Friday, November 28, 2008

BBO's #8 Oilers Prospect Vande Velde and #3 Oilers Prospect Nash Head to Head














Both players lead their teams top line down the middle. Both players went head to head more often than not tonight. Vande Velde's Fighting Sioux won 7-3 over Nash's Big Red. However the game was far from that lopsided. Both players had at least 1 point in this game.

Let's get down to the specifics shall we? Riley Nash figured in on 2 0f his teams 3 goals. Starting off with a 2nd assist, Nash made a very solid play off of the boards up high on the left boards, Nash used his reach to make a perfect pass down low, the player receiving the pass quickly threw a pass to the slot for a Cornell goal.

Later on in the game (while it was still a game withing reach for Cornell) Nash received a breakaway pass and made no mistake by shooting the puck stick side for a goal. That would be Cornell's last goal of the game.

Vande Velde had a lone assist, he made a pass from behind the goal line into the slot for a goal. Of the 2 players tonight, Nash definitely shined the brightest. Nash's soft hands while distributing the puck is what seperates him from Vande Velde. However to be fair to Vande Velde, his role seems to be get to the front of the net and stay there. It seems like 80-90% of the offensive game that he is asked to play is within 5 feet north and south of the goal line. For this reason I'd like to see him in UND for his Senior season. It might allow him to play more of a skilled game like he did at times last season.

Round 2 will be tomorrow, Cornell will be looking to avenge their first loss of the season, and they probably will. They may have been the better team tonight despite the score.

Both players showed promise, but both also showed reasons why they should be at the NCAA level instead of the AHL level at the moment. With the Oilers continueing to look to their bottom 6 to be full on checkers and energy players, there's no reason to rush signing either player.

2 comments:

The Doog said...

I really appreciate your updates on the prospects BBO. Always very informative.

Just wanted to let you know I check out the blog almost everyday, I do not always agree with you on the oilers but you always have something interesting to contribute.

Keep up the good work.

Bryanbryoil said...

No problem, I don't expect anyone to agree with me 100% of the time. I'm glad that you enjoy it, Bryan