USC met familiar foe Long Beach State at their normal practice time, at their normal practice rink in front of a packed house of 5 fans. This wasn't a game, but for USC it was almost certainly something they needed. It was a chance to forget and it was certainly the best USC practice the team could have expected. The scrimmage had two referees, two 30 minute halves, and no penalties called. It was friendly, but full contact and full speed. The style reminded me a bit of an All-Star game. Lots of offense, not nearly enough defense. Here's some observations from the USC bench.
- The Trojans solidified lines for Pac-8's. It looks like barring any late absences, it will be
Cardinal: Helmer, Adler, Lofthus
Gold: Zacuto, Comisar, Landsinger
Teal: McClanathan, Mason, Szentveri
Green: Ernst, Anderson, Dawson
- Those combinations worked fairly well during the scrimmage, and USC had something it has been missing all season long. Scoring balance. Cardinal line scored 2 goals. Gold line scored 3 goals. Teal line scored 2 goals. Offensive chemistry was there far more than it has been in months. A positive sign for this weekend, perhaps.
- Three forwards in particular stood out to me during the scrimmage. Adam Zacuto, Cory Adler, and Scott Mason.
- For Zacuto's part, the Sniper of Troy struck fear into the heart of well, his own goaltender. Phil Adams swapped into net for Long Beach State for the second half of the scrimmage. Zacuto got his first on Phil by flipping the puck up in the air a little toward the near post side and then wristing a trademark top-corner shot past Adams' glove-side. Zacuto used a little backhand to get his second on Adams, and finished off the hat trick from a low set-up feed from Mitchell Landsinger.
- Cory Adler looked like a man on a mission the entire scrimmage. He skated harder and with more intent than he has all year. Adler got the Trojans' first tally of the scrimmage with a hard-charging goal off of a rush. Look out, Adler is one to watch this Friday as he enters his last Pac-8 Tournament.
- Scott Mason showed off that scoring potential that gets hidden when he sits in the penalty box or fills more of a physical role. His first goal was a neat backhand following Hite pinching and keeping the puck inside the blue line. His second goal was a top shelf beauty that had Coach Wilbur asking: "Where did that come from?". However, he also had his stick up too high on a couple of occasions and will need to watch his discipline this upcoming weekend.
- Goaltender Phil Adams got nothing but grief from his bench. After Adam Kwon let in a weird angle shot late in the "first half", Wilbur ribbed the goaltender. "That one was from almost as wide as the one you let in on Thursday." Adams laughed, shook his head and replied, "Too soon, coach. Too soon." Following Zacuto's first goal, the bench chided Adams for not covering Zacuto's favorite corner on the shot. It was all in good fun.
- The defense adopted a habit of doing ten pushups after every goal allowed. Long Beach responded by doing crunches after their first goal allowed, and later, by doing pushups that were a little closer to a whole different kind of workout (family blog, use your imagination). Even the 49er goaltender did pushups after allowing a goal.
- This was a controlled scrimmage, and Coach Wilbur relished his opportunity to control. At the start of a lengthy powerplay practice, Wilbur realized that the Teal line was out there and not the desired Cardinal line. Coach proceeded to pull out his whistle and halt play from the bench. Players and referees were confused for a minute, before one of the officials skated to the bench to get clarification. "It's a coach's dream come true," said Wilbur.
- Adams made his first appearance of the scrimmage by making a live line change behind the play with the 49er keeper.
- On one bad giveaway by Justin O'Neill, Coach yelled his lungs out in a funny, almost mocking kind of way. As the blueliner skated back to the bench, he smiled at Wilbur and said, "I'm just trying to make it exciting Wilbur!"
- USC's coaches weren't the only ones giving the players advice. As the 49ers broke through the neutral zone, they egged James Anderson to backcheck harder.
- Defensively USC gave up a boatload of odd-man rushes. That could be a by-product of the night being a scrimmage rather than a game, but it's something that needs to be tightened up in a big, big way before the tournament. One of the specific problems was that a defenseman would pinch in and get the puck in behind the net with possession, but none of the forwards would drop back to cover for him. UCLA got most of their goals off of turnovers and odd-man rushes.
- Following the 7-7 tie, both benches emptied for an (almost) all squad shootout. Highlights included: Zacuto's two shootout goals with the exact same move he always uses. The second one was met with boo's from his team because he'd jumped the line and gone twice.
Clark McClanathan's miss followed by a hara-kiri "I am dishonored" performance in the spotlight of the faceoff circle. What a ham...
Long Beach State's broadcaster missing on the backhand followed by James Anderson attempting a similar move and missing in the same way immediately afterward.
Adam Kwon scoring on his shootout attempt.
Me sliding a puck behind Zack Keith on my attempt (in all fairness, he sort of let me have it).
- Coach Wilbur saw this as a perfect opportunity to get the team having fun again following the loss to the Bruins. It certainly appeared to give the guys a boost. During my time at USC, the team has always played better when it's been having fun and bringing enthusiasm to the bench. Of course, winning helps that more than anything...
- The Trojans will practice Wednesday in Anaheim for one final tune-up before Pac-8's.
Possible positive signs here, but it's hard to know for sure until Friday morning less than five days away.
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