MARLBORO, Mass.—The 2022 Beantown Spring Classic's first day of action took place on Thursday with games in three different divisions at the New England Sports Center occurring through Saturday.
New England Hockey Journal took in most of the action, along with prep schools, colleges and NHL scouts in attendance. While there was a strong pool of area talent, the event itself is a far cry from what it used to be in terms of the number of teams and participating players. With just two teams per division and three games per day, there were a lot of good players here. The two-half format, however, is not all that conducive to identifying the habits and details of each player, as the contests we saw were conducted in an all-star fashion. Rosters were not initially available, and had limited information with handwritten numbers.
For the participating players, this was an opportunity to showcase their skating and skills (there wasn’t much physical play), and we give them credit for being here to compete. We’d love to see this event get back to what it once was, with a wider and expanded appeal for the player demographics. To be fair, the inability to build more than two teams in each division can likely be attributed to the conflict of schedules. The New England District playoffs for the critical 15-only, 16, and 18-under divisions were taking place this weekend in Connecticut, for example. With the proliferation of hockey events and competitions at this time of year versus in years past, that’s a challenge, but not an insurmountable one.
With all of this in mind, here are some of the players who impressed on the first day:
