My Three Thoughts on Blue Jackets-Red Wings (prospect tournament edition)

Wild, wild game.

The Columbus Blue Jackets have always been a dominant team in the Traverse City Prospects tournament.

When this tournament still awarded a champion, the Blue Jackets won six of them. The banner still hangs on the wall here at Centre Ice Arena, and this year Columbus brought a loaded roster with it that featured four first-round picks, including one of the deepest blue lines I’ve ever seen at this tournament.

So it was kind of fitting that Columbus won one of the wildest games I’ve covered in this tournament dating back to 2015, defeating the Detroit Red Wings 10-7.

Detroit actually led 3-1 at the end of the first period and 4-1 early in the second before the Blue Jackets went on a seven-goal run in the second period.

In the third period, sprinkled in between the 17 combined goals, a pair of first-round picks fought as Marco Kasper kerfuffled with Corson Ceulemans.

It was a fun, chaotic day of hockey. Here are my thoughts.

1. Adam Fantilli is going to be a joy to watch this season.
   
   It’s not really much of a surprise. Fantilli won the Honey Baker last season as a freshman at Michigan and then went No. 3 in the 2023 NHL Draft. In years where a player not named Connor Bedard is available, a player like Fantilli likely would have gone No. 1.
   
   But sometimes it’s just fun to marvel at elite talent. We watch sports because we want to see players do cool shit, and Fantilli does lots of cool shit — pardon my French.