Well folks, Day 1 of the Preds rookie tournament is in the books. We had an army of photographers on the ground here at the Ford Ice Center, so we’ll have a super-duper picture gallery up here shortly, but here’s a couple of the high points:
- Lots of hockey fans made it out today! The arena was packed, not just for the Preds game, but for the Boston-Florida game earlier. Very impressive turnout!
- The Preds won! Due to the weird, made-up rules of the tournament, we got a 2-1 final that was sorta kinda a 4-2 final in the shootout.
- Filip Forsberg had a bit of an up and down game. Took a few penalties, but ended up with the game-winning (sort of, see above) goal.
- Speaking of penalties, good grief there were a ton of them. Six for Nashville in the second period alone.
- Kevin Fiala is crazy-fast. Had a breakaway that drew a penalty and another that he scored on.
- We got a good look at #1 pick Aaron Ekblad…check out this quick video of him in action.
- Jonathan Droiun is pretty spectacular as well. We’ll keep an eye on him throughout the weekend./