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The Hawk rookie squad lost their opener in the London Tourney yesterday 4-2 to a team assembled by the Maple Leafs. The game was pretty tightly checked, sloppy at times, and clearly there is a lesson to be learned:
Don't Believe The Hype.
The most NHL ready forward, probably for either club, was second year pro Philip Danault, not the much more highly touted Teuvo Teravainen. Teravainen was fine. He did what he does that makes the Great Unwashed go Ooooh and Ahhhh, lots of fancy stickwork in space and finding seams to get shots off. And that's good.
But it was Danault who provided a reminder that pro hockey is about work and heart first, and talent if you have it. And yet again, Danault showed he has that as well. On the first Hawk goal (and both were scored by some dude named Van Stralen who was very fortunate to play with Danault), Danault fought for a long time along the boards in the corner, came out with the puck, used his body to protect it and went hard to the net, forcing a rebound that Van Stralen buried. On the second goal, again, Danault penetrated the Leaf zone with speed and placed a perfect cross ice pass on Van Stralen's tape for the easy score.
The other Hawk rookies who stood out were Ryan Hartman, Stephen Johns, Dillon Fournier (especially), and Alex Broadhurst.
A couple of guys who struggled: Viktor Svedberg, Mac Carruth.
Back to Danault, and maybe its an indictment of the overall talent level in this tourney, but he looked more like he did as a dominant player in the QMJHL than he did as an AHL rookie last year. More likely, it is proof of the hard work Danault puts in off the ice. And based on a sample of one rookie tourney game, he appears ready to step up this year.
I'll be back with more later.
JJ