Blue Jackets team was noticeably physical early to make a point and then mostly outplayed the Hurricanes throughout. There was a smattering of good individual plays, but the closest the Hurricanes came to any sustained push was probably only 5-6 shifts early in the second period before that dissipated into more of Columbus being the aggressor.
Perspective is important. This is mid-September hockey with a team pulled together with minimal practice and also a sizable group of players who are not even part of the organization. So reading too much into a single game or even the whole tourney can be overdone. That said, a game was played and as such, we might as well glean what we can from it.
At a general level, the issues were team-wide. The team had nowhere near the jump that Columbus had especially early, and similar to Saturday’s loss to Chicago the team had issues trying to advance the puck out of its own end with any kind of pace.
My usual player notes will focus primarily on the positives mixed into a tough night.
Jeremy Helvig
Despite allowing three goals, I thought Helvig held up well under siege and with some sloppy play in front of him. He has a good knack for using his large frame to play into shots and enough athleticism that he is a good first shot goalie. Like many young goalies, he has a ways to go in terms of rebound control, and ideally he will also become a bit sharper handling the puck. But in total through three games, his stock has risen. It will be interesting to see if and how soon he can claim some ice time at the AHL level and then if he can rise to the level of Alex Nedeljkovic and Callum Booth who are tracking in front of him.
Andrei Svechnikov
Svechnikov has not been eye-popping dominant in this tournament, but he has been good probably in the way that projects to his role in the NHL. As a scoring wing with a receive/finish skill set, his game is not so much to dazzle with stick wizardry playing with the puck on his stick but rather to make plays. He did that again on Monday with another pretty power play feed to Gauthier in front which could have been his third goal assisted by Svechnikov. Svechnikov also had a near miss off the outside of the post and another decent shot on net. I think entering the tourney, I had high hopes for an utterly dominant performance. That has maybe not materialized but he has been good.
Aleksi Saarela
Entering Monday’s game, I would probably have rated Saarela as the most disappointing through two games. He was virtually invisible in the first two games. But when not much else was visible Saarela appeared with a big first period that could have been bigger. He finished early and then had two more point blank scoring chances that he missed the net on. Scoring another goal or even two would have been better, but at least being a noticeable part of the play was a step up after two quiet games.
Mitch Eliot
For prospect events like this, I usually have a hard time tracking the invitees simply because of the volume of players to watch, lack of familiarity with many of them and especially with Traverse City the quality of the video feed and its limitations. But as a somewhat familiar player from also visiting for prospect camp in late June, Mitch Eliot is interesting. He is a free-wheeling, skating offensive defenseman somewhat from the same mold as Jake Bean and Adam Scott. In a game when the Hurricanes were sluggish advancingthe puck, he was one of only a few players who had some hop and ability to move the puck out of the defensive zone. If he can convert his skill set to the NHL level and couple it with enough defensive acumen, Eliot is the type of defenseman who fits in today’s NHL. With the Hurricanes’ prospect pool becoming deeper and another defenseman added via free agency from the KHL, it seems unlikely that the Hurricanes would extend an entry-level contract to Eliot, but if I had to pick one invitee, he would be my bet.
Stelio Mattheos
If I had to pick one player whose stock has risen the most with me through three games in the prospect tourney relative to my thoughts on him prior, Mattheos would take top honors. My initial impression of Mattheos was that of a reasonably rugged forward with decent size and skating ability but below average puck skills and offensive ceiling. Mattheos is still not in the same group as players like Svechnikov and Necas, but he has impressed me. He has not looked out place on a first power play unit that had NHL type talent, and he demonstrated a good knack for finding passing lanes that compromise the defense and often quickly lead to scoring chances. He also played penalty kill. I still see Mattheos as more of a third line forward, but my assessment of his offensive skill set improved with his play in Traverse City.
The Hurricanes will conclude the tournament with a match up against the Dallas Stars prospects on Tuesday at 3:30pm.
Then, weather permitting, the Hurricanes are scheduled to start their NHL training camp practices on Friday.
Go Canes!
Helvig really had the most impressive performance in a game we were totally dominated. Way too much play in our end.
