Slept on it after spending a lot of time and money to fly my son and me to this game.
The boos beforehand were not a great look but understandable, and important only in that they send a very clear message that the fan base has reached a tolerance limit.
Bratt and Hughes in particular need to do… less. Hughes especially tries to dangle too much. He dangled his way a couple of times too close to goal to have a good angle. He passes when he should shoot (and often to lower offensive skilled players) and vice versa. Bratt got an assist on the first goal but in that sequence missed several passes, flubbed the handle on it. The guy is trying. Hischier looked energetic initially.
I am not convinced there is a system at all. Watching in person it really is astonishing how all five devils will be on one side of their defensive zone, as if talent can outskate a puck. This leads to a chain of endless reactive play instead of smart positioning. I’d rather they use that energy wasted in reacting to the puck toward going hard at the puck holder, like Detroit and Philadelphia both did against us. We had far less time from both than we gave both. Mike Mcleod in particular looked clueless defensively a couple of times; he found him self in no man’s land. Several times we had two players bunched up - once I noticed it with zero wings in the vicinity, another time one. It’s fine to double a player but commit to it and get on him aggressively. If you’re watching you’re just leaving someone open. And we watched a lot - we let the puck holder do something rather than challenge him aggressively.
These things lead to the inability to clear the zone. That and the forwards clearing themselves out of the zone before the puck. We struggled gaining O zone entry too.
We outshot Detroit but none of those were sustained pressure. Shot, lose rebound, one or two plays and out for Detroit. No sustained puck possession. It’s not just the power play, it’s all offensive zone play. Our shots are pretty milquetoast too. Shots to crest, shots right to glove, few making the goalie move or stretch.
Brendan Smith… I am not sure why he’s #6. He also seemed to drag Marino down.
The lines were ridiculous and nobody knew where anyone was going to be. This really is a thing. And then the lines get mixed up during the game. We had relative consistency in camp and we tossed it all.
Physicality is low. We lost most pucks being contended for. Philadelphia showed the difference a new coach makes because they went for those pucks and won them. Even our physical guys were not that physical.
Jonathan Bernier dressed along with everyone else for pregame intros. Was playing blackwood Thursday an attempt to showcase him so Bernier could return?
The goalies have both been bad. Low shot totals - which is an improvement - but also several poor GA, both games. That said, it’s difficult to argue the constant screens our own players provide the opposition. We aren’t blocking some pucks we should, and sometimes that’s dangerous.
I will say the officiating wasn’t on our side - several obvious hooks holds trips let go and then minor things called on us. But we also took legit penalties that were foolish. Mikes Wood second game in a row with an offensive zone penalty should be a benching for the next game. Can’t blame the stripes for this one.
So it is a combination of things. It’s poor goaltending. It’s poor defensive zone hygiene. It’s lack of aggression to go to the puck carrier and force him to move it or make a bad play. It’s lack of winning luck battles on boards or open ice. It’s lack of our team playing as a team and using each other intelligently. It’s terrible coaching, with quixotic lineup changes and poor, almost desperate in game adjustments.
The team doesn’t seem like this is a profession.
The fans have had it. We are right to. Even if it’s not entirely on Ruff, we had a thread here showing how different the makeup of the team is from 3 years ago. We can’t fire ALL of the players. We have replaced many. We didn’t replace the head coach. And getting your coach fired is something that does serve as a wake up call to teams. And this team is sleepwalking to Bedard.
And we need to stop taking it out on each other. The problem is, we are all partially right. That’s how much is wrong here.
