End of season scoring breakdown:
Love, love, love Kakko getting to 40. He's coming on strong. Still, at one point there was hope the kids would push 50. They have to eliminate the pointless streaks of 4-8 games which happen too often.
Lafreniere too, hate that he got stuck at 39. No points in his last 3, disappointing. Still, baby steps.
Chytil finishes with a nice season and 45 points, despite having missed like ten games, but, he's cooled down tremendously. At one point he was on pace for 55 or more, in the number of games he played (he had 32 pts in 43 games), but then he went through a stretch where he had 0 goals and 5 assists in 17 games. His cooling down of course has something to do with the fact that Laf cooled off too.
Love/Hate --- Love Panarin heating up to finish within striking distance of 30 goals. It wasn't that long ago that I wondered if he'd get much past 20. Hate Panarin finishing with 29. Always want a player to get that one more to finish in the next set of ten.
Mika.... man, who had him going goalless in his last 5 to get stuck at 39 and not able to break 40 for the second time in his career? Not me.
Kreider finishes with a typical 50's point campaign.
With 64 points Trocheck was somehow both at the same time better than I thought he'd be and exactly what he's always been. Just a good second line center.
Don't know how Goodrow has even 31 points because I feel like he hasn't scored since November.
Finally, Tarasenko has been good not great, but both he and Kane need to find another gear for the team to win anything.
Kenny is a good commentator but I can't stand the way his voice sounds from an audio perspective. Always sounds like he's wearing his mic UNDER his suit in a sound absorbing room, and the leveling every time he calls a game is his voice is always way louder than the on ice sounds, which makes me feel like I'm watching the game on ESPN.
Seriously, a little reverb never killed anyone.
As for hockey commentators I miss, I know it's sometimes an unpopular opinion, but IMO Gary Thorne was pretty great. Still love listening to Sam, but Joe Micheletti is a HUGE dropoff from what JD brought when those two worked together. Personality wise, Joe just has a little too much Pierre McGuire in him for me...can't stand the fan worship of visiting players and dislike the often unwarranted defense of the league and its selective implementation of its rules/policies, as well as Joe's defense of some of the poorer officiating performances.
Gary Thorne was the greatest, IMO.
They need another him.