Just finished watching the 3rd, had to go play some hockey of my own, luckily got out of the dressing room before anyone started looking up the score lol.
Edler - Hasn't played like this in a long time. Physical, calm and jumping up into the play. Still makes the shinpad shots lol but I can live with that if he continues this way. There was 1 particular play in the third where he pinned Getzlaf to the boards after hitting him and then held him there with 1 arm and proceeded to poke check at the puck in the scrum not involving either of them. As much as his game looks to improved mentally, I think his back is finally good, those types of injuries are hard to come back from and it really limited his game. Hope to see some highlight reel hits come playoff time.
Tanev - Great defencemen but still looks to be a wee out of his element on the offensive side of the puck. Not worried as I think it's just growing pains as he's never been told to take the onus on that, he's usually defence only by deployment of the coaching staff. Him and Edler could be our top pairing for the next 5-10 years which would make things a lot easier in terms of filling out the rest.
Sbisa and Bieksa continue to get better but Weber still scares me.... We need another dman like someone said if only we could switch Yannik for Shea Weber, it'd be perfect.
On the forward side of things, boy oh boy Daniel is getting back to being equal to Henrik, looks like it was mostly just a confidence thing and this coaching staff has worked wonders for him. Looking forward to more Sedinery as the year continues. Henrik keeps chugging along, hopefully with Daniel carrying the puck more he takes less abuse.
Vrbata looks like a classic streaky scorer, gets a couple last game and all of sudden looks rejuvenated. Gotta keep him motivated as he was dragging the Sedins down there for a few games.
Higgins-Bonino is the nucleus of the second line IMO, that's where the chemistry is, I think it's fair to say you can plug in a different winger for a different look as needed. Would love to see Kassian up in this spot at some point but Vey had a decent game.
On the point of Kassian I thought he had a poor game by his own standards this year, held onto the puck too long on the wall in his zone and was a passenger of the work done by Matthias and Richardson's in the ozone, looks slower then he did earlier in the year. Might still be feeling the effects of his injury.
Hansen continues to chug along, think he should've been swapped for Kassian when we were trying to shut it down, he's good at what he does, still a good defensive grinder.
Dorsett continues to impress me, every time he makes a decent offensive play I think "oh good for him probably his offensive highlight for the year" but then a few games later he does it again. Definitely the type of 4th liner you win with. Trade was worth it.
Horvat made a strong case, winning faceoffs against some of the league's best in Kesler and Getzlaf, made some nice defensive plays, and of course the goal. Watched it a couple times and he was smart about it, went to the net but delayed and let the scrum get there first and glided in afterwards with no coverage and did the good ole stick slap "gimmie the puck" routine at the right time. Hopefully Willie throws him to the wolves next game so we can see what he's capable of.
Lack had a strong game IMO, looked sharp and composed but his handling of the puck makes me grimace every time and he had some Loungoitis on the Perry shootout goal. All in all he needs more starts but Miller is getting paid like the #1 and probably still has a lot of leash before Lack starts splitting starts.
All in all good effort by the boys, especially considering they played a dman short the whole game. Really hope Hamhuis isnt out long, but it maybe a blessing in disguise if its long enough to warrant a trade but short enough he's back well before playoffs because they need another capable dman in the worst way, and Hamhuis hasn't been that great, IMO due to the new system and getting to watch from pressbox will help his game being that he's a fairly intelligent guy and will get to see what's working for guys like Edler Tanev and to a lesser extent Sbisa and Bieksa.
Onwards to the Hawks!
