I just got back from seeing the P-Bruins drop a 5-3 game to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
The lineup for Providence included DeBrusk, Cehlarik, Heinen, and Grzelcyk. Kuraly, Acciari, and Cave also played. The rest were basically career AHL types, and Shithead.
Khudobin was in goal, and looked like crap.
Overall, game was sloppy, although P-Bruins power play looked sharp in the first period. Othr than that, the P-Bruins offene was inconsistent, outshooting Bridgeport handily but not creating all that many high quality chances.
P-Bruins fell behind 2-0, scored a PPG (Cave from Cehlarik), then fell behind 3-1. Shithead, believe it or not, scored to cut the deficit to 1 goal shortly before a crazy end to the second period.
With the score 3-2 and just under 2 minutes left, Bridgeport went on a power play. Kuraly scored what looked like a shorty at 1:18, but the ref waved it of and play continued until the end of the period. On video review, Kuraly's goal was deemed good, tying the game and putting 1:18 back on the clock and giving Bridgeport a do-over on the rest of their power play. (On the repaly, Kuraly's shot was partially blocked by the goalie, but got past him where an alert defenseman tried to pull the puck off the line, leading to the wave off and then ruling of a goal on viedo review)The puck squeaked Bridgeport made the most of the opportunity, scoring with about 20 seconds left in the period to go up 4-3. Providence killed about 3-4 straight minutes of power play time (including the 1:18 that was erased after Kuraly's shot was ruled a goal). Acciari, one of the PKers, was on the ice for the whole time after Providence's goal (as well as a big chunk of the erased time) and passed up a chance to get off the ice right before the rush that led to the goal.
Nothing much happened after that, although Providence did mount a decent attack for a couple of minutes towards the end of the third, before giving up an ENG to put the game out of reach.
The level of play in the AHL seemed surprisingly low to me. Other than some nice power plays in period 1, all we saw was flashes from the Providence offense. No Providence player stood out to me as clearly ready for a call up.
The most notable forwards for Providence, to me, were DeBrusk and Cehlarik.
DeBrusk played in all phases - ES, PP, and PK - and had a nice shorthanded rush early in the game. Bridgeport had numbers back, but DeBrusk still found his way into the slot for a good scoring chance. At other times, he showed a good ability to (as Brick would say) "make himself available" in good places to shoot from. And when the PP was clicking, he was involved.
Cehlarik also looked good to me; I had expected someone who was on the slow/soft side, but in his good shifts that wasn't the case, he looked good on the puck and the shot (reportedly the best part of his game) is as advertised.
Heinen was less noticeable, and I spent more time focused on the forwards than on the defense, so I don't have much of use to say about Grzelcyk.
If I had to guess, knowing only what I saw today and player age/experience levels, I'd say that DeBrusk is the guy to watch: 19, adjusting to the pro game, and showing promising flashes.
