Pre Season Hockey

I was going to post about the stats from the first two pre-season games but there were no official stats on NHL.com from the game up in Ontario. So after taking a quick glance at the super stats from the 1st preseason game and here is what I noticed.

Coach Hartley told all the rookies how many games they would play and that each of them would get a shot to prove themselves. In the first contest he really spread around the ice time to everyone, especially among the defensemen.

21:38 Popovic
21:33 Kwiatowski
21:09 Exelby
20:01 Pilar
18:23 Valabik
16:53 Oystrick

Only one of those guys has a NHL job nailed down and Hartley is giving three guys a serious look for the last two defense spots. Reading between the numbers I'd say Valabik and Oystrick are be heading back to Chicago.

On the offensive side of things Perrin was the star with two goals, but Colin Stuart was on the ice for all three of the goals that Atlanta scored. The top ice time recipients at forward were as follows:

18:23 Perrin
16:43 Dupuis
15:53 C. Stuart
15:07 Krog
15:02 Shultz
14:34 Slater

The top 6 forwards in ice time were 3 NHL players and 3 AHL veterans trying to crack the roster. Generally speaking the guys for juniors didn't get a lot of ice time (Holzapfel, Pospisil).

Now I'm off to Nashville to take in my first live game since last year. I'm looking forward to seeing the guys in action again.