Ugh. Just dreadful for so much of the game. Lots of effort at times but the execution was terrible. One turn-over after another and so many were guilty. Give Montreal some credit cause they played well and probably should have got a sweep. They went into the off season as decent team and were able to add. The Canucks should have been in the same place but b/c of the dimwit Benning, we instead had to give up some of our top end players
Good
Hoglander - had the one brilliant shift and showed very good bursts of speed throughout. Has talent and determination. I hope playing with this bunch doesn't discourage him or that Benning doesn't move him to bandage over some of the major faults in this team
Bad
Edler - looked slow and gave very poor support to his defensive partner. Pushed the play into trouble throughout.
Myers - lurching around and treated the puck like it was radioactive. Displayed a very low panic point and rushing everything. Out of sync with who ever he played with.
Hughes - ditto the rest of the defense - too individualistic and trying to do too much. Bumped around in his zone and struggled to fend off people around his net. Size, or lack of it, is beginning to become a factor.
Joulevi - happy if he could make it through a shift without a a major gaffe - not gapping properly, poor passing led directly to 2 on 1s. Got caught up ice a few times with the one time leading to a self goal. Passing, supposedly a strength, was poor most of the game. Wasn't much worst than some of the other defensemen but that's only telling you how bad the defense was. I did think he is making a better attempt to assert himself - but the problem is that he doesn't have the game to really do this. He is not, right now, an NHL defenseman.
Pettersson - scored but other wise another poor game. Got easily shoved off the puck and knocked about. Sloppy and slow movement of the puck led to direct chances against. Thought he gave up on several plays.
Horvat - worst game in awhile. Like others turning over the puck at the blue lines. Decent start but his game tailed off the longer it went. Not good in his own end.
Holtby - asking a lot to have him bail out this team but the team needed more big saves than he was able to come up with'
Others
Sutter - for the first half of the game led a third line that had zip. As bad as Sutter can be at times, he simply a better player than Gaudette ( rightly benched). Line began to break down late but overall wasn't bad.
Virtanen - as went Sutter so went Virtanen Fairly good in the early going and good job on the back check. But as game went on Virtanen disappeared and again became a non factor. See very little offensive push out of this player. I'd say quite a bit less than last year.
MacEwen - more physical and went to the body well in the first. Did created some chances but overall play remained helter skelter. Loses his defensive coverage when he gets running around but running around is the main element of his game. Must play with a good defensive center.
Benn - was one of better d-men. Kept it simple and eliminated man around the net effectively. One problem with Benn, however, is lack of mobility causes him to make long passes to get puck up to the forwards. Did ok in that in this game but creates the kind of gaps other teams can exploit.
Don't think this team is as poor as Montreal made them look. Still this team is nothing like a contender for anything. May well finish last in the Canadian division. The central culprit in this is clearly Benning. In his management, in his speech and in his constant mistakes he illustrates clearly he is (and you want to be politically correct here) below even average intelligence. How in the world do you put him in charge of major sport franchise. The team obviously has no chance of doing anything while he has any part in decisions. Yet the hockey establishment, as reflected in the comments we hear from people like Hockey Night in Canada, support Benning and seem peeved if fans of the team express any sort of dissatisfaction with Benning. Moreover, we have fans here that ignore the obvious and get miffed if Benning is any way criticized. We are living in an upside world - fat is beautiful, debt is great and Benning is a good GM.