Well good to come back after a bad loss with a win. The first half wasn't great but they dominated the second half. If this teams slumps consist of 4 poor periods in a row then we will have no issues this year. All teams have some lulls in performance and if we can keep our valleys to a game or two then that will be fine and a major improvement on the last number of years where we got into some of those death spirals where we lost 5 plus games un a row.
Helle played well and made a game changing save early in the second to keep us in.
JoMo/DeMelo: Thought this pairing started slow and had a poor first half of the game. They settled a bit but are not performing like they did last year. JoMo was a bit off and DeMelo hasn't found his game yet this year.
Dillion/Pionk: For my money the best pairing on the ice tonight. They jumped into play smartly and got the stops they needed to in their own end. I am liking Pionk's play lately but he sometimes needs to look for the pass instead of taking the shot.
Samberg/Schmidt: congrats to Snerg on his first NHL goal. He needed it to make up for his major gaff. Also nice to see Schmidt pot a pair of points. Outside of the points the pairing was generally pretty solid.
Top line: Took a while to grow into the game but once they did they dominated play in the offensive end and didn't spend much time in their end. Perfetti was just a chance generating machine tonight and kept his point streak alive. He's playing some real good hockey now. Scheifele with a real strong effort and was full marks for his goal. I really like his game this year. Thought Blake had a mixed game, made some nice passes and good plays but also miffed on a fair number of passes tonight. Not really sure how much longer you can keep Cole and his vision and poise off Pp 1.
Second line: This line did nothing until Mikey was added to them to inject some much needed energy and pace. The line needs a player that has some speed and can get in on pucks. Conner got some points but I thought he was off for the most part. His moves weren't working and he was making some bad reads on his break ins. Dubois was up and down for me, he took some poor penalties. He offset that by drawing one and creating havoc playing a much more assertive offensive game. Mike had his engine going and deserved his promotion. It seems a number of his supporters on here have been right about him so far. He deserves to stay.
Third line: I thought scored on their chances but gave up an awful lot in their end as well. I'll take the goals but I didn't like how they defended tonight. Glad Barron and Melalainen got some goals. We need that secondary offense.
Fourth line: Had a couple of great shifts and generally tilted the ice when on. Can't ask for much more from your fourth. Gus with another nice game killing penalties.
Good comments - there was one in particular that I honed in on -
The PP that Smitty scored on late in the game - did anyone else notice that prior to that play, Pionk wound up from the point with no one near the front of the net - easy save and a whistle.
At that point, he's pulled off the ice for the last few seconds of the PP (and you can tell he's wondering why) and Smitty comes out and the same play develops in the dying seconds.
Only this time Smitty hangs on and waits for his forwards to set up camp in front of the net. He floats one in and scores through the traffic.
I hope Pionk was watching - if he wants to be offensive, he needs to be smarter.