GM#1: lil Debbies @ Capitals 7pm-ish

[zappa4ever]

The goals against:
1-1 (Casey)
Milano couldn't deflect the puck on the below goal line low-to-high pass, Pro didn't interfere/block much w/Casey's shot, Pro/Lapi both hampering Lindgren's view
2-1 (Cotter)
Pro's long headman pass intercepted at NJ's blue, Caps have numbers but Chychrun abandons LD to help w/ctr driving F who Pro is with. Chychrun's move to protect home backfires as pass goes to where Chych just was; from there it's easy
3-2 (Tatar)
Pro and Fever doing board work behind goal, NJ wins puck
TVR abandons crease to prevent low-to-crease pass > misses and now out of position, Lapi doesn't anticipate/move quick enough to take Tatar effectively, Tatar gets multiple whacks
4-2 (Cotter)
Sandin's bad outlet pass up boards for DuBois doesn't connect and quickly turns 2v1 with the 1 (Fever) 30 ft away (delayed by getting Lindgren's stick), Fever goes to shooter, leaving passee wide open straight down Main St. for 1x'er

While plenty of blame for Lapi's line, the D decisions were costly
Chych abandoning left side
TVR abandoning crease
Sandin's weak pass
Fever fetching G stick, taking puck carrier on 2v1
not even calling Chych and TVR's decisions wrong, but had bad outcomes

Overall, plenty of effort, plenty of rust, didn't get blown out or shut out and put 3 on the board for gm1

Was v nice to see shots from the point, seemed Wilson/Strome/DuBois had the best games on O, Duhaime had a good PK and decent 4LW play, McMic wasn't bad

 

[Capsman]

First game, I think they will clean things up.

 

[DWGie26]

We need to see at least ten regular season games. There were some positives. Third line is definitely going to be the one that gets most scrutiny.

There won’t be any call-ups any time soon. I think they will trade for a 2/3 LW before they bring up Miro. Sending Lapierre hurts the development path. But third line is going to need to get going.

 

[Neil Racki]

Was really hoping/expecting we had a game tonight ..

 

[um]

Honestly, some of this is on the coaches. The top two lines were put together with thought. The 3rd line is the extras. They aren't putting any of those players in a position to succeed. It's not some amazing coincidence that the three forwards struggling the most are on a line together.

Not that the players don't bear any responsibility either, just that it's not solely on them.

With all the new forwards coming in and young guys still developing I don’t put this on coaching at all. We were 28th in goals scored last year, that’s not gonna be an instant turnaround.