This is my first post here on Buckeye State Hockey. I was thrilled when asked to be a part of this great website. My focus here will be on Columbus Blue Jackets prospects as well as the draft. I will mainly be attending Peterborough Petes games.
I was hoping to see top 2016 draft prospect Sean Day in this game but unfortunately he is off at the U17 World Hockey Championship in Sarnia.
Day’s absence was a big one for the Steelheads as he is there best defencemen. The worst part for the Steelheads was that they couldn’t even replace Day using just five defencemen, one of which, Josh Burnside, is a forward.
With the Steelheads defence core looking the way it did, it was no surprise that Petes dominated this game, out shooting the Steelheads 36 to 20.
I was interested in seeing the draft eligible talent on Mississauga, notably Jesse Barwell and Austin Gerhart. Both were OHL second round selections in 2013 going 26th and 36th overall respectively. It’s very tough to scout when the game is so one sided the way it was. Gerhart was a non-factor playing on the third line and getting no time on special teams.
Barwell however did stand out for Mississauga. He didn’t impact the score sheet but his line with Nathan Bastian, a 2016 draft eligible player, and Jason Smith a 2015 draft eligible player, were the only line that was really able to tilt the ice for Mississauga. While he showed some flashes this game he’s been a non-factor to start this season. He has just 2 points in 11 games and the fancy stats that are available for the OHL are not pretty either. From Josh Weissbock’s great site CHL Stats Barwell is estimated to play about 9 minutes a night which to me says the coach doesn’t trust him. Barwell is going to have to continue having games like this one to earn more ice time and hopefully see an uptick in his offensive numbers.
The aforementioned Bastian was also strong in this game. Fellow Buckeye State Hockey prospect writer Jermey Crowe had a very good write up on Bastian in his most recent post. Much of what Jermey saw I saw as well. Bastian is your prototypical power forward. Much in the mould of Petes winger Nick Ritchie. I don’t think Bastian will be as good as the Ducks first rounder but you can tell he has lots of potential. He isn’t just a big body who runs around hitting people; he’s actually quite good at playing hockey. He had a beautiful assist in this game, deking the Petes defender at the blue line and then making the goalie commit to the shot pulling him way out of the net before sliding it across the ice to Marcus Dickerson for the easy tap in. Bastian played on the second line at 5 on 5, was on the second power player and top penalty kill unit.
From the Petes side of things Eric Cornel was very impressive. The Buffalo Sabers second rounder was the best player on the ice for me. He’s finally getting the chance to shine as the bus driver on his line. Previously he was the “third wheel” on the Petes super line with Ritchie and Hunter Garnlet. Now with Greg Betzold and Anthony Stefano, Cornel has taken off. This line crushed it for Peterborough. They controlled play to the point where I don’t recall them ever being in the defensive zone. Cornel was the big reason for this. Anytime a Stealhead player got the puck Cornel was right there to poke it away and create a turnover. Then with his great vision was able to find an open player to create a scoring chance. Betzold was the beneficiary of Cornel’s play as he scored a hat trick with Cornel recording each primary assist.
With all the prospects Buffalo has been accumulating in the past few seasons I wonder if Cornel is going to get lost so to speak in their system. ESPN Prospect Analysis Corey Pronmann had Cornel ranked 10th in Buffalo’s system at the beginning of this season. Buffalo is going to add at least three more first round players to their system next year dropping Cornel even further down the chain. If the Blue Jackets are to make a trade with Buffalo this season (unlikely as it may be) I would like to see them try and pry Cornel away from them.
FINAL SCORE: 4-1 Petes
You can find me on twitter @PaulBerthelot
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