It's one of the oldest hockey jokes in the book, but tonight as the Kings rookies took on the Phoenix Coyotes prospects, it also couldn't have been more true. We've got some talented kids, but most of them proved tonight just how much they have to learn.
It's a difficult scenario. Throw together a bunch of guys who have only known each other for a short time, that haven't really played together as a team, and then add the motivation of wanting to make an impression on the coaching staff. What you get is a bunch of individual efforts of varying success and little to no team play. Tonight, that meant we got our butts handed to us 6-1.
To a man, everyone played a pretty immature game. Virtually no passing, just grab the puck and race to the other end of the ice and and try to find the net. And if a guy from the opposing team got in your way, drop the gloves and try to punch his lights out, because if you can't score you've gotta show the coach you're tough. By my count, there were at least 6 official fights, not to mention all the additional pushing and shoving when things didn't go our way.
The biggest thug of the bunch, and probably the biggest disappointment for me tonight, was Colten Teubert. He's a big physical defenceman with a hair trigger temper, and he managed to get in the first fight of the night, AND earn himself a 10 minute game misconduct. He thought he was defending his teammate Thomas Hickey, who got laid out like a rug headed through the neutral zone with the puck. Here's the problem. It was a clean check on Hickey. The guy defending him just had better position. But Teubert was looking for an excuse to brawl and he got it. The worst part is, he was mouthing off to the ref AFTER the fight broke out, which made the situation worse. If he thinks he can play with that little composure in the NHL, he's gonna have a very short career. Spending all your playing time in the penalty box doesn't help your team. Pick your battles, kid.
Kyle Clifford also got a game misconduct and was involved in at least 2 fights. While not as openly argumentative a Teubert, he spent a little too much time running his mouth as well. Kyle, see my feedback above.
The two pleasant surprises of the night were our Russian prospects, Voynov and Loktionov. Voynov has the most balanced game of all the defencemen, although he needs work on releasing his shot from the point quicker on the power play. Granted, we only had 2 power plays all night, so not like he had much time to work on that. He also kept solid positioning throughout the game, and he manages the puck well.
Loktionov is gonna be a star, plain and simple. If anyone had bothered to pass to him, he probably would have had at least a couple of goals. He was hitting the right spots, headed for the net, but just couldn't quite make it happen. He'll be one to watch as he comes up through the organization.
On the plus side, it was great to see an actual GAME, which only makes me more ready for the season to start. And lucky for me, FROZEN FURY is just around the corner!
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