By Rick Stephens, Editor-in-Chief, All Habs Hockey Magazine
BROSSARD, QC. — As we discussed yesterday, development camp scrimmages are meaningless. Right?
But it was fun to watch the offensive skills of the elusive Daniel Audette who scored twice for Team Red in the second scrimmage of development camp on Wednesday. It’s yet to be determined whether the undersized Audette can succeed at the next level but he was an obvious scoring threat on Day 4.
Habs fans will be forgiven for wistfully thinking about how Mike McCarron could improve the Canadiens offense with his poise carrying the puck up the ice, driving the net and using his size to impose his will with the puck. McCarron looked very good playing center, confidently entering the offensive zone to set up Taylor Burke for a Team White goal.
With the absence of Nikita Scherbak and Sven Andrighetto from scrimmages, it is McCarron and Charles Hudon who have stood out the most after two games.
And then there was Markus Eisenschmid who turned heads during the first scrimmage scoring the first two goals of the game. Guess what? He scored twice again today, with the second goal coming on 3-on-3 play. Does that mean anything? Let’s just say that Eisenschmid is making the most of his opportunity with four goals already.
The final score was 6-2 for Team Red with the winners getting goals from Mac Bennett (3rd round, 2009), Hudon (5th round, 2012) and two each for Audette (5th round, 2014) and Eisenschmid (try-out). Scorers for Team White were Tim McGauley (try-out) and Burke (try-out).
Bennett, a veteran of these development camps, skates well, plays well positionally, is smart and makes a good first pass. He is a solid all-round defenseman and one of those players who oozes leadership. Have others passed Bennett on the prospect depth chart? This will be a key year for him, his second as a pro.
Darren Dietz and Brett Lernout are two rearguards who seem to have taken a step forward. Lernout was unable to beat Zach Fucale on a penalty shot during Wednesday’s game. But Lernout looks to have all the tools to be an effective defender. He skates well and uses his size and strength to be an intimidating presence. Decision-making is something that could use work.
A three-period intrasquad game will take place on Thursday morning to close this year’s development camp.
Development camp scrimmage no. 2 – July 8, 2015
| Team A (Red) | Team B (White) |
| Forwards | |
| 48 Daniel Audette 56 Tim Bozon 68 Matthew Bradley 43 Daniel Carr 91 Tim Clifton 57 Markus Eisenschmid 72 Mario Huber 75 Charles Hudon 78 Dryden Hunt 83 Ryan Rosenthal 97 Jamal Watson |
32 Jeremiah Addison 60 Taylor Burke 40 Connor Crisp 86 Stefan Fournier 47 Jeremy Gregoire 52 Artturi Lehkonen 58 Brandon Magee 34 Michael McCarron 94 Tim McGauley 73 Angelo Miceli 44 Lukas Vejdemo |
| Defensemen | |
| 46 Mac Bennett 20 Simon Bourque 84 Darren Dietz 92 Christopher Joyaux 71 Michael Webster 55 Bailey Webster |
90 Travis Brown 89 Ryan Johnston 61 Nikolas Koberstein 36 Brett Lernout 82 Tom Parisi |
| Goalies | |
| 30 Zach Fucale 65 Mathew Mancina |
95 Alex Dubeau 70 Michael McNiven |
Injured
38 Nikita Scherbak
59 Dalton Thrower
54 Noah Juulsen
62 Mark MacMillan
42 Sven Andrighetto
Not present
63 Jake Evans
Mark MacMillan
Mac Bennett
Good eye opener Rick. I think we have more options than most believe going forward.Will have to see how it shakes out. More and more I think we can provide upgrades from within.