Arghh - an incredibly frustrating and dispiriting game to watch. Couple of observations:
-On the Rags 2nd goal, Carl Hagelin just roaches Tom Poti along the boards behind the net. Hagelin's a nice little player sure - but how the hell do we allow a guy like that to just shred us in board battles.
-Our board work in general (Wardo and Fehr being exceptions) was putrid. The Rags forwards worked the boards with impunity knowing that there was not a sniff of a danger that any of them might get stapled to the glass in an unpleasant fashion. By contrast, our guys simply didn't display the requisite level of snarl and go-fug-yourselfness that is required to win board battles.
-If the NHL widened the net by a foot on either side, Braden Holtby would be the best goalie in the league. As it stands now, however, his overplaying just creates scoring opportunities for the opposition where there otherwise wouldn't be one.
-Here's what I'll say about Ovie - forget about his D, forget about the penalties (the double whammy in the 2nd was utter crap - I can count the number of players on 2 fingers that NHL refs would make 2 calls against on the same sequence like that, and the only other guy besides Ovie, Sean Avery, is out of the league; the refs decided to make Ovie pay for his embellishment last week and whining to the press yesterday; of course he shouldn't do that crap, but of course they should be professionals - but they're not, they're NHL refs).
-Right, here's what I'll say about Ovie: he's where puck possession goes to die. It's reached appalling levels now. The guy was always turnover-prone due to high-risk, high-reward style, but it's reached a pandemic level now.
-We quit toward the end of the 3rd period. That was just pathetic in the last 5 minutes or so. This team's mental make-up, it's woe-is-me lack of defiance at -- and anger about -- being on the wrong end of the score during a game is completely unacceptable. It's a loser's mentality.
