Today, I may or may not have made the right decision to trek to Johnny's West, and watch the final scrimmage of prospect camp. The crowd was much healthier than the previous five days, which also brought out some not so bright humans. The attraction, I suppose, was that the Blackhawks "A list" prospects would be playing their only scrimmage of the week. Combined this with the interesting individuals that are older than 13, without children, that are planning their weekend around the "vanilla yuckity yuck" fest this weekend, aka the Blackhawks Fan Convention, and you have yourself an interesting social experiment.
This shouldn't be about the attractions in the stands, though, so lets get into the actual hockey that was played.
The two teams were split right down the middle with a few Free Agent players sticking around. Alexandre Fortin, Martin Ljungh, and Nikita Ustinenko filled out the rosters, and it was finally time to see some of the big dogs in action.
The first period was extremely boring, and neither team scored. Maybe it was just too damn early for all these kids to be expected to get the engine revving. The second period, however started with some score about a minute in and just followed suit from there. The Game was tied at 3 going into the third period, and finished up 6-4 in favor of the white team.
Few notes I sprinkled on the Twitter machine:
- Robin Press with some nice composure and puck control on the only powerplay of the day.
- The more I see of Alex Fortin, the more I think he's a legit prospect who can hang; Somewhere.
- Michal Kempny playing with Carl Dahlstrom must be training him to see what it's like playing with Rozsival.
- Tyler Motte, Nick Schmaltz and Alex DeBrincat played together on the Team USA line.
- Alexandre Fortin played with Tanner Kero and Anthony Louis.
- Roy Radke had another nice day, poking the puck past the defender and then curling and dragging around another for a goal.
- Vinny Hinostroza looks ready to compete for a spot this year, with a couple of goals.
- Mathias From looks like the type of player that some described Phillip Danault as.
- The "Robin Squared" duo of Press and Norell will be something to watch in Rockford this year.
- Probably not DeBrincat's best showing, but it's not like he is expected to play anywhere other than juniors this year.
- Nick Schmaltz had a decent day but he still wasn't as dominant as, say, Teuvo Teravainen was in his last prospect camp.
- Dylan Sikura seems to be a bit of a sleeper. Could be a name to look out for in the coming years.
- This has to be a "make or break" season for Matt Tomkins. He's been in 3 camps, and needs to jump to the next level. The Blackhawks must like him, if he keeps getting invited back.
You can read my full roster notes by clicking here:
"Summer Camping" - Blackhawks Prospect Camp News and Notes
Just to make things little easier, I have included all of my vine clips from my 3 days at camp, or at least the interesting ones.
Wouter Peeters
Hinostroza and Hartman on Forsling and Peeters
Motte on Peeters / Louis on Ustinekov and Wouter Peeters
Nick Schmaltz on Wouter Peeters
Nick Schmaltz on Jake Hildebrand
Gustav Forsling stick handling drill
More Nick Schmaltz during shooting drills.
Game winning goal from Wednesday. J.Dahlstrom goal from Sikura and DeBrincat.
Nick Schmaltz (Far side), and Jack Ramsey (near side)
Tyler Motte, Luc Snuggerud, and Nick Schmaltz stopped by Matt Tomkins
Tyler Motte stopped by Matt Tomkins on a partial breakaway
Freddy Olofsson scores on Jake Hildebrand
