Spencer Knight a 'Brick Wall' at USA Hockey Camp
"Even today, guys were still trying to figure out how to score on him," defenseman Cam York said via Zoom teleconference shortly after the annual camp had wrapped up on Tuesday afternoon. "He's so calm back there. He makes life as a defenseman super easy. There's really no weakness to his game."
In preparation for the upcoming 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship, Knight was one of 42 players that were invited to take part in the camp at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan from Oct. 8-13.
Selected by the Panthers with the 13th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft, the 19-year-old once again has his eyes set on Team USA's starting goaltending job after manning the crease for the Red, White & Blue during a solid showing at the 2020 World Juniors in which he went 2-2-0 with a .913 save percentage.
Despite not leaving with a medal, he was named one of USA's "Top-3 Players" at last year's event.
"Playing last year definitely helps," said Knight, who also won a silver medal as a backup goalie with Team USA at the 2019 World Juniors. "As a goalie, I think every good goalie wants to play. They feel better when they're playing and not just going in and out of games and stuff. That causes inconsistency. Being able to play a bunch, feel the grind of a tournament, it's a lot. I think that's actually a good part."
Taking a page out of the NHL's postseason, a bubble was implemented for USA's camp at the arena and players received regular testing for the coronavirus throughout the duration of their stay. For the World Juniors, which will be held from Dec. 25, 2020 through Jan. 5, 2021 in Edmonton, it'll likely be the same.
Still, Knight said the camp was the closest thing he's seen to normal since the pandemic began in March.
"It was nice to get three scrimmages under our belt," Knight said. "Just being able to go through the pre-game routine and playing a scrimmage that had a really good pace to it, it was definitely the closest thing to normal I've had."
When he isn't starring on the international stage, Knight is currently preparing for his sophomore season at Boston College. Already back on campus, he said he is currently skating "a couple of times" a week, with the entire team being split into two separate groups in order to maintain sound social distancing.
Looking to build upon an amazing freshman campaign, Knight started all but one game for the Eagles in 2019-20, posting a 23-8-2 record with a 1.97 goals-against average and .931 save percentage. Not done there, he also ranked third in the nation with five shutouts, including one in his second-ever NCAA start.
On track to lead Boston College into the NCAA Tournament, Knight went on a career-best, nine-game unbeaten streak before the pandemic brought the entire world of sports to a halt. During that stellar stretch, he allowed more than two goals just once while turning aside more than 25 shots five times.
In addition to being named a finalist for the Mike Richter Award, which is handed out annually to the nation's top goalie, he also earned a spot on the Hockey East Second All-Star Team, was a unanimous selection to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team, and took home a total of six Hockey East Weekly Awards.
Heading into the 2020-21 season, Knight believes the Eagles will contend for the NCAA championship.
"A really good season from top to bottom," Knight said in May. "I thought we had a very deep team. From the seniors down to the freshman, everyone was contributing, which was great. It was a great year on the ice. What really drew to that was that everyone was so close.
"The thought in the room was that no one was trying to get their numbers for themselves. We all had a very [win-first] approach to the game. No one cared about what it would take or what they did individually, it was all about the team. When we were playing well, everything was clicking."
As for the upcoming World Juniors, Knight's USA teammates are just happy that he's on their side.
"He's a brick wall, just to start off," forward Matthew Beniers said of Knight, who stands 6-foot-3 and 192 pounds. "He's very calm in net. He doesn't get rattled easily. He's really hard to score on. He takes up a lot of the net. He's extremely good, east to west. You don't really have a lot of options. You have to get screens on him, make sure he can't see the puck, because he's saving pretty much everything else."
\Photo courtesy of USA Hockey*
