Players Of The Week

A quiet Monday allows us to catch our breath and hand out "Player of the Week" honors for both the New York Islander and New York Ranger prospects. This week the prospects themselves made it very easy to choose because both Anders Lee and Danny Hobbs earned the same stars for Friday and Saturday night.

Islander Prospect of the Week Anders Lee

Anders Lee (2009 6th) put on a pretty good accounting of himself as the sophomore center had a 3-2-5 weekend as his 5th ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish split a 2 game series with Ohio State.

What made Lee stand out as both games, the Irish dug themselves into a hole and Lee was the centerpiece of their comebacks. On Friday evening, the Irish spotted Ohio State a 2-0 lead before beginning a 5 unanswered goal comeback.

Lee set up the game tying goal at 16:00 of the second period then scored the game winning goal at 3:19 of the 3rd period. Lee also added a 2nd goal late in the 3rd period to finish off a 5-2 win.

Lee was 2-1-3 in this win earning the game's first star. The next night Saturday the Irish dug themselves into a 4-0 hole only this time they were unable to escape from it.

Lee got Notre Dame on the scoreboard with his 5th goal of the season at 4:38 of the 3rd period then set up their second goal at 17:16 but while the Irish were able to pull within 1 at 4-3 that was as close as they got. Lee was 1-1-2 in this game as he was named the game's 2nd star.

On the season Anders Lee is now 5-3-8 in 4 games which is good for 2nd in the NCAA in goals (5) and tied for 4th in overall scoring (8). Have a feeling we will be seeing Lee here a lot this season.

Ranger's Prospect of the Week- Daniel Hobbs

There was a time when we too had written Daniel Hobbs (2007 7th) off as a serious Ranger prospect as his first 2 seasons at UMass Amherst were not exactly blowing anyone off the charts with his numbers.

Hobbs was 4-7-11 in 57 total games and things were not looking good for him. However Hobbs had a breakout junior season improving to 12-15-28 in 31 games.

This season as a senior, Hobbs is also the captain of the team and leading by example. In his 2011-12 season debut against Bentley, Hobbs had a 3 point night (1-2-3) to lead UMass to their first win of the season 5-3.

Hobbs scored UMass's 1st goal of the game at 3:42 of the first period which tied the game at 1-1. In the 2nd period this with UMass trailing 2-1, it was Hobbs setting up Michael Pereira for the game tying goal at 7:37.

In the 3rd period after UMass had taken a 3-2 lead, it was Hobbs once again setting up Pereira only this time it proved to be the game winning goal at 3:15. In all Hobbs was on the ice for 4 of the 5 UMass goals scored in this game.

On Saturday night Hobbs and his UMass teammates were on the road for their Hockey East league opener against Providence. However on this night it was UMass on the short end of a 6-4 score.

Providence jumped out to a 2-0 lead before Hobbs would answer with his 2nd goal of the season at 1:15 of the 2nd period to make it 2-1. Providence though built up a 4-2 lead before Hobbs would answer again with his 2nd goal of the game and 3rd of the season on the power play at 14:42 but 2 goals was as close as UMass got.

Hobbs wound up 3-2-5 over the 2 games which landed him in 40th on the NCAA scoring list (1 spot ahead of fellow prospect Chris Kreider). Hobbs is already way ahead of his last season's pace as he did not reach 3 goals until he had played in 9 games.

We hope that Danny lives up to the faith that Gordie Clark has always had in him as we still have our notes from the 2007 draft where Clark told us that Hobbs played up to his competition. In the Hockey East that is saying a lot given the high quality of play.

JT Miller

Peter Krupsky who is the Director of Communications and Community Relations for the Plymouth Whalers was kind enough to send to us a copy of the video from their game on Saturday night. In case you forgot it was the night JT Miller had 2 goals against the Sarnia Sting.

This is a much better copy than the video we previously had at this not only has the goals but shows replays on how exactly the goals were scored. It is pretty good stuff as the first goal comes up at 4:02 of the video and the 2nd was 6:24.

Think people will like what they see here as the one thing we love about Miller is his attack is direct and nothing fancy. He keeps to the basics and makes them work which is exactly what he should be doing.

We want to see how he does as the season goes on but if he maintains this then this will most likely be his only season in the OHL.

(Lee/Notre Dame, Hobbs/UMass/Amherst Athletics)