Ya hard to argue that, and Batherson seems like one of the worst in that end, to me at least. I like that he's in position, so kudos to him for that, and I don't expect him to be a force defensively, but not moving your feet quickly and waving a stick at a guy coming with speed, as you give him 6 or so feet to work with, is no mans land for a defender.
It seemed to me like Hammer and Chabot actually played the other guy well enough but it's tough when there's so many bodies with so much speed all heading towards the net. Sometimes, that puck just gets willed off someone on those.
Yeah, Tkachuk and Batherson are among our 2 worst forwards defensively. Giroux has been great for a long time but he's 36 now... Perron is ok but also 36. Pinto and Greig are going to be very good defensively but still lack a bit of experience. Stutzle is young and developing, his defensive game is already much better than Bath and Tkachuk. Norris can be very good but struggled with injuries for a while. Amadio, Gregor and Cousins are ok but nothing special defensively, probably average for bottom-6 forwards.
And to me, this is one of the team weaknesses, not enough good 2-way forwards. I'd qualify Stutzle, Norris, Pinto and Greig (with Giroux) as the only good ones in that aspect. Which is why I'd like the management to focus on that aspect when acquiring forwards.
And yeah regarding the sequence, looking at it again, only Chabot and Hamonic played that adequately, the 2 other Kings players were covered well enough but Batherson gave away too much time and space which created the situation
At around 9 seconds, you can see that Chabot identifies the trailer as his man and follows him in.
I'm not particularly enamored with the soft stick check as he's driving the net.
Yeah he got the right guy but he was also close to get a penalty on the play. If he tangles the guy, he gets called for interference so maybe I would have liked his stick on the ice trying to stop/deflect the pass or even better, force the puck carrier to shoot as you remove the pass option. Or, tie up the stick effectively as he missed it. I hope the new coaching staff is strong on attention to details, that's what we need to improve
that is horrific shot selection from chabot. You simply cannot give the puck away when you’re the d man. You’re in the corner and your forwards are joining in. Chabot put everyone in a bad spot
Chabot is an offense driver, he was among the elite in that aspect just 2 years ago and I think he'll get back to this if he can manage to stay healthy. He's very much like Karlsson as they have the same strengths and weaknesses, he's just not nearly generational like EK.
So it's normal that Chabot is going to jump in the offense and try to create a chance/OZ time. Hamonic would have dumped it in, are you not among those who complains that we dump and chase a lot? Like I explained, the problem is how the 3 Sens player are initially positioned and then that Batherson was the guy covering for Chabot. Not sure if it's because Gregor is new on the team but it's also new systems for everybody. Norris/Gregor should have drove the net with more authority/quickness, or one of them should have went behind the net right away for a cycle option. They seemed hesitant or had a miscommunication so they were a bit lost on the play.
But then again, you're complaining for nothing, not much would have happened if Batherson played defense at a minimum NHL standard or if Clarke didn't run into the goalie.
In fairness I think Forsberg only really let in one bad goal (the 3rd one). It looks like the 2nd one hit off Trevor Lewis.
I’d still go back to him on Thursday if our only two options are him and Sogaard. Still, first choice would be to go with Merilainen.
Yeah that was a Lewis deflection, those are very hard to stop. Can't blame him on the first 2 goals. I also go back to him but what do you do with the backup? Sogaard confidence is shaken (again), if the Devils score 3 goals in the first 25 minutes, we're screwed. They ill play/defend better than the Kings did yesterday so the backup would have the be perfect after coming in relief if we'd want to have a chance to win
