So from my view these are my general thoughts
Zegras: one of our better forwards but I feel like he would be better served if he moved for open ice with a little more confidence like that chance he had against San Jose where he more or less split a sleeping defense. Mac's poor puck management is holding him back.
Mac: for all the shit Killorn and Gauthier are taking I thought Mac was just as much of a net negative if not more so. He's just not thinking before he makes plays, he can't win a faceoff, he's not defending well. At best the puck will find him and he'll take a low danger shot from the faceoff dots. I get rust is possible but this guy is really concerning me. I'm starting to get the sense that there's a real hockey IQ issue here.
Carlsson: from my view in the lower bowl, yeah he didn't have a good game. I'm not going to sugar coat that. But to play devil's advocate a bit, it did look like most pucks that came to him were bouncing or rolling and I think the bigger issue tonight was settling pucks and getting possession than making smart choices with the puck. It didn't help that Killorn turned the puck over 90% of the time he touched it and that forced his line to do a lot of skating back to the defensive zone, but a guy with his abilities does need to be more adept at getting to loose pucks and dictating o-zone possession. And he still needs to work on faceoffs.
Killorn: I mean this was just about as poor a game as you can get for a forward. I can count the times he had the puck and didn't cause it to result in a Vegas possession on one hand and I can't really credit him for easy two foot passes with no defensive pressure. He was constantly behind the play, he lost every battle, he was abysmal at triggering transition play, and he even inadvertently blocked his own teammates' shots and passes at least 3-4 times. I get there's rust and I get he'd older, but this is below replacement level hockey. Leo and Cutter were not good enough but Killorn was an active and pervasive disruption to the line's ability to establish any flow or possession and that's two games in a row.
Luneau: I'm not against sending him to the AHL for conditioning but I don't think he was like this utter incompetent who isn't ready for this level. I thought outside of the shitty turnover, he actually played a pretty solid game. He had one other time he mistimed his defensive coverage but I can't really think of any other poor plays and he was one of the most engaged blueliners at actually mixing up the offensive play.
Cutter: I liked his energy tonight overall but he's still playing too...jumpy is the best word I have for it. He made at least four passes without looking just assuming a teammate would be there. I actually feel like his physical tools and general style of play works just fine for this level of hockey. He just needs to calm down and think/look before he passes the puck. Maybe some AHL time would help but I feel it's something he can work on it before we send him down.
Mintyukov: think he was solid overall in the defensive zone but I'd like to see him push the issue a little more offensively.
Fowler: I've always been a borderline apologist but there's no two ways about it. He sucked tonight. Basically blueline Killorn but at least he made some decent defensive plays.
Fabbri: he was fine at carrying the puck around with speed but he wasn't executing on his passes either. Felt like Mac held the line back, but Fabbri didn't really help either.
Dumoulin: no complaints no notes.
Reimer: he was shaky at times but overall that was a solid performance for a back up.
Lundestrom: fourth line in general was the best line again (which is concerning) but it really felt like Lundestrom was stirring the drink. I wish more of our forwards played like him and that's a really concerning thing to wish.
Terry: great play on the goal but his puck management was not great. Symptomatic of the whole team but that was too many passes to absolutely nobody.
In general the team executed okay in the first but it was like the wheels came off in the second. I think a lot of these issues you can chop up to rust after a week off and then following it with a B2B game. I'm hoping next week we'll see some improvements across the board. If we don't, I'm right back to questioning the coaching.
Zegras: one of our better forwards but I feel like he would be better served if he moved for open ice with a little more confidence like that chance he had against San Jose where he more or less split a sleeping defense. Mac's poor puck management is holding him back.
Mac: for all the shit Killorn and Gauthier are taking I thought Mac was just as much of a net negative if not more so. He's just not thinking before he makes plays, he can't win a faceoff, he's not defending well. At best the puck will find him and he'll take a low danger shot from the faceoff dots. I get rust is possible but this guy is really concerning me. I'm starting to get the sense that there's a real hockey IQ issue here.
Carlsson: from my view in the lower bowl, yeah he didn't have a good game. I'm not going to sugar coat that. But to play devil's advocate a bit, it did look like most pucks that came to him were bouncing or rolling and I think the bigger issue tonight was settling pucks and getting possession than making smart choices with the puck. It didn't help that Killorn turned the puck over 90% of the time he touched it and that forced his line to do a lot of skating back to the defensive zone, but a guy with his abilities does need to be more adept at getting to loose pucks and dictating o-zone possession. And he still needs to work on faceoffs.
Killorn: I mean this was just about as poor a game as you can get for a forward. I can count the times he had the puck and didn't cause it to result in a Vegas possession on one hand and I can't really credit him for easy two foot passes with no defensive pressure. He was constantly behind the play, he lost every battle, he was abysmal at triggering transition play, and he even inadvertently blocked his own teammates' shots and passes at least 3-4 times. I get there's rust and I get he'd older, but this is below replacement level hockey. Leo and Cutter were not good enough but Killorn was an active and pervasive disruption to the line's ability to establish any flow or possession and that's two games in a row.
Luneau: I'm not against sending him to the AHL for conditioning but I don't think he was like this utter incompetent who isn't ready for this level. I thought outside of the shitty turnover, he actually played a pretty solid game. He had one other time he mistimed his defensive coverage but I can't really think of any other poor plays and he was one of the most engaged blueliners at actually mixing up the offensive play.
Cutter: I liked his energy tonight overall but he's still playing too...jumpy is the best word I have for it. He made at least four passes without looking just assuming a teammate would be there. I actually feel like his physical tools and general style of play works just fine for this level of hockey. He just needs to calm down and think/look before he passes the puck. Maybe some AHL time would help but I feel it's something he can work on it before we send him down.
Mintyukov: think he was solid overall in the defensive zone but I'd like to see him push the issue a little more offensively.
Fowler: I've always been a borderline apologist but there's no two ways about it. He sucked tonight. Basically blueline Killorn but at least he made some decent defensive plays.
Fabbri: he was fine at carrying the puck around with speed but he wasn't executing on his passes either. Felt like Mac held the line back, but Fabbri didn't really help either.
Dumoulin: no complaints no notes.
Reimer: he was shaky at times but overall that was a solid performance for a back up.
Lundestrom: fourth line in general was the best line again (which is concerning) but it really felt like Lundestrom was stirring the drink. I wish more of our forwards played like him and that's a really concerning thing to wish.
Terry: great play on the goal but his puck management was not great. Symptomatic of the whole team but that was too many passes to absolutely nobody.
In general the team executed okay in the first but it was like the wheels came off in the second. I think a lot of these issues you can chop up to rust after a week off and then following it with a B2B game. I'm hoping next week we'll see some improvements across the board. If we don't, I'm right back to questioning the coaching.
