It's so nice to see that Kopitar has an anchor on his wing once again. Guy just can't catch a break with some quality line mates.
I thought Richards played OK, not great but OK. The line had scoring chances, especially Kopitar and they just didn't convert. You can't just look at the stats sheet and say they didn't play well, they did fine. I feel some, maybe not you, are judging him this season based on what happened last season.
For me Richards showed enough to confirm for me he needs to play as 3c, he made some smart plays and the commitment is there. His form won't come back by flicking a switch even if he is now better prepared physically. He needs to play good minutes, as it stands, between King and Williams. All three are smart players and should given a little time find some chemistry. Stoll has done nothing wrong but his offence upside is now limited so fits better at 4c. Both will still see special teams and be put out for key situations anyway. However Sutter has already shown that Richards will have to earn quality minutes, which is absolutely spot on. As long as his work rate and intensity are right I'd keep playing Richards at 3c until his form returns.
I liked Andreoffs debut. A nice simple North-South game. He also takes the pressure off Clifford to drop the gloves, and incidentally Clifford has also been a bright spot. Clifford is once again looking like the strong energy player with some timely offence we hoped he'd be. If Clifford or Andreoff are comfortable at RW it looks to me that Nolan might be the one to miss out when Gaborik comes back. Again Nolan has done nothing wrong, I just think the other guys will provide more of an impact.
Lastly McNabb. I've been impressed as he seems to be riding the learning curve well and quickly, the growth in his game been impressive. Yes he forced too much of a couple of the hits tonight however the
Oilers were also trying to play physically so he helps counter that. He also had a couple of good hard pinches which were incidentally well covered by Richards on the play. So there were some good decisions out there as well.
God the Oilers are poor. There is no balance in the lineup at all, their best player Hall lost interest after being hit a few times and there is no one on their team that seems to be able to play a 200 foot game. They are destroying the development of the young players that they have stockpiled, they need to move at least two of their high-end pieces for 3-4 strong complete players to provide experience and knowledge of how to win hockey games.
