Making Liars out of us all

# 19 Adam Tambellini (Steve Hiscock)

So a day that started out with a couple of texts between friends in North Dakota, Calgary, and Portland ended with 2013 3rd round pick Adam Tambellini in Saskatoon walking away with the game's 1st star as he led his new team the Calgary Hitmen to a 6-4 win over the Saskatoon Blades. Tambellini who informed North Dakota he was leaving their team on Tuesday evening was in contact with Calgary on Wednesday morning making arrangements to join the team in Saskatoon while the team traded a 2014 WHL Bantam 1st round pick for the rights to Tambellini.

It turned out that Tambellini has a close childhood friend on the Hitmen Greg Chase which is why the native of Edmonton wanted to play for Calgary instead of either the Portland Winterhawks or his hometown Edmonton Oil Kings. During the day, the critics ripped on Tambellini saying he made a mistake laving North Dakota (include me in this list almost) and Tambellini responded with one heck of a debut.

The game started innocent enough with Tambellini earning a secondary assist on a power play goal which tied the game up at 1-1 at 11:57 of the 1st period. Tambellini passes the puck over to the right point where Alex Roach fires a shot on net that rebounds right to Brady Brassart who has a wide open empty net to poke the puck into.

Tambellini would draw a power play for the Hitmen by attacking the net and getting tripped up for his efforts. The Blades however would score a shorthanded goal during the power play to take a 2-1 first period lead. The Blades would add another goal before the period would end to make it a 3-1 game. 36 seconds after Saskatoon would make it a 3-1 game, Tambellini would pick up a loose puck coming down the left side of the offensive zone and fire the puck on net. The puck would bounce right to Zane Jones who would make it a 3-2 game at 16:49.

Tambellini with just under 1 minute remaining in the 2nd period would take advantage of a blind Saskatoon clearing attempt as the puck wound up on his stick where he would fire and beat Saskatoon goalie Troy Trobley to ties the game up at 3-3. In the 3rd period the teams would trade goals when Tambellini would finish his night with his 3rd assist and 4th point of the night when he skated from behind the goal line where he would find a wide open Jake Virtanen for what proved to be the game winning goal.

A 4 point night, the game's first star and the (http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/jrhockey-buzzing-the-net/tambellini-nets-four-points-hitmen-whl-debut-wednesday-060416647.html) for his efforts. SO now the big question of the night which is was this the right move by Tambellini?

If his reasoning was that he wasn't going to get ice time at North Dakota then sorry the blame is on him because North Dakota gave him plenty at the beginning of the season. Tambellini didn't produce (2-2-4 in 16 games) and all the signs were there that North Dakota was increasing his ice time. I don't want to rain on his excellent debut but Tambellini has set his own bar really high and he won't be playing 11th (out of 12) place Saskatoon every night so Tambellini is going to discover that his very skinny body just could hurt him down the road,

Anthony Duclair (Le journal Quebec.ca)

For those of you who are WWE fans then you know that for Adam Tambellini "To be the man you have to beat the man" as right now the king of New York Ranger prospects remains Anthony "The Duke" Duclair (NYR 2013 3rd). 4 point night? The Duke already has 3 of them this season (including a 4 goal game) and nothing against Tambellini but Duclair after a 2-1-3 is 35-28-63 on the season (2nd QMJHL).

Duclair has goals or points in 11 out of his last 12 games (13-15-28) oh and Quebec is now 5-0-0-2 in their last 7 games.

Kyle Burroughs had a primary assist on what turned out to be Regina's 5th goal as they had not trouble defeating the Red Deer Rebels. For Burroughs it was his 20th assist 0f the season (3-21-24) and they pushed the recomnendations for punishment. Still whiooks a a glass a of water to me.