dudacek

Haven’t looked at the numbers down there, but he certainly looks ready against this level of competition.

Cedarqvist with a coincidental roughing penalty. Making himself noticed. And a holding call on Weissbach. Block by Laaksonen. And one from Kozak. Nice PK.

Lindgren with some good D down low there.

Cedarqvist heavy play in the slot, stuffs the rebound 2-1

Nice hit by Sova. Draws a penalty on the retaliation.

Kulich made that happen beating out the icing.

Laaksonen goes after big Foote there. Played him hard. That’s been missing in his game

Devils drive hard to the net, 1-0. Cedarqvist muffs a zone clear and it’s a yard sale down low. Lucky not 2-0 there.

Savoie nice feed, Kisakov misfires from in tight.

Kulich with nice mix of hands and effort that shift. Komarov with a nice rush kill/breakout there.

Cedarqvist with a fine power move to the net there.

Warm shuts the door. Not much of a PP

Kisakov with some athletic body control there. PP Sabres Lindgren flubs it at the blueline, penalty shot Devils.

Maybe I'm missing the nuance of the above exchange, but did some have a sense Savoie was holding back Thursday? I didn't see that at all. A bit of rust maybe — kid hadn't played since April — but his hustle and fearlessness were very noticeable.

I think so, at least that the polls are trending optimistic. I kinda expected that overall, but not so much with Tage. Gonna do a wrap/review when they're done in a week or two. Just Peterka Bryson Tuch and Bjork to go, unless people really want Riley Sheahan thread.

Not certain if Bloom will be ready after getting hurt in the first game, so it might be that simple. Nadeau and Pekar missed the 1st game and are expected to miss the others with injuries. Chaz Sharpe and Ethan Ritchie sat out game one on D, Decaln McDonnell and Ethan Sproule on O. Believe all were coach's decision.

Victor Olofsson is known to be Asplund’s best friend on the Sabres. So maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that his season mirrored the older Swede’s in that he started (12 points in 19 games) strong offensively, then sucked badly in mid-season, going through a very painful 1-goal-in-55-games drought. Fortunately, his overall point total of 27 was decent for a player who was essentially a rookie, and his defence stayed strong; he led the team with a 52.8 % ES Corsi. Somewhat surprisingly, he ranked just 6th in SH ice time among the team’s forwards. He scored 6 goals to lead Sweden in the World Championships this spring, but does not have a history as a goal scorer at any level. https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=176326 Asplund kinda gets overlooked in the crowd of developing players who benefited when Ralph passed the baton to Donnie. Like many others, he became a full-time NHLer for the first time after Ralph was fired. Under Donnie, he’s been a 10-goal, 30-point player per 82 games, who has been among the team’s most reliable defensive forwards. A 35-point defensively stout 3C was kinda what was hoped for when Asplund was drafted, although he has rarely played centre in the NHL. He isn’t talked about much any more as player with room for development, but he has played only 137 NHL games, 80 of them last year. What do you expect from Rasmus Asplund? (Last year’s takes here):

Not gonna quote @RochesterExpat, but I saw a lot of the same things you did. His hockey brain has a ways to go. Its a lot like the Lindgren commentary though. Kid’s got great edge work and popped to some people for that reason. He popped to me for some absolutely terrible puck decisions. Both are relevant. Slavkovsky’s going to pop early for his physical gifts. Then people will be down on him for his mental flaws. Development will determine where ultimately he lands on the Nichushkin/Jagr spectrum. He’s got hands though and he will be able to physically dominate, even at an NHL level. That and the competition are why he went 1st overall.

Gotta say the poll is tilting way more to the optimistic side than I expected - maybe because it’s been one of the lowest in terms of voters.

He kinda has that Mule "stay calm and swallow 'em up" thing going on.

Kozak and Komarov were 2 who didn't get much talk in the tread who made a good impression for me.

Nice for Rosen to leave a good final impression.

that Beck kid looks as good as I thought he would. it is. I hope they are taking care of his mental health.

Just dogs every puck.

Laaksonen look smuch stronger physically against boys.