Friday, September 21, 2007

Last Night's Notable Preseason Players (Sep 21)

It's posted a little bit later than usual, but here's some of the big performers from some of the preseason games that happened on Thursday.

Craig Anderson had himself a little redemption as his new club, the Panthers, walked into his old club's building in Chicago and stopped all 38 shots he faced in a 1-0 shutout win. Anderson, who will be backing up Tomas Vokoun this season will have a little more opportunity to show his stuff in the coming preseason games, but we all know that Vokoun will handle the bulk of the load. He should be ranked a bit higher than some back-ups, but you have to remember, he's still in Florida.

If there was ever a time to make an impression for a goalie in New Jersey, it's in the preseason. We all know that Martin Brodeur is going to see at least 70 games, so when Kevin Weekes and Frank Doyle got the call last night, they made the best of it. They stopped all 24 shots they faced against Boston to share the shutout. Weekes signed on to be the back-up and will more than likely take the job when the cuts are made. He just might be a late, late, late round goalie for the number of games he'll likely play.

There were a couple of 3-point performances in Dallas from the Colorado Avalanche. Eric Healey had a pair of goals and an assist, while John-Micheal Liles had 3 assists in the 6-3 win over Dallas. Healey is still playing for a spot in the line-up and he'll likely have to beat out guys like Mark Rycroft or Brad Richardson for a job with the big club and a good 2-goal effort should help things along. Healey signed a 1-year deal with the club on July 13th.

So far in the preseason, the questions have been raised about Vancouver's offense. Ryan Kesler made a point to single himself out as a guy who can help the team score some goals and he walked the walk against Edmonton on Friday night by having a goal and two assists in the 5-4 win. The Canucks will benefit greatly from Kesler if he remains healthy, he could very well be a guy that can get the team upwards of 40-50 points.

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