Belleville Bulls @ Sarnia Sting, September 21, 2012

BEL #14 LD Subban, Jordan (2013) – Jordan remained fairly restrained for the first half of this game. He wasn’t rushing the puck as much, instead making solid passes up ice and moved it calmly and effectively on the power play. As the game progressed, Subban started rushing the puck into the offensive zone more frequently and also looked more pinching in from the point during sustained pressure in the offensive zone.

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BEL #20 RW Lemmon, Mack (2013) – Lemmon’s skating has improved a lot. He still loves to hit and works extremely hard. The skating improvements if anything has helped him use these attributes more frequently. He showed some flashes of puck skills making some good passes on the rush. While we love the edge Mack plays with, he desperately needs to understand where that line is between an agitator and a liability. Twice in this game he made a selfish or undisciplined move that cost his team. The first came with a power play coming to Belleville, Mack attempted to force an opponent to fight to the point where he received his own two minutes negating the power play. The second came when he smashed a Sarnia defenseman in the face right in front of the official. This gave Sarnia a powerplay with six minutes remaining in the 3rd period, Bulls up 2-1. It didn’t cost his team in this game, but in the future it could be a very costly mistake.

BEL #23 LC Petti, Niki (2014) – In his first career OHL game, Petti jumped right into the action after it took him a few shifts to warm up. He was willing to engage physically and overall was he is a very good skater. As he got more comfortable he started showing flashes of his offensive potential and almost scored a highlight reel goal showing great agility. Overall it was a successful debut for Niki.

BEL #30 G Subban, Malcolm (Boston) – If it was possible, Subban’s reflexes may have actually improved over the last 6 months or so. He made some absolutely unbelievable saves that most goaltenders would have no chance on. He was outstanding in second chance opportunities. His rebound control continues to be a major issue, but he was outstanding on second and third chance opportunities. While the Bulls controlled a lot of the pace tonight, there is no way they would have come out with the victory if not for Subban’s play.

SAR #2 RD Chapman, Joshua (2013) – After being hit clean, Chapman unnecessarily retaliated by hitting him from behind taking a very selfish penalty early on in this game. Joshua delivered some good open ice hit one of which resulted in Chapman engaging in a fight against an older but smaller opponent. He fought to a draw in that one. He reads plays well, but his reaction time is a struggle at this stage of his development.

SAR #3 LD Nemecek, David (2013) – Nemecek was willing to battle right fromt the start however he won some and lost some. He played a physical game, but this too was very inconsistent on a shift by shift basis. He made a good defensive play in a 2 on 1 situation. Nemecek has some good attributes but needs to play more consistent if he wants to move up the rankings.

SAR #9 RD DiPaolo, Mike (2013*) – In a fast paced start with a lot of back and forth, DiPaolo was the first one to really lay a big hit to ramp up the physical play. His skating needs improvement although he is built so solid, has such a big wingspan and is adequate enough in that department that he is still tough to beat. DiPaolo prides himself on his physical play, but he didn’t go out of position looking for the big hit tonight. His puck play was unnoticeable, which is probably a good thing for DiPaolo because it means he’s keeping it simple and that would be his best course of action.

SAR #11 RW Hargrave, Brett (2014) – Hargrave got off to a slow start, and was very quiet to stat things off. However what seemed to wake him up was the older players on Belleville really trying to push him around and going after him. At one point a 20 year old forward for Belleville tried to level Hargrave and it looked like he ran into a wall. This shift really got Hargrave into the game, he began competing more and showing his strength. He was losing a fair share of battles, but as he gains confidence he will start to show his dominance in this area at the OHL level. He really appears to be feeling things out right now.

SAR #21 LC Nikandrov, Daniel (2013) – Nikandrov didn’t do much offensively, but he consistently battled hard in the corners, getting pucks deep and winning his share of battles all night long.

SAR #71 RW Goldobin, Nikolai (2014) – Goldobin was very uninvolved for most of the game unless the puck came to him. There was a few flashes in the offensive zone. He was willing to get back defensively, but anything that involved battling for possession he looked very passive, primarily in the neutral zone. He has the skills and the hands, but he needs to play with a little less fear if he wants to make an impact on the smaller rinks.

Scouts Notes: Opening night of the OHL Regular Season for both of these teams. Belleville sat all of their 1996 players except 1st round selection Niki Petti (2014). Belleville came out flying early on dominating. Both goaltenders were outstanding and posted highlight reel saves. Malcolm Subban (Boston) made some particularly unbelievable saves. If it was any other goaltender Sarnia likely would have won 5-2. Instead Belleville posted a narrow 3-1 win, one of those goals being an empty netter. J.P. Anderson (San Jose) playing in his first regular season game since shoulder surgery and it was a beauty. He kept Sarnia in this game and came up huge when they were trying to claw their way back. All in all a very good game that had a little bit of everything and it came right down to the final seconds.[/sociallocker]