good effort all night. 2nd period was a cluster and little flow. the last few minutes scramble. hey we got the W
-Clifford was in beast mode. heavy body checks and nice goal. he picked his spot and found net. that was a goal scorers goal right there.
-Ellerby had quite a few problems out there with clearing shots and passes. to me it is the result of not knowing the boards and glass at the Stapler. he had a lot of soft ones that didn't clear or reach his outlet.
-Muzzin looked better, with some hits. at this point he should be getting comfortable with the speed, which means he will start taking more chances here and there. the kid has a cannon also, that slapper he took at one point had some serious cheese on it
-the King - Richards - Nolan line looked very good again. those two are just beating the **** out of opponents. they may not be scoring yet, but i will take the prolonged pressure in the offensive zone
-Kopi line looked better, especially Kopi. it won't show on the sheet, but he looks better. i watched him a lot to see what and how he was skating. he looked much better tonight than he has up to this point.
-DB is being DB and will quietly lead when he needs to physically. he played a good game, just nothing out of the ordinary. no reason for him to beat his body up. the kids (Clifford, King and Nolan) are doing plenty when it comes to heavy checks. DB looked nice with some possession and moves tonight. hell he even pulled off his toe drag move
-very glad Clifford DIDNT fight Boll. showed maturity on his part, there was no reason for it. except to fight. what if Clifford breaks a finger? LA had a lead and there wasn't any reason to fight, except for the pure reason to kick his ass. it's the NHL, not a *** bar fight to prove who is the biggest ***hole.
-JB it's hard to say how well he did, due to little pressure and scoring chances from CLB. he had 3-4 saves at most, if anything he showed his reads and positioning were solid tonight.
which goalie at CHI? very tough call for DS. JB is winning and traditionally you go with the hot keeper and this is JB. or do you go with JQ, your C Smythe winning goalie that is looking to get on track?
the last Kings PP in the 3rd i will be critical of Sutter's decision. he put the 2nd unit out there and think he shuffled it a bit. LA was up 2-0 going late into the 3rd, knowing the CLB push was coming. he should have put the #1 out there and gone for the 3-0 lead to finish the game off. instead he put the 2nd unit out there that fumbled the puck around and let CLB build momentum off the PK. they kept LA hemmed in their own zone for about the entire first minute. i know what and why he did it, but he should have put the #1 out there to finish it.
