Damon's confidence and eagerness to carry the puck up ice was the central theme of his play in this game. He never seemed to back down from an opportunity to use his feet to rush pucks up ice or evade a forechecker with a lateral move and just oozed a desire to play with the puck on his stick. His footwork was the focal point, enabling him to play this style as he had the tools necessary to carry pucks through the neutral with ease. While he wasn't perfect and had a couple of turnovers when overextending himself, Stodola was successful way more often than not, and was the Rebels leader in transition.

I could mention a few players on the Rebels, but Stodola was the one I felt rose above the pack. He was a strong and powerful skater who was clean in his pivots and turns, giving him that baseline mobility I am looking for in my preliminary assessment of defenders. He relied on this mobility well to shut down attackers coming his way and also push play forward with some nice sequences of taking the ice in front of him for controlled zone entries. He was able to connect on most of his outlet passes, speaking more about this build of a defender that I should watch more to untangle his game further.