I couldn't even think about the Rangers last night after this loss. Just a horrific game and effort.
Even during their hot streak, this team has rarely played a good 60-minute game. They were winning despite 1-2 bad periods usually with a one incredible period. It's a young team and I think we should be happy with the team, but it has a lot of room to go, especially defensively.
We are a tire fire in our own zone. Even Panarin is a turnover machine in our own zone lately. As long as he puts up points, we can look past it, but still. Some might think that I'm piling on Strome, but I've always felt that he was lazy. I'm just not very vocal on this board. I know he puts up points, but he's a passenger. He seems always late on plays that Panarin or someone else sets him up on. Yes, he puts up points, but his defense is annoying. There were a few times that the puck on was just a couple of feet away from him on the pp and we lost possession because he was either late to react, too slow, or just not hustling.
While on the topic of our power play, the second pp line is just awful. We're basically just killing the clock with these guys. As others have said, how is Lemieux on that power play instead of someone like Gaulthier? Lemieux has been very disappointing to me this year. No development at all. All he does is chirp. Great. Keep him on the 4th line for that, but he's not offering up much else. He had that nice run after the trade, but nothing this year. He's playing higher than he should, much like Fast.
Shesty had a bad game. It had to be rust or he just fed off the energy of the rest of the team.
Chytil had the nice goal, but good God he is lost in his own zone. He's going to need major improvement defensively if he is going to remain a center. Defense really isn't too hard. You need to understand positioning, communicate with teammates, and put in the effort. That said, I think this team has a systematic problem with defense, yet somehow Ruff still has a job. It's not just the defense, it's a team effort up including the forwards. Quinn has to do better at addressing this problem.
Good game by McKegg. Fox made some great plays despite being a minus for the night. Gaulthier flashes his talent at times, but also needs to improve defensively.
I think Lindgren has looked pretty bad lately with the increased ice time. He, too, is playing higher than he should be. It's a common theme for this team right now, but we're probably ahead of schedule. Just keep patient and hopefully we fill in the holes next season and hopefully try to address our defensive deficiencies.
