Couple final thoughts from the first 2 periods....
* In-arena experience was better than in previous years, until late in the 2nd when they seemed to remember to triple amplify every noise. There's a reason that's when I left.
* Interesting that the arena was, at best, only 2/3rds full on a Saturday night. Official attendance figures had it as a sellout, but I'd love to see the actual gate numbers.
* From focused watching on a few players...:
* As others have said, yep, Mojo was looking really good. I think better than I remember seeing him in the past. I might have to withdraw many of my complaints on them signing him this year. He seems to have learned some ideas on what to do with the puck once he gains possession, aside from 'give to Nicky or get pinned against the boards'.
* Mojo and Orlov seem to be the only two guys on the roster capable of carrying the puck up ice 'attacking'. The difference in the team's ability to attack and get setup when those guys had the puck, as opposed to trying to pass into the zone or dump and chase was dramatic.
* The only guys I ever want to see dumping and chasing are the fourth line, as they're seemingly the ones ones who know how to crash and hound and scratch and claw to get possession. Oshie as well, but the rest of his line didn't seem to want to risk chipping a fingernail.
* As I said elsewhere, simple random 'whacks' and redirects of the puck in the general vicinity of the LA net need to die. I don't know if the passes were crap, or players didn't want to bother going out of their way to gain possession cleanly or not, but it was mind numbing just watching chances to control things go away.
* I focused in on Eller for parts of the game, and was pleasantly surprised. He made a lot of smart plays, did some dirty work, seemed to constantly be in the right place at the right time, moved his feet, had an active stick .. in general was doing a lot of the things teams preach. His physical ability may not be what it once was, but the approach was there.
* Wasn't trying to focus on Oshie, but, like Eller and the fourth line, I kept seeing him show up in the play and do something smart, clearly veteran moves.
* OV ... looks old. Not moving his feet much, not driving play at all, any physicality I saw was just a token bump of an opposing player. He was mostly invisible.
* When Kuzy wasn't drawing penalties (ahem, embellishing some), he was damn near invisible.
* Mantha and Protas are BIG together. Too bad neither one looked like they knew how to use their size, nor, frankly, seemed all that skilled.
* Carlson needs to go. He does provide some good, but the negatives far outweigh that. Given his salary and likely 'reputation' around the league, they'd be better off dealing him and using the cap space for guys who'll play a more complete game.
** In the past, I've always appreciated how Carlson would physically move about in the offensive zone to open up additional play possibilities. Last night, I didn't see as much of that. He seemed stagnant, trying for 'cute' plays or just throwing the puck into traffic instead of trying to break down the D's positioning, get them moving.
I'd seen enough "randomly swat at puck in offensive zone" to last a season.
