After that pitiful embarrassment of a Bears game, yesterday, I'm so glad to see people wearing the Indian Head sweaters,and playing some puck. For those of you that aren't aware, the Hawks sent a team to the NHL Young Stars tournament in Toronto. This team is basically a tournament of draft picks and promising minor league players, that allows them to showcase their skills. It's really not much, but it's Hockey, and it involves Blackhawks, in some form or another.
The roster has the following players, with their 2009-10 teams:
Forwards
Steele Boomer(Kootenay), Kyle Beach(Spokane), Brandon Bollig(St. Lawrence), Chris DiDomenico(Drummondville), Rob Flick(Mississauga), Byron Froese(Everett), David Gilbert(Quebec/Acadie-Bathurst), Mirko Hoefflin(Heilbronn), Igor Makarov(St. Petersburg/Dynamo), Jeremy Morin(Kitchener), Philippe Paradis(Shawinigan), Brandon Pirri(RPI), Ludvig Rensfeldt(Brynas), Ben Smith(Boston College)
Defense
Jonathan Carlsson(Toledo), Brian Connelly(Rockford), Simon Danis-Papin(Rockford), Scott Fletcher(Reading), Shawn Lalonde(Belleville),Nick Leddy(U. of Minn), Ryan Stanton(Moose Jaw)
Goaltenders
Joe Palmer(Texas), Alec Richards(Toledo), Kent Simpson(Everett)
It's hard to critique something you can only see select portions of, but from the highlight clips I have posted below, the kids looked a little over-matched by the Toronto team. There were a few observations that I had, while watching the clip, though. Alec Richards looked pretty soft in net, but he didn't seem to have a lot of help either. Maybe he had some focus issues because the number 38 has been forever tarnished by the legendary Cristobal Huet, in 08-09. Kyle Beach, David Gilbert, and Jeremy Morin all scored, but the young Hawks never looked to be in the game. Gilbert's goal was a rebound laying in the crease, Beach's goal was a nice snap shot from the slot, and Morin's was an awful goal from an area that should never result in a "throw it at the net" tally. I don't know much about this Gilbert kid, but he seems to be involved in most of the positive action, so let's hope we see more of him in the near future. It's also odd to see someone (Morin) with some skill, wearing the #27, again (Yes, Pascal Pelletier, you suck). I can't really comment on the rest of the action, other than the fact that the defense looked like a Chinese fire drill, and got caught WAY too much. Honestly, what can you expect from a bunch of kids that have had played together for all of one practice? Have a look for yourself.
I'm having a hard time finding more detailed information on the Sunday game against the Sens rookies, but it looks like they lost 7-3, after going up 3-1 in the first. Goals were from Gilbert, Rob Flick and Igor Makarov. No one seems to care who was in net for the great choke job, but my best guess is Huet. Great job by the Hawks website people to bring us such great coverage from the Sens beat writer(note sarcasm). Whatever, they blew a nice first period lead, and no one on the Hawks end seems to give a rat's ass. Don't bother dragging yourself out of your champagne hangovers just yet, fellas. This commotion below is much more important than reporting on your young talent and the future of your organization:
Some Devin Aromashodu fan, with some shiny garbage can looking thing
The Hawks kids wrap up Tuesday, with a game against the mini Penguins at 1pm (central).
