A lot of comments about losing to the worst team in the NHL, but I’d asterisk that pretty hard. Yes Nashville has the worst record, but not many predicted they’d be this bad out of the gate. They were right with us in the playoffs last year, are well coached, have a Vezina caliber goalie and a Norris caliber defensemen and some good pieces. They are definitely better than their standing indicates, and I think last nights game is the kind of game that can be a turning point for them (which sucks as these things always seem to happen against us).
Didn’t actually think the team played that badly, especially for the second half of a back to back. We got some bad breaks around their net, the refs and linesman called the game like they had somewhere to be, and our PK just didn’t get it done.
Probably Aatu Raty’s best game as a Canuck. When I talk about bounces around the net, he almost had 1 or 2 more.
Ferraro commented on it, but after fighting the puck all game (year?) in the third period, Soucy and Myers suddenly were moving it well. You’d like to think they can carry that over, but I’m not holding my breath.
Juulsen/Brannstrom were the better pair for most of the game. For all the criticism Juulsen has taken, he was good last night. Brannstrom looks extremely confident rushing the puck and in the attacking zone. Still a bit of an adventure in his own end, but you take the trade off.
Petey continues to look much more like himself - he and Sherwood look really good together, too. Also got to give Danton Heinen some flowers - usually plays a very quiet game, and there he is with 2 assists at the end of it.
Lekkerimaki made a really nice skill play to start the play that lead to Pettersson’s goal, but got outmuscled a lot all over the ice. Still a ways to go but the promise is there, and these games should be a good taste that informs the things he needs to focus on.
After a super human start, Lankinen has had a bit of a tough stretch. Got beat clean on a few and caught deep in his crease on occasion, too. Hope this is just a case of load management vs. A scenario like DeSmith last year, who started strong and then struggled mightily.
If it was indeed performance based for Miller rather than injury, hope he gets the message.
Cut and paste. Several "They lost but look at al the good things and ignore they lost" or "they looked good losing"
Some of the post is just analysis which is good but the "hope" still bleeds through.
The roster construction is flawed, that's on Allvin and Tocchet.
Tocchet got rid of scorers in favour of boards guys, now he has 7 all pretty much the same.
What gets praise, hits, dump and chase, have the puck then give it to the other team and fight for it? This becomes so dependent on great goal tending because the defence HAS to pinch and the forwards are so deep they lose defensive positioning scrambling to get back into their own zone.
Defence isn't deep enough long enough, fast enough and playing outside of their comfort zone. Hughes gets all the PP time so these others sit around for extended time.
Some people complain about the refs'. Really? Watch Sherwood, easily half his hits are seconds late or even interference. I have seen Canuck players with their arms wrapped around opponents around the net, almost like a tackle and no call
Don't blame the players for the construction and directions on how to play by those that make decisions.
Miller takes the heat for Pettersson losing Stamkos even with Miller waving at him to look supposedly? Really or was it something said on the bench? Miller isn't the type of guy to stay quiet if frustrated or plssed off.
Tocchet said "I don't know why" and looks distant now in media scrums. I think last night with so many being sent out to face the media it was his way of saying "You explain it", a form of you face the music I'm done. It also ran the clock out on the national viewing.
He gets asked a question he doesn't like and he scratches his face using the middle finger.
32nd in the league. Ferraro's if it wasn't for that bad 7 minutes, sort of like "if we scored more"or "if we played better" Captain Obvious stuff. "We were pretty good until they scored more goals than us"
The Preds are panicking and they are only 3 wins behind the Canucks