Noticeable better effort than the first game. We were the better team for sure, winning lots of one on one battles, forechecking better and creating turnovers.
Love love love the addition of carrier to the staal line. If he can stay healthy that line is really going to help us this season. We still have hands of stone staal to not be able to finish many of the high danger chances created but net overall I think scoring will be higher on the line with carrier on it..
While there were lots of little individual moments or moments with 2 of the three forwards but not all three, and what could have been some really good chances, the top 6 is still not quite in synch.. something just off a bit. Need all 3 forwards to get going at the same time. Aho not quite his usual self. Necas not where he wants to be and falling at bad spots and turning over pucks.. but he did fight hard to try to recover from mistakes instead of quitting on a play or being left behind on the counter attack stemming from his turnovers…
PK is our number 1A now and should be seeded as such. Wish he had been given the opener instead of Freddie… Brindy trying to still show deference to the vet needs to be different in this situation and let the young one get more starts and get on a heater.. the first goal he gave up is as much about how we let Hughes get off a basically uncontested shot right in the slot…. He would have liked both goals back even with the other being an undeserved 5 on 3 power play for them…. But in between PK took care of all the must have saves that could have altered momentum. He was lightning quick with some tougher than they look reactionary saves. We give up so many high danger shots that pop up quickly from seemingly nowhere that are hard for goalies. PK has a faster reaction I think than Freddie at the moment. Freddie tends to use technique to cover net areas and block shots letting stuff hit him. PK seems to make more active saves and struggles sometimes to play calmer and let stuff just hit him…. Last night we needed more PK than a typical Freddie kind of night and PK was up to the challenge
We as a team weren’t trying to get to the slot.. when we did you had the Jarvis goal… while it worked and showed his skill when Blake was able to tip in his goal, it was frustratingly unsuccessful most of the night how we again and again went too deep and then smacked pucks into the pads of markstrom. It might have worked last year with the devils getting less than stellar goaltending. But Markstrom used his huge frame and pads to basically block the entire bottom of the net. We only had success when we finally got shots on net that were high.. so all the attempts to do things in super tight to markstrom practically in the crease weren’t working..
I think we played a good game plan against the devils. We used our scouting report well and covered in a different way to counter their typical play style. It was much more adjustments than us just doing the same things we always do and seeing if we can force the. To play our style. I think we defended the in open ice very well and didn’t give up any quick counters of them trying to sneak behind us. We kept them in front of us all night and covered their assignments well.
Happy happy with the win. Was a good night in the building. Always better to leave after a win at home