Drawing Conclusions from a Prospect Game Is Silly, But Let's Write Some Stuff Anyways

Tonight's prospect tournament

I'll admit that writing about a prospects game is folly to begin with on its face. The final score was technically 6-2 and head coach Toby Petersen definitely wasn't happy about it. But also the final score isn't the most important part of the tournament.

From a Texas Stars perspective, Petersen noted that this is essentially the Texas coaching staff's only opportunity to work together before October 10th's season opener. With no preseason games, Petersen and assistants Travis Morin and Maxime Fortunus need to work out their rhythms in a real game environment.

"That's why it was just the three of us on the bench," said Petersen. "We made sure it's just the three of us, so we could find our rhythm and get ready for first game."

Dallas was behind the eight ball from the first shift, where Detroit's Emmitt Finnie came down the wing and scored five-hole on Ben Kraws. "Not the start we wanted," said Petersen with a slight chuckle, as he went on to acknowledge the number of high-quality prospects that Detroit brought, including many who played significant time, if not all year, in Grand Rapids last season.

Dallas skated the below lineup:

Martino-Shlaine-Hemming

Ertel-Scott-Schmidt

MacDonell-Chisholm-Paquette

Fuder-Gorzynski-Sharkey

Taylor-Muhonen

Bertucci-Bergsland

Punnett-Cristoforo

Kraws

In a game that ends 6-2, there are often not a ton of standouts. However, there were promising signs for Texas this coming season. Angus MacDonell scored the first goal for Dallas in the third period. The forward spent the summer rehabbing injuries to both shoulders, which had held him out of most of the final playoff series of his OHL career and prevented him from joining Texas to close the season.

"I was just at a gym in Toronto every day," said MacDonell. "Rehabbing and trying to get stronger and building those muscles around my shoulders so I can come out here and play."

Trey Taylor was the longest postgame interview of the bunch as he reflected on his time in the AHL postseason and how that set him up as a launchpad for this season. We've all heard it before in terms of how that ATO time can completely change a player's perception of what it takes to be a professional hockey player. He also talked about the things you don't think about like the schedule and predictability of college going into the lack of structure of professional hockey. 

It is always instructive to remember that even the oldest rookies on this roster are just 23. I had no idea what I was doing when I was 23 either. I also didn't have a chorus of people sitting over my shoulder watching me type and tweeting about how badly I was doing it or how it would be better if I used the mouse with my left hand than with my right. Or something.

Other notes:

• Tommy Bergsland had a great goal line save after a puck got by Kraws. Having him as 7 or 8 in Texas will be a luxury.
• Muhonen had a rough game playing on his off side. He served up two of the six goals.