Since my last post Ottawa’s luck initially continued as they faced Curtis McElhinney, scoring twice on him before injury brought Bobrovsky in (who they managed to beat and get the win). That came on the heels of beating Calvin Pickard (of all people), but after those two wins and the postponed game against Toronto, they lost in OT against New Jersey (Mark Stone‘s TOI dropping for whatever reason), and then were unable to score more than once on Scott Darling (with Greening in for Stone and Wiercioch playing the fewest minutes among defensemen). Typical Paul MacLean head-scratching decisions continue to plague the lineup. Ottawa is now 4-2-1 on the season, but their record does not reassure me about where the team is heading.
Amelia L takes a look at the different ways Mike Hoffman and Mark Stone have been used and I agree with her conclusion that one of the main reasons the latter gets more TOI is because of his size.
Binghamton has stumbled out of the gate going 2-3-2 to start the season. Incredibly, Andrew Hammond has started every single game of the season and faced an appalling amount of shots (40 or more in five of the seven games). Chris Wideman leads the team in scoring, while free agent signee Carter Camper has been a dud to start the season (one point and a -5, tied for worst on the team). Jean-Gabriel Pageau is also off to a slow start, while newcomers Alex Guptill and Garrett Thompson have been underwhelming. It’s still early and I expect the team to improve defensively, but it’s a lacklustre start for a talented team. The most disappointing element has to be their defensecorps, which includes a number of veterans who should be doing more.
Evansville has opened its season with two wins, Sens prospect Chris Driedger serving as the back-up in each. Both Jakub Culek and Troy Rutkowski picked up assists in the second game. Incredibly, the team won’t play again until Halloween, which is a remarkably slow start to the season.
Prospect update
SHL (Sweden)
Mikael Wikstrand (Frolunda) 13-2-2-4
Has a pair of assists in his last three games
Andreas Englund (Djurgarden) 15-1-2-3
Scored his first career goal over his last four games
Marcus Hogberg (Linkoping) 3.01 .900
His numbers have dropped significantly over his last two appearances
CHL
Tobias Lindberg (OHL, Oshawa) 13-7-10-17
Has continued his torrid pace (7-5-6-11 since my previous update)
Francis Perron (QMJHL, Rouyn-Noranda) 13-6-8-14
Just one point over his last four games
Nick Paul (OHL, North Bay) 11-10-4-14
Continuing his red-hot pace (6-7-1-8 since last time)
Vincent Dunn (QMJHL, Rimouski) 16-6-5-11
Six points in his last five games
Ben Harpur (OHL, Guelph) 7-2-5-7
Continuing to put up career numbers
Miles Gendron (BCHL, Penticton) 4-1-1-2
NCAA
Quentin Shore (U Denver) 2-1-3-4
Robbie Baillargeon (Boston U) 1-1-0-1
Shane Eiserman (U New Hampshire) 3-1-0-1
Kelly Summers (Clarkson) 2-0-0-0
Chris Leblanc (Merrimack) DNP
The team is three games into the season
NCAA-III
Tim Boyle (Endicott) DNP
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
4 Comments
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eyeonthesens 
I enjoy your updates. Thanks for the good work.
I like your Chet Pickard reference, since he was who Nashville picked after Ottawa traded up to pick Karlsson. But Ottawa faced Calvin Pickard from Colorado, not Chet.
Also Miles Gendron is playing for Penticton of the BCHL. His commitment to UConn isn’t until next season.
I’m glad you enjoy and I appreciate the catches–I’ll fix the errors
Hmmmm… I question the conclusion that Stone gets more icetime because of his size. In her article she states “both are strong possession players” without providing any supporting data.
My eyeballs tell me Stone is a strong possession player, but Hoffman is wildly inconsistent in that regard. In his good games Hoffman does make good decisions with the puck, but in his poor games he often gets nervous and gives it away quickly. Stone is much more consistent at making good plays when he has the puck on his stick.
I believe that’s why Maclean trusts him more and gives him more ice time.
I’d be very interested to see whether any of the advance stats confirm or deny whether my perception is correct.
If memory serves, Hoffman’s possession stats last year were excellent (pretty sure Travis Yost wrote about it on more than one occasion), but admittedly I have *not* seen any comment on them this season. As for Stone and the size factor: both MacLean and the organisation have a love affair with size which is pretty common across the league–in Stone’s case he’s not just a big body (thank god). The ceiling for Stone is much higher than Hoffman, so over the course of their careers he *should* play more, but I think there’s substance to Amelia’s case that size is a factor in TOI to some extent.