Sheng Peng
The San Jose Barracuda are doing a lot of game planning for a familiar face.
The day before the beginning of the No. 6 seed’s match-up against Pacific Division top-seed Colorado Eagles, a five-game series that starts on May 2 at Tech CU Arena, the Cuda were drilling down on how to stop ex-San Jose Sharks forward-defenseman Jacob MacDonald on the power play.
MacDonald set an AHL single-season record for defenseman with 31 goals this past year, 13 on the PP.
So assistant coach Louis Mass, in charge of the defense and penalty kill, drew a line in…the ice.
Anyway, how does the rest of the hockey world see this match-up between the San Jose Sharks and Colorado Avalanche’s AHL affiliates? San Jose Hockey Now reached out to multiple scouts and league sources to get their thoughts and predictions.
Safe to say, critics took note of how well the Cuda played in their first-round sweep of the Ontario Reign.
Back to Mass’s line in the ice.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen that,” first-choice PK’er Patrick Giles said.
“I haven’t seen that one,” top San Jose Sharks prospect Luca Cagnoni, who played the role of “Scout Jacob MacDonald” in this drill, remarked.
“That was just to work on seams and routes that they like to hit. It was a nice visual,” Giles said. “So we can just map out our routes a little bit better.”
“We’re gonna see where he plays, if he’s on the top or on his half-wall,” Cagnoni said. “We’ve seen him a lot on the half-wall lately.”
The result for Barracuda-Eagles may rest on if the Cuda are able to contain MacDonald, who’s also Colorado’s leading goal-scorer.
“He’ll shoot it from anywhere, especially seams on one-timers,” veteran Colin White said. “That’s a big emphasis for us to take that away.”
He added, with a laugh, “Just getting in lanes and block them too is important. Being a pig.”
Executive #1
“I think it’s a really close series, but I think San Jose wins,” Executive #1 said.
The Barracuda should be aided by the probable returns of winger Danil Gushchin, who led the AHL with 14 power play goals, and defenseman Lucas Carlsson, a plenty prolific goal-scorer himself. San Jose is second in the Pacific Division with 244 goals.
“Colorado is really physical and defensive. Don’t give up much,” he said. [But] San Jose has a lot of offense, so they can combat that.”
The Cuda had success against a somewhat similar team in the Reign.
“Ontario is bigger and more physical. Colorado is not as big but play heavy,” he said. “They give you less room [because they] check quicker.”
But this exec thinks that the Barracuda’s own star will be the difference-maker: “[The Eagles don’t have a lot of high-end scorers], so with [Yaroslav] Askarov, they could be in trouble.”
Scout #1
“It’s a toss-up,” the scout said.
“I like San Jose lately. But the Colorado system and four-line attack is their strength.”
11 Eagles, led by MacDonald, Tye Felhaber, Jayson Megna, Chris Wagner, and two-time AHL MVP T.J. Tynan, have scored double-digit goals, leading the division with 250. Add to that, they’re the only team in the Pacific Division to give up less than 200 goals this season.
But?
Trent Miner has been excellent this season behind a very structured team, but he’s no, you guessed it, Askarov.
“San Jose’s goaltending is far superior.”
Scout #2
“I like San Jose.”
Once again, the difference could be between the pipes: “If Askarov is on his game, they have scoring and grit up front. Skill and some quality defensemen.”