OK, purely from watching the game last night:
Pouliot-Brassard-Zuccarello seems like the only line capable of creating scoring chances. The top line had a few but seemed to struggle throughout. The bottom-6 just seemed, there... They had the puck in the OZ at times but nothing really happened.
Staal showed some good offensive instincts, was forced to switch sides mid-game with MDZ since Michael obviously cannot play to the right. MDZ was a mixed bag with some nice offensive moves but then his passes were picked off and the play went the other way. Girardi was better than in pre-season broke up a few nice plays and saved a breakaway, but still cannot be trusted to complete a pass longer than the distance between the circle and the blue-line. Seeing him attempt cross-ice passes on the PP (which he shouldn't even be on) made me cringe. McDonagh was just invisible throughout, it was like he never returned from that puck to the face. I felt Strålman had a good game, but that might be biases clouding my judgement. But he was never really on for chances against and usually involved in chances for, plus his breakouts were as good as always. Moore I don't know, didn't like his game TBH. The pass for the first goal went between him and the net, it is obvious he only played a few months for Torts as that was basically the biggest no-no. Made some bad decisions that got him into trouble, trying to rely on his skating instead of just passing the puck.
Hank. Terrible save percentage, but I didn't feel that any of the goals were particularly soft. Blatant interference on the 2nd goal.
The PP looked good when they managed to set up with control. Though there were times when they were struggling to enter the zone.
The PK looked bad, really bad.
Looking at the stat sheet:
Pouliot-Brassard-Zuccarello wasn't as effective as I thought, having roughly the same possession numbers as the top line. But I still feel like they did create higher quality scoring chances. Pyatt-Boyle-Fast actually dominated their opposition somehow, spending a lot more time in the offensive zone than the defensive. But they never really did anything with it. D. Moore and Miller got buried, absolutely buried. That can't continue or we'll have a liability of a 4th line once again.
On D, Strålman did have a good game significantly out possessing and out chancing the opposition. Del Zotto (barely) managed more on-ice shot attempts than the opposition, but they all got blocked or missed and was dominated in shots on goal. Staal's numbers were similar, but slightly worse than MDZ's. Girardi, Moore, and especially McDonagh got buried 5v5. I'd explain away G-Mac's numbers a bit in that they got caught on that long change after the PK that resulted in the 2-1 goal, but still not encouraging. J. Moore is interesting because he played all of the 2nd and 3rd periods with Strålman, yet Strålman ended up at the top and he at the bottom of the chart. The discrepancy must have been achieved in the first where they jumbled the pairings and in those short moments where the changing of the D gets out of sync. So as soon as Moore got away from Strålman he was immediately buried.
