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Passing is another strong point. He can make the short soft pass on a defense to defense regroup, or a hard accurate pass to a streaking winger. He passes well without telegraphing his passes and did not commit a single turnover off a pass the entire game. He was able to make passes while under pressure and did not try to force a pass while being forechecked heavily. Several times during the game he would skate and stickhandle the puck out of heavy traffic and look for a quick outlet pass to make a strong transition. The first Seattle goal was the result of Bear making a long pass from his own zone to a streaking forward, which caught Prince George off guard and lead to an odd man rush that resulted in a goal. On the powerplay, Bear plays the top of the umbrella and was able to pass to both sides with quickness and accuracy. Excellent passing game.

The final skill to look at on the offensive side of the puck is Bear’s shooting. During the game, he took a total of 6 shots, with 4 of them coming on the PP. He does shoot very hard with a heavy shot, but during this game his shot tended to go a little higher than most coaches would be comfortable with. Out of the 6 shots taken, 4 were slapshots and two wrist shots. All shots were taken with a quick release and one-timers off a pass. All shots were taken in the middle lane of the ice and from a good angle.

Defensively, Bear’s skating skills combined with his great read and react skills make him a very tough defender to play against and his status as a No. 1 defenseman is well deserved. He was on the ice for 6 out of the 26 shots taken by Prince George, and in one case made a diving save on a shot from the edge of the crease when Seattle’s goalie was out of position. He was used by Coach Konowalchuk against Prince George’s top scorers (Chase Witala/Jesse Gabrielle) and kept both of them off the scoresheet. While he only made 2 hits the entire game, one gets the sense that he would hit more given the opportunity as this was a game that did not feature that many hits (second of a back to back on consecutive nights). Bear also played his position well and never got caught out of position once during the entire game, and this was even playing against players with more height and weight. He was not intimidated nor pushed around physically and appears to have great physical strength. Very solid defensive game, but also one with not much physical play in this viewing.