I want to add Bean to that disappointed list. Not that he played terrible, but any talk of him being NHL ready, I’d argue that all day. In my mind, he’s Charlotte bound where it’s good for him to get up to speed.
There was some heavy metal last night, a number of post throughout the tournament.
What was reinforced to me by this tournament was the importance of defensemen to get the puck and make that first crisp outlet pass or be able to skate the puck out of the defensive zone. Not saying that was the entire problem with the offense, but it sure was a major one. Otherwise, no one may have made any progress in moving up in the organization over the three games with maybe Helvig and Mattheos.
Completely agreed here. I’m not too judgmental of the overall ‘disappointing’ performance of the forwards because really – the forwards barely had a chance to show their stuff with how absolutely abysmal the d-corps was in this tournament. Zero ability to control possession and transition game = no chance to score.
Yesterday was all about CBJ hemming us into the D-zone. We simply could not clear the puck. I really liked the confidence in Svech’s game even when things weren’t great. But everybody else was less than notable yesterday – was hoping to see more from Necas.
It hasn’t been fun to see the Traverse City team go from the coach’s talk of domination to just trying to avoid embarrassment in the 5th place game this afternoon.
Traverse City was supposed to provide a glimpse of the infusion of young talented forwards that the Canes need. Now we have to forget Traverse City and hope the forward prospects look a lot better when they’re playing with NHL defensemen in preseason games.
I’ve been looking for lines or pairs with chemistry, but don’t see it. I guess it’s a little early to expect it. Semi-Canes roster doesn’t help either. Maybe somebody clicks today. Good luck, guys!
Plus Wadell is now on record saying that Brind’Amour’s preference is to start Necas and Svech on different lines. So perhaps there is absolutely zero line combinations to be gained from this tournament anyway.
I’m watching the Dallas game now. The Canes prospects look terrible as a team. I know there are a lot of invitees on defense but the team as a whole looks terrible. If you didn’t know better, you would think the Canes don’t have a single decent prospect.
Did the Canes prepare less than other teams? Is Velluci the great coach he’s made out to be? Something is not right in Traverse City.
Watching now. There is very little good about the performance at this tournament. Even with crappy D we were supposed to have forwards that would dominate. The only domination I see is the other teams.
I expected more then this. Very disappointing.
A guy coaching his first year in professional hockey comes in third place in his division, loses in the second round of the playoffs, and is anointed a great coach? Why? I’m not saying Velluci is a bad coach, but I see zero objective reasons that he’s a good one either.
Hate to hear the Baby Canes played so poorly. Still, the reality is only a few of all those prospects will ever become solid NHL players. It’s just that hard. We all get excited over a bunch of these guys, but the deck is stacked against them. The ones that succeed have to be really, really good.
Thirteen years of head coaching. Thirteen years of head coaching a team into the playoffs. Name me one other coach with that history.
And read what the Checkers’ players have said about playing for this guy.
It’s junior hockey. Kids. Not the same. I’m glad the Checkers like the guy, but c’mon.
At last, some time in the Dallas zone and a quick wrist shot by Svechnikov. With Bean and Fora on D and Necas, Svechnikov and I think Gauthier at forward, the Canes can actually play beyond their own zone.
This game is still tough to watch. I’ll keep silent instead of predicting a disastrous season. But after all the talk of playing hard for 60 minutes and winning puck battles, it would be nice for the baby Canes not to look outclassed and outhustled.
Nice goal by Svechnikov, assist Necas.
OK, last discouraged, irrational comment on the Canes-Dallas game. The first impulse is to hope that no one who had any part in choosing or coaching the players on this team has any future role in the Canes’ organization in Raleigh or Charlotte. Nobody with any interest in competing for anything could play that bad.
We seem to need a drinking game based on puck battles lost or zone entries not interrupted, or perhaps Florence will wash the horror away. God help us all if Traverse City is a foretaste of anything at PNC.
Cool commentary, (I´m not able to stream) keep em coming. How many goals has Dallas scored, 3 or 5?
6 now. A short handed to top it off.
58 seconds left, we scored, Calvas. Then Dallas just scored. 7 to 3.
Done. At least we made it to the playoffs.