This is kind of amusing (and annoying) after all the bottom 6 talk recently.
I watched only half the game, the first period - after which I turned the thing off in frustration - and the last ten minutes but I did think the fourth line had great shifts early by establishing a heavy forecheck and hitting everything in sight. The cycle game. The best they have looked for a while.
And really I don't know why we don't try to do more of that with all 4 lines.
Instead, we consistently turned the puck over, all over the ice but especially at our own blue line and in center ice, trying to make soft, fancy, lateral plays. They stole the puck and we were caught going the wrong way and actually Markstrom bailed us out repeatedly early on those.
We should have kept it simple and gone north and south. Dumped the puck behind them, made them turn, and then pinched them in. They are a young and inexperienced team but one with a lot of raw talent. So play in their end, give them nothing, and wait for them to make their mistakes. If you are patient you know you are going to get a ton of chances when their coverages break down.
By engaging them in a free skating, pond hockey game and trading chances you play to their only strength and give them the chance to beat you the only way they possibly can beat you. We played them the stupidest way we could have.
Keefe was trying to get us to forecheck early in the season. We need to get back to that. Remember the goal that Bratt set up for Jack when we beat Chicago. Since that time we seem to have gotten away from the entire idea. When nothing else is working it's a reliable play to fall back on. We should stop trying to be so damn fancy all the time. Our talent skating in open ice is actually not that much better than anyone else's right now. Jack and Bratt in particular have great agility in small spaces. Meir and Nico too. Exploit that. This is not the 2022-23 roster.