NHL Central Scouting
NHL Central Scouting has released the final rankings for the 2014 NHL Draft and Kingston’s Sam Bennett remains the top-rated player. This year’s draft is fascinating in that it’s not a particularly deep draft, and there’s no clear-cut No. 1. To add to the intrigue, there’s a large group of players that could go anywhere from 15th to 60th overall. I don’t envy an NHL scout’s job this year.
Of the top 30 North American skaters, here are some of the risers and fallers:
North American risers and fallers
London Knights at Guelph Storm
Guelph’s biggest challenge in the series is overcoming the London aura. The Knights are two-time defending OHL champions.
R.J. Broadhead and I were able to take a stroll down both hallways before the game and the difference between the two sides was noticeable. Guelph looked nervous while London couldn’t have been more relaxed.
Michael McCarron is on a similar path to former London Knight and Montreal first-round pick Jarred Tinordi.
Chris Tierney continues to be the most underrated London Knight. He’s had the title three years running.
Max Domi is enemy No. 1 in Guelph and for good reason; he scores, he chirps and he draws penalties.
After taking a 4-0 lead, the Storm stopped skating, sat back and tried to nurse the lead to victory. The Knights scored 4 unanswered to tie it before a fortuitous bounce led to the Guelph game-winner.
Brock McGinn is a huge loss for Guelph. He’s skilled and he tends to get under the opposition’s skin.
Los Angeles Kings prospect Justin Auger is raw, but there’s no doubt there’s something there other than just his size.
Finishing first overall in the OHL isn’t enough for people to start believing Justin Nichols is a good goalie. He’ll have to win an OHL title and then likely have to answer the same questions during the MasterCard Memorial Cup.
Hot Goalies
Edmonton’s Tristan Jarry had his shutout streak come to an end at 151:24. The Brandon Wheat Kings got on the board for the first time in the series at the 4:38 mark of the second period of Game 3 of their second-round series.
Erie’s surprise starter Devin Williams’ shutout streak of 125:35 ended in the first period of Game 4 against Sault Ste. Marie. If you haven’t looked closely at Erie’s box scores, you wouldn’t have noticed that Columbus second-round pick Oscar Dansk has played in just one playoff game. He started Game 3 in the first round against Saginaw and gave up five goals on 20 shots before being pulled in the third period. Devin Williams has played every other playoff minute for the Otters.
Daniel Altshuller has allowed just one goal since Game 4 of Oshawa’s first-round sweep of Mississauga. His shutout streak ended at 180:47 on Greg Betzold’s third-period marker with 0:28 seconds left in the game.
North Bay’s Jake Smith has allowed just five goals in his last five games.
Rimouski backstop Philippe Desrosiers has allowed five goals in his last six games.
Kevin Dineen and Canada’s under-18 squad
I had a great chat with Canada’s under-18 head coach Kevin Dineen on Monday. He’s really enjoying his current run with the Program of Excellence, but hasn’t made any commitment beyond the U-18 World Championships. If women’s hockey needs a spokesperson, he’d be a good one. Dineen was still glowing about his gold medal from the Sochi Olympics. He wears a necklace with a small women’s medallion around his neck as a reminder.
Most impressive through Monday’s practice were Red Deer’s Connor Bleackley and Ottawa’s Travis Konecny.
Daniel Audette was a late addition to the camp
Expect Sault Ste. Marie’s Jared McCann to be added to Canada’s roster now that the Greyhounds are out of the playoffs.
Aside from waiting for the second-round series to end, Canada is wise to continue the tradition of bringing under-agers to camp and overseas even if they don’t end up on the final roster.
Sam Bennett, Spencer Watson and Jake Virtanen are all questionable for Canada based on various injuries. If I were a betting man, I’d say Bennett is the most likely of the three to play.
Canada will open the tournament against Sweden on April 17.
This and That
Drummondville was outshot 6-1 in the overtime of Game 1 of their series with Val d’Or and still won.
It’s high time Rimouski gets a little love. The Oceanic have lost twice since Feb. 7. One of them was a nothing game to end the season — a 2-0 loss to Quebec — and the other was in overtime of Game 3 of their series against Blainville-Boisbriand. All in all, the run is 22 wins in 24 games.
The Rose Garden was packed Saturday night in Portland. A crowd of just under 11,000 saw the Winterhawks defeat Victoria 6-3 to take a 2-0 series lead.
Look no further than special teams as to why Gatineau was able to take Game 3 of its series against Halifax. The Moosheads were 7 for 15 on the power play going into Tuesday’s game but just 1 for 6 in the 5-2 Game 3 loss.
The Erie Otters are the first team to advance to the third round of the playoffs. The Otters await the winner of the Guelph-London series in the OHL’s Western Conference final. It’s the first time Erie has moved past the first round since 2002.
Stat Trick
Top scorers of 2014 CHL playoffs
Completely Off Topic
The Country Music Awards were fantastic. Love the use of the duel venue.
Friday Night Hockey
Halifax Mooseheads at Gatineau Olympiques — Game 5
More CHL
Be sure to check out the latest from Patrick King.