After 3 days of the Pittsburgh Penguins' prospect camp in London, Ontario, Canada -- and 2 games of the 4-team rookie tournament -- it's something old and something new for the organ-I-zation.
Two players expected to lead the way for the team in the tournament involving the Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Blackhawks -- forward Dustin Jeffrey and defenseman Simon Despres -- have played as advertised, leading the way up front and on the blueline for the Penguins' rookies and helping them beat both the Senators' prospects (5-3) and Maple Leafs' prospects (2-1) on two consecutive nights Saturday and Sunday.
But it's the unexpected contributions the Penguins have gotten from goaltender Brad Thiessen and forwards Zack Sill and Geoff Walker that probably have played the biggest part in the Penguins being 2-0 heading into the tourament's final game tomorrow afternoon against the Blackhawks' youngsters.
Thiessen started both games and stopped 46 of 50 shots in the process, further staking claim to the organization's #3 netminder spot behind Marc-Andre Fleury and Brent Johnson.
Meanwhile, Sill scored twice Saturday night and, despite not getting on the scoresheet, arguably had an even better game last night.
He was abrasive, created all kinds of offense, and even dropped the gloves once.
Walker has come out of nowhere to make an impact in both games as well. Not surprisingly, he played on a line with Sill in both games. The big 6' 3", 225 pound forward -- signed as a free agent just last month after having what could only be considered an average last season split between the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League and the East Coast Hockey League -- has been a force down low and in the offensive zone.
Actually, he's doing a lot of what the Penguins have been hoping to see from Eric Tangradi -- the Penguins' top forward prospect (which doesn't say a lot for Tangradi, but does for Walker).
That's not to say that Walker has any legitimate chance of doing anything other than sticking with the Baby Penguins no matter how well he performs at the rest of the rookie camp or even the big league camp starting this weekend, but it's always neat to see guys rise up out of nowhere.
Tangradi, by the way, had a solid opening game against the Sens' prospects Saturday night, but short of displaying some physicality by coming to the aid of a teammate and dropping the gloves last night, wasn't as much of a factor in the second game.
The Penguins need to see more from him.
The bad news for the Penguins in the camp/tournament so far was that defenseman Alex Grant suffered a pretty bad injury on Saturday night when he was rocked into the boards from behind by one of Ottawa's prospects. He was taken off the ice immobilized on a stretcher and spent the night in a local hospital for oberservation.
He was diagnosed with whiplash and also suffered a broken arm/wrist on the play -- an injury that will unfortunately set Grant's development back for months.
I'll have another camp update later in the week.
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