I kept trying to put together a few notes, but I just kept coming back to the same thing...This was the definition of one-line performance. Apart from the top line, the rest of the team was flat out MIA.
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TK, Couts, Michkov were so good, they are off the chart above, so below is the forward group sorted by xGF/60 for today's game.
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When it comes to the Frost benching, I can't completely disagree with it in this instance. I didn't think he did a good job in coverage on the Faber goal (he wasn't late coming back like DH said, but he missed his check). He cleanly got beat on another faceoff and it resulted in a GA. I don't like it holding that against him solely, but I get it. The missed shot is frustrating -- but I absolutely put as much blame on Hathaway for passing back to Frost when he had more than 75% of the net open for him. Still, I get an occasional benching.
My issue, as it has been going back to last season, and the season before that, it's clear that Frost will never get a fair shake from Torts. It just won't happen - he's not a Torts-type player. No matter what, Torts will criticize Frost more heavily than other skaters because in his head, if he's not producing, he's not helping the team. He'll point to the plays outlined above as examples to rationalize Frost's benching, neglecting the two plus years of positive defensive impacts he's provided at the NHL. He'll put him with offensive blackholes like Hathaway and currently Tippett and rationalize that the center must be the facilitator of offence and if those guys aren't scoring it's his fault.
I also find it not-completely-incidental that the Frost scratching comes on the same day that the organization sent Jett back....Many players, basically the entire forward group sans Michkov, TK, Couts, were blackholes and deserved limited ice time. We know Torts was the driving force behind keeping Jett here. Could scratching Frost basically be an FU to the front office from Torts?....Listen, I know it's a stretch to say that, and I wouldn't even think that if it wasn't Torts. It's significant speculation, I know that, but we know what type of person Torts is. He's an asshole.