St. Louis Blues Prospect Camp Day 3

We continue our journey along with the St. Louis Blues prospects. Refresh often during the live portion, especially during scrimmage.

Two days of camp remain if you include today’s affair. Team Tkachuk has the early practice, but it’s the goaltenders out first for their own drills.

Evean Fitzpatrick has shown much better ao far today. He looks much more comfortable and at ease with his game at the moment. Vogler has taken over in the shakey department for now.

1:50

The tendys are done with their individual drills. Time to breathe some wonderful zamboni fumes.

Ryan Ruck definitely has a late 90s inspired mask. Its sort of Potvin-esque, but has some other flavor as well that i cant place.

While we wait for drills to start, i just read on Twitter the new AHL rules. No timeout after an icing and an ejection for a fight when the puck drops, i.e. no preplanned scraps.

I still like fighting in the game, but i think these are good rules. I especially like the no timeout after an icing. The entire point of the no line change was to crank up scoring, so keep progressing in that way.

The rule may have hurt the Blues last year, but it forces you to find ways to get out of trouble besides icing the puck.

Going a little old school down on the left side of the rink. They’ve got some tires out for whatever drill that will be.

On a side note, I received a request to take some different angles today. Not sure how many other ways you can describe drills and practice, but I do think most of the focus has been on either Thompson or Bleackley. So, I’ll try to give more of an account of some of the other players as needed.

2:05

The tires are being used for a hard cutting drill, forcing the skaters to go hard from the corner back to the slot.

On the right side of the rink, the guys might as well be putting their heads on a baseball bat and spinning around. They’re going through the cones so fast, it’s amazing to see them shrug off all that turning and still be able to focus on the goal.

Another side note, season-ticket holder, Referee Man is here. He is not sporting his trademark attire though.

Picking out another player, I like what I’ve seen from Vince Dunn. It would be nice to see him in Chicago this year to get a better barometer of what he is capable of. He has shown some slick hands and skating ability and his point production in the OHL is enough to know he’s a good offensive player.

How well he defends at the pro level will be the test for him. The game is getting faster and a premium is being put on puck moving defenders, but you still must be able to help keep the puck out as well.

2:15

The groups have switched up their stations. I mentioned him on the first day, but I enjoy watching Justin Selman skate. He’s got good stick handling ability. He’s only seen seven games of action with the Wolves. If he can have a productive season there this year, perhaps he can earn a look in the NHL down the road. He still needs to work on his shot a bit, but as a center, he might be better served as a playmaker. Just as I say that, he buries a shot top corner on Husso.

Helt keeps ringing them off the post in his drill. I expect him to be signed by the Blues any day now since that seems to be a requirement for the Blues of late.

2:30

Well, you learn something new every day. I’m sure it’s something I should have known, but I was unaware that Bleackley had suffered a cracked knee cap. It’s good to see him skating with fluidity and seeming to have no ill-effects from that injury. Knees can be tricky, especially with the torque hockey players put on joints.

Drills are done now. So, there’ll be a brief break for new ice before the scrimmages. Hopefully Team Tkachuk can put up a bit more resistance today. It’s been quite the slaughter for the first two days.

I also wonder who the instructors/coaches are. I know that Ty Conklin and Freddy Brathwaite are helping out with the goaltenders, but not quite as sure about the ones taking care of the players. One of them looks like he’s in his late 20’s.

No sighting of Hitch yet today, but yesterday he did not emerge until the scrimmage. There is a guy wearing a Blues jacket that looks like Brad Shaw, but we all know that is not the case. Still no sightings of Yeo. That’s not surprising. I’d imagine he’s still on vacation and will get to town for the preseason camp. Still, you’d think he might want the opportunity to get a look at some of the guys in his development system for the future.

2:45

The scrimmage is about to start. Just waiting on the teams to emerge.

Uh oh, someone has a cowbell. I think a kid has it at the moment, because it sounds rather weak. We will see when someone scores.

Personal note: While I’m proud that Wayne Gretzky was a member of the Blues, I find it odd that he’s on the Hall of Fame listing on the far side wall here at the Ice Zone. I know he’s the Great One, but he’s a Blues Hall of Famer for the three months or so he spent in our sweater?

