Last Night's Preseason Notable Players (Sep 22)

The Pittsburgh Penguins opened up their preseason campaign with a solid romp over the Red Wings on Wednesday night. In a 5-1 game, there were a number of Penguins that came out with multiple-point efforts and they were all led by Sidney Crosby, who started his 2011 campaign with a goal and an assist. Also picking up points were Ryan Craig (2 goals), Mark Letestu (2 assists) and Brett Sterling (goal & assist). Out of the bunch, there has been some positive buzz around Sterling, so I'm keeping an eye on him in the next week.

The Leafs put in a pretty solid effort against the Senators on Wednesday night, posting a 4-1 win. They are holding an audition for a number of spots and the competition looks tight throughout. Luca Caputi led the way with a goal and an assist, while Clarke MacArthur, Francois Beauchemin and Jesse Blacker all picked up a pair of assists each.  I liked Caputi's effort levels in the game (since I watched it) and I think he has a part to play in the Leafs 2011 offense.  His exact capacity still a little grey.

The Capitals didn't dress a great deal of their top end talent against the Blue Jackets, but if you looked at the scoreline, you may not have thought so. A 6-2 win over Columbus was a good result for many on the team, some usuals, some pluggers. Leading the charge for the Capitals on the night was Matt Hendricks, who had a hat trick in the game on 4 shots. Tomas Fleischmann chipped in a pair and added an assist, Alex Semin was unselfish with 3 assists and Marcus Johansson chipped in with a pair of assists to round out the point-getters in the paragraph.  A good effort by Hendricks might earn him an extra couple days in camp.

The Boston Bruins laid a licking on Carey Price and the Canadiens on Wednesday night, beating the number one keeper for 4 goals on 10 shots in only 30 minutes of play. Patrice Bergeron had a pair of goals and Matt Bartkowski picked up a pair of assists in the 4-2 win. By the looks of those highlights, Bergeron looks like he has his hands greased up and ready to go, because they were slick. Newcomers Nathan Horton and Tyler Seguin also picked up points in their preseason debut for the club.

There were a couple of bright spots for the Canadiens in the loss to the Bruins last night.  Tomas Plekanec had a goal and an assist in the game, showing off some of his form from last season and Josh Gorges had a pair of assists from the back end.  With some depth issues on the blueline for Montreal to start the season, Gorges would do really well to pick up some of that slack, on top of that quality defense he normally plays.

The Lightning and Blackhawks opened up their preseason schedules with a date in Winnipeg and it was the Bolts that came away like bandits, beating the Stanley Cup champs 4-2 on the night.  The biggest star on the night was a new face for the Lightning, as Simon Gagne showed why he was a keen acquisition by management with a goal and 2 assists on the night.  It sounds like Gagne will be a pretty good fit with Tampa Bay this season and he might need a raise in his projections right away.

The Blues went into Minnesota and laid a pretty good beating on the Wild on Wednesday night, coming away with a 5-1 win.  The bright spots on the team on the evening should not come as a surprise, rather should be a staple, in David Perron (goal & assist) and David Backes (2 assists).  Both players will be leaned upon heavily by the Blues for the roles they play and points they can pick up, key to the Blues success in trying to return to the playoffs.  Both players should be decent picks in the draft this year.

The Kings managed to come back from a 2-0 deficit, early in the 2nd period for a 4-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night.  They had themselves a full 60-minute effort out of Jonathan Bernier, who made 21 saves for the win, increasing his stock for the coming season.  Justin Williams had a goal and an assist in the game and Jarret Stoll had a pair of assists, to also get some recognition this morning.  It's a good start for both forwards in this preseason, as they'll try and lift the Kings into bigger and better things in 2011.

There was one notable player in the loss for the Colorado Avalanche and that was defenseman Kyle Quincey, who scored a goal, added an assist and was one of only three Avalanche players to remain at +1 on the night.  Quincey had an up-and-down season with the Avalanche in 2010 and he should be looking to keep himself in the starting six all season long, instead of finding ways up to the press box.

The Oilers put together a lunch pail effort against a stronger class of Canucks on Wednesday and manged to pull out a 3-2 win in Vancouver because of it.  Ryan Whitney led the way for the Oilers, picking up an assist on all three Oilers goals, making everyone take notice that he should be the number one defenseman on the team this year.  Ben Ondrus and Chris Vande Velde combined for a goal and an assist each in the first two periods of the game, as the Canucks were kind of taking their line for granted in the first 30 minutes.  Ondrus may have worked his way into a leg-up situation with this game, as there might be an extra spot for him on the roster, if he keeps it up.

The Ducks welcomed division rivals, San Jose, into their building on Wednesday night and combined for a solid team effort to soundly beat them 5-2.  Only Ryan Getzlaf (goal & assist) and Matt Beleskey (2 assists) were the only players with multiple-point nights, suggesting that scoring by committee was a solid way to go for the evening.  Beleskey signed a new deal lately and will be fighting for one of the last forwards spots on the team, but the competition may be tough.  He'll need a couple more nights like this to break through, I'm sure.