Zero issue with how the entire team played tonight. Everyone put forth a strong effort and the Islanders had very little zone time. It's a real change this year to see how quickly we're stopping forechecks and cycling from evolving in our own zone. And the forwards are generally in a decent spot to facilitate a break out. Which is also a big difference than years past.
It's very apparent that when Zib is unable to drive and maintain possession that line has a very hard time generating consistent offense and zone time.
I think Panarin's east west style is a detriment to playing with Kakko and Laf right now. Both those kids needs to go N/S and keep moving their feet.
In a game like tonight, we needed more shifts where the team established a cycle and created traffic and point shots. But Panarin often sets a tone where suddenly everyone gets a little too fancy. We need all the guys going N/S with two exceptions, Fox and Panarin.
Just as an experiment, I would like to see a line of Kakko/Rooney/Laff.
Our only two possession centers are Chytil and Zib. It's going to be a struggle until we have center depth.
But again, i have no complaints with how the team played and their effort. The only play that bugged me was when they seemed to stop playing on the delayed penalty that led to the 2nd goal. But otherwise, I'll gladly take this effort every night.