2:50

Here we go. Scrimmage time. It looks like Husso and Fitzpatrick will start things off for Team MacInnis and Tkachuk respectively in today’s four-on-four.

First goal comes about 20 seconds in. A giveaway leads to a 2-on-1 and Gawdin finishes it off. 1-0 Team Tkachuk. They’re looking much more lively to begin here.

Hitchcock is back today. To be honest, he may have been here on the first day. I didn’t think to look to that location during Day 1. He’s giving an interview to Jeremy Rutherford.

Still 1-0 about five minutes in. Team Tkachuk still looking very crisp. I think they got tired of getting whooped.

Team MacInnis ties it up at 1. Not sure who got the last whack at it. It may have been Polei. Kyrou and Blais were around the net, but it seems likely that Polei got the last shot from the initial rebound.

Dunn set up Armstrong on the near side, but he was too close in to get it over Husso’s pad. 10 minutes left in the first and it’s still tied up. Nice to see a tighter affair so far. Good compete levels by both blue and gold.

3:00

An icing call allows the goalies to swap. Ruck and Vogel in now. Immediately after, Team MacInnis scores. I looked away just long enough to miss it. Thompson may have been the goal scorer. If so, that would be four for him in three days.

One-timer for Bleackley does not go, but they cycle it around and find him in the slot and he roofs one. Tied up at two goals.

3=2 for the team in gold (MacInnis) now. Stevens got fed on a stretch pass and he managed to fake out the goaltender just enough. The shot barely trickled over the goal line when Ruck’s pad slid backward.

3:15

That does it for the first period. They swap sides and the goaltenders will stay the same until about halfway through.

It should be noted that the board battles and physical play has gone up each day. That’s good to see. It’s not about the tired adage of that shows you care. It’s about that being the style you’re going to have to play if you expect to be a pro. This isn’t Olympic hockey.

Starting to wonder if fatigue is setting in a bit. Several breakaways have been wasted chances.

Liam Dunda finishes off a nice wrister from the edge of the right circle. 4-2 for Team MacInnis and the score keeper continues their terrible week by putting it up on the wrong side. However he is soon relieved of his pressure because Team Tkachuk had one pop into the air and over Vogel. 4-3.

Beautiful deflection goal for Polei to make it 5-3 for Team MacInnis. They went fight to left and he was able to get enough of it to put it into the top half of the goal.

Team Tkachuk running out of gas a little bit here as we’re halfway through the period. 6-3 now as a pass from the left boards found a man right in front and they lifted it off the crossbar and in from tight quarters.

Pretty sure that it was Povorzniouk on the sixth goal. You wouldn’t think it would be difficult to track for someone who has broadcast hockey. 7-3 now as Thompson buries one from the low slot. It was a valiant effort from Team Tkachuk, but this one is slipping away again.

3:30

3-on-3 now with about five minutes left. Bleackley dangled around a couple guys, but his pass went wanting. Good pressure by blue here though, but it ends in a giveaway. Krag went down the other direction and got cute with a backhander that was snared by Fitzpatrick’s glove.

8-3 now. Sergeev dangled around a couple defenders of his own and then tickled the twine from the slot. I’ve said it over the past couple days, but the stickhandling is much better on the gold team while Team Tkachuk is much more direct.

9-3 right at the buzzer. Blais was able fight off the backcheck, fake out the goaltender and slide it into an empty net right before time.

Final Thoughts

Another day in the books for this entertaining prospect camp. The more we progress, the more you can tell that none of these guys are going to be asked to play in the NHL this season and that’s fine.

There are still talented guys that might take less time to develop than we had initially thought though.

You have to appreciate the heart that Team Tkachuk played with to open things up, but in the end it was the same old story. They’ve been creamed three days in a row now and there is no reason to think it will not happen again on Friday to end the week. Husso has probably been the difference for maybe two goals a game, but that does not equal the difference in the scores over the course of action.

However, though people like myself use the score to report on how things are going, it’s too much like preseason football. It really doesn’t matter much. The coaches are looking at individual performances and how you react to certain situations.

Next: Blues Prospect Camp Day 2 Reacap

It’ll be a little sad when this all wraps up tomorrow as that will truly be the end of hockey until we get into preseason camp, which will likely take place in September. Even so, these guys have all shown themsevles reasonably well so far.

Add us as a preferred source on Google