DOGS on the ROCK 18/11/03

[JohnnyVerdun]

I'll be there. I'll keep my eye on the 5 (Komisarek, Higgins, Perezhogin, Balej, and Plekanec). Maybe Dagenais as well. The boys better win.

By the way, equivalent tickets to a Habs game are about 5 times as expensive. What's up with that? Is it really all Theo's fault?

[Deleted]

2-0 lead early for the Bulldogs. Goals by Gratton and Dagenais![/i][/u]

[Deleted]

3-0! Gratton gets his second of the night!

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5-2 final. Dagenais gets his second goal of the night.

Benoit Gratton: 2G, 2A for 4PTS at +1
Pierre Dagenais: 2G at +1.

Tampa prospect Eero Somervuori (I have to C&P that name. Geez) got the empty netter.

Wow.

[JohnnyVerdun]

Good effort by the Bulldogs tonight. Built a 4-0 lead before giving up a couple in the third frame and then sealed it (again) with the empty-netter.

What better place to start than with Dagenais. I can see why he and Mike Ribeiro got along so well. The guy has serious finish to go with his size. The first goal was from about 40 feet, on the powerplay, on a one-timer off a feed by Dykhuis (I think). He wired it and Centomo never really had a chance. No hesitation. His second goal was also a laser, and again I believe a one-timer, though this one came on a two on one. He skates pretty well, and seems to know well enough how to use his size to create some time and make a decent play along the boards. He wasn't overly physical, but he did lay the body on a couple of guys. He played on the first line with Gratton and Balej most of the night and the line generated a good deal of offence.

Balej is coming along nicely. Threw at least one solid check, worked hard along the boards, killed penalties, and showed the usual flashes of brilliant stickhandling in traffic. Still a bit of a floater, but a lot less so than when I saw him in camp with the Habs the year before last. He had a two on one chance (as the puck carrier) late in the game, leading 4-1, and instead of blasting the shot (right side, right shot) he tried to drag the puck into the middle and lost in traffic. I suppose there are two ways to look at everything, but a goal scorer really has to take that shot when the defence plays it right and takes away the pass. Other than that, though, I thought he looked more like a hockey player than he has in the past.

Plekanec also had a pretty good game. He's feisty, he's always on the move, and his positional play is above average. He doesn't exactly look like second line NHL material yet, but I could picture him on the third line within two years. He played on Higgins' wing most of the night and although they didn't generate much offence, they had a lot to do with keeping the Leafs off the scoreboard through the first two periods.

Komisarek. Same story. I don't think he's ready for the NHL right yet. He's obviously a top drawer defenceman in the AHL, and he's logging a lot of ice time, which is good. He's getting better at not overplaying situations and getting caught, for sure, but he's still not exactly a physical force to be reckoned with. Given the slower pace in the AHL, I would expect him to be working on his timing and making people pay a higher price than he's forcing them to do right now. He pushes rather than hits, and he seems not to have much aggressive edge to his game at all. Maybe he's just focusing on developing the skillset and letting the physical stuff come later on, but it's a bit frustrating, to be honest. He and his partner got caught (can't say whose fault) early on leading to a break that Fichaud stopped, and Komisarek got turned inside out in the third period on the goal that broke the shutout. This stuff shouldn't happen too often.

Last comment about Komisarek. A teammate of his, Carpentier (?) got absolutely flogged by a much bigger Brown, who was looking for a fight as soon as the score got to 2-0. The fight was so one-sided in the second half that a pro boxing referee would have stopped it before those two freaking linemen slid in to save Carpentier from a brain injury (are AHL refs locals, or do they travel?) I don't know Brown, or his reputation, but to me it was the kind of one-sided fight between mismatched opponents that needs to be answered. I didn't see anything from anyone to show that they thought Brown should have picked on someone his own size. And that's what I expect from guys like Komisarek. It's not just Sylvain Blouin's job. If you're ever going to be a Scott Stevens in the NHL, you start looking after your teammates early on, and you lead.

Last, and just out of curiousity, when was the last time Sylvain Blouin had three shots on goal in a single shift, and then hit a post, in the same game? He did tonight. Still can't turn to his left very well, but he looked okay.

Higgins needs time. Very smart hockey player. Looks like he's about 5-9.

I may catch tomorrow's game as well. If so, more to follow.

Edit: Oh. It was Mike Brown, well known thug. He's a big boy. So is Carpentier, but he's not that big (listed at 6-2 205). Anyway, somebody ought to have stepped up.

[BadCompany]

JohnnyVerdun said:

Komisarek. Same story. I don't think he's ready for the NHL right yet. He's obviously a top drawer defenceman in the AHL, and he's logging a lot of ice time, which is good. He's getting better at not overplaying situations and getting caught, for sure, but he's still not exactly a physical force to be reckoned with. Given the slower pace in the AHL, I would expect him to be working on his timing and making people pay a higher price than he's forcing them to do right now. He pushes rather than hits, and he seems not to have much aggressive edge to his game at all. Maybe he's just focusing on developing the skillset and letting the physical stuff come later on, but it's a bit frustrating, to be honest. He and his partner got caught (can't say whose fault) early on leading to a break that Fichaud stopped, and Komisarek got turned inside out in the third period on the goal that broke the shutout. This stuff shouldn't happen too often.

Last comment about Komisarek. A teammate of his, Carpentier (?) got absolutely flogged by a much bigger Brown, who was looking for a fight as soon as the score got to 2-0. The fight was so one-sided in the second half that a pro boxing referee would have stopped it before those two freaking linemen slid in to save Carpentier from a brain injury (are AHL refs locals, or do they travel?) I don't know Brown, or his reputation, but to me it was the kind of one-sided fight between mismatched opponents that needs to be answered. I didn't see anything from anyone to show that they thought Brown should have picked on someone his own size. And that's what I expect from guys like Komisarek. It's not just Sylvain Blouin's job. If you're ever going to be a Scott Stevens in the NHL, you start looking after your teammates early on, and you lead.

Alas, that was my impression of Komisarek the first time I saw him (at that original outdoor game, Michigan versus Michigan State).

I think Komisarek is a very good prospect, but I have never believed he was the crusher people made him out to be. He WILL throw big hits, but I don't think he is ever going to do it consistently. You look at a guy like Anton Volchenkov, or as you pointed out, Scott Stevens, and they were/are hurting guys right from the get go. Its instinctive, its a natural born thing, to go for the kill, and it can't be reigned in as easily as it seems to have been with Komisarek. You try to tell a young Scott Stevens not to go for the big hit, and he finds it very hard to do. Its almost impossible for a young Scott Stevens not to jump into a fray and start wailing away when a team is being outmatched. With a Dave Manson type, it WAS impossible. Komisarek doesn't seem to have any problems holding himself back, which leads me to believe that killer instinct just isn't there to the degree we were hoping it was.

Again though, I think he is a very good prospect. But I think he has Sheldon Souray type potential. Nothing wrong with that, look at how well Souray is playing. I think Komisarek might even be better than Souray. But its going to be that type of game. A pushing, shoving, cross-checking, occassional fight kind of game. I don't think he will be the monster hitter we were hoping he would be, but he will be a physical player. Its just that he will rely on his overall strength, as opposed to his timing and desire to hurt...