Thoughts on this one watching it live:
The team played a very solid game for 40 minutes. Very solid defensive game and then it mostly went to crap.
Pyythia and Malatesta were noticeable, they deserve more ice time than ZAR who inexplicably decided to deke with an open net.
Fantilli was out there running people all night, playing him with ZAR and JVR is killing his potential to produce. They are really too slow to keep up with him. Desperately need Jenner or Chinakhov back to give him some help.
Sillinger looked very good tonight, he actually had some nice dekes and good plays. That whole line played very well and it balances nicely. KJ is probably a bit wasted playing with those two though.
Overall I thought the offense was pretty solid. Nothing amazing but it was tight checking and a closed game until that 3rd period.
Which brings me to the defensive display. JJ isn't an NHL defenseman, he's a skating liability. Christiansen needs to play more minutes, he deserves it especially when you look at our other options. Werenski had a "bad" night but I honestly don't fault him when you look at who he was paired with. Provorov was fine, not great, not bad.
Which brings me to the last defenseman, Severson is going to be absolute widely accepted albatross contract in less than 2 years. I think most people are in denial about this and that's fine, I don't really care but the guy cannot play defense. It's interesting because he has great offensive instincts but in the defensive zone he's like a deer in headlights. Time after time he makes soft play after soft play. There's no grit to anything he does, zero conviction. He's a walking turnover who can't cover. Now that's not entirely his fault, he shouldn't be playing anywhere near 28 mins a night but Waddell is going to have to figure what to do long term with him. Not sure there are many options but if this team expects to be a Cup contender one day, he's not going to be a part of that solution.
Good to get anything out of a trip to Philly. I swear I go to these games every year and they get blown out each time so it's nice to see a close game. Marchenko is the real deal and I'll keep screaming from every place I can. Same things goes for KJ even though he absolutely f***ed up that coverage on the GWG.