The Texas Stars opened training camp on Wednesday and instead of battling for a final roster spot in the NHL, Denis Gurianov was already practicing with the AHL team in Cedar Park.
Heading into training camp Gurianov was expected to at least battle for an NHL roster spot. He has a year of AHL experience under his belt and while it wasn’t likely that he would make the team, it seemed like a sure bet that he would be one of the first call-up options.
Instead Gurianov was one of the earlier cuts amongst the call-up hopefuls, and he appears to be trailing Roope Hintz, Remi Elie, Gemel Smith, and Jason Dickinson on the overall depth chart.
Stephen Meserve from 100 Degree Hockey sent me the audio of his conversation with Gurianov from the first day of AHL training camp, and the Russian said it’s been an eye-opening experience.
In order to get more NHL opportunities Gurianov said he needs to play better defense and work on his penalty killing. He also said he needs to better use his speed, and he noticed that during his NHL preseason games.
“I learned it was a a high speed and smart game with many shots and hits,” Gurianov said. “I learned I need more speed and need to use my strong size, speed and shot.”
As for his overall play in preseason games, Gurianov was non-commital.
“No, actually,” Gurianov said. “I need to ask coach.”
While Gurianov’s training camp may not have gone as planned, he still has a bright future if he can iron out the consistency issues in his game. There are stretches where he can take over the game, but there are equally long stretches where he seems to disappear
In the AHL this season he’ll still have a chance to play on the Texas Stars top line, and he could form an intriguing top-unit with Hintz if the Finn doesn’t make the final NHL roster.
New rules
The NHL has approved a rule change this season that an unsuccessful offside challenge will now be accompanied with a two-minute penalty on the team initiating the challenge.
In the past a team losing an offside challenge would lose a timeout, now they’ll be faced with the prospect of allowing a goal and going on the penalty kill immediately.
This rule kills off the practice of challenging a questionable offsides call for an extended timeout. Those were the more frustrating, game-stopping challenges.
While I think that’s a good thing, I also see the point that Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan made on Wednesday.
“Personally, the way I viewed it was the intent of the rule was to try and get the call right,” Sullivan told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette. “It seems to me like adding a punitive measure to a challenge is trying to discourage a challenge, and not necessarily to get the call right. If the league wants less challenges, that’s exactly what’s going to happen because if anything’s close, I’m not sure coaches are going to run the risk. For me, it was more about the intent of the rule, which was to get the call right.”
We’ll probably ask Stars coach Ken Hitchcock his opinion of the rule change after practice today.
Housekeeping notes
– The mailbag comes out tomorrow. You can respond to this tweet with your question, you can ask it on Reddit, or you can leave a comment on this post or the Wrong Side of the Red Line Facebook page.
Mailbag comes out Friday. Fire away with questions on Stars preseason, roster, players, prospects, or really anything else.
— Sean Shapiro (@seanshapiro) September 27, 2017
– The subscriber count for Wrong Side of the Red Line is up to 188. It was a goal of mine to get to 200 before the start of the regular season. If you like the coverage at this site and want access to more stories, considering subscribing for just $3 per month. If you’ve already subscribed — thanks again for supporting this site.
– I’m kicking around the idea of putting together a fantasy hockey league with slots for subscribers. If interested send me a Tweet or comment on this post. I’m not very good at fantasy hockey, so you’ll inevitably have a better record than I.
Catchup links
Half the NHL scouted the Stars this week, what did they see?
The Stars released RJ Umberger from his PTO
Today’s schedule
The Stars have practice at 10:30 a.m. in Frisco, it is open to the public. The players will also be at a season ticket holder party at Six Flags tonight at 7 p.m.
Chris Story says
I would love to join the fantasy hockey league! I have little experience as well, but am interested in playing!
TBox56 says
I’m in on the fantasy league.