My pre-game GDT post.
Blue Blooded said:
I want to see them dominate a game 5v5, that's all. That's where we need to raise our game the most and the Caps are a mediocre at best 5v5 team.
And they did exactly that!
I'm even glad that they were snakebit for the first half hour of the game, so that they got to dominate a close game for a longer period of time.
Honestly, I couldn't be happier with how the game played out. After struggling to carry play and constant defensive breakdowns they came out and obliterated the Caps 5v5 for two periods and shut them down completely in the third to take a win as commanding as a 2-0 win could ever be.
I was sceptical against the 1st line pre-game, but they were freaking amazing! Richards and Brassard had 82%+ CF% 5v5 Close, that's unreal.
I've been hard on the 4th line, but they were also fantastic tonight. Almost as good possession numbers as the 1st, though hardly as dangerous. Honestly that's all I want out of a 4th line, 50%+ possession numbers with hard zone starts. I don't care if they don't have a single quality chance, just get it up ice and keep it in the O-Zone. That's what the legendary Fedotenko-Boyle-Prust line was so good at.
The middle six were actually pretty bad, but it didn't matter as the other two lines were so freaking awesome. I'm not sure what's going on with Zuccarello this season, he has been a dominant possession player in his NHL career but this season he has really been struggling. I'm not sure why. I think he'll bounce back, but I'm worried that he'll lose AV's confidence before he manages to get his game back on track.
But honestly, imagine when Hagelin and Nash gets back and Richards-Brassard-Callahan becomes our
2nd line. That is a scary good top 6, especially considering that Hagelin-Stepan-Nash probably was the best 5v5 line in the league last year.
Great game by McDonagh-Girardi, they didn't have the best possession numbers, but I don't care if they play defence like that and they were still above 50%. Some bad decisions on breakouts, but otherwise a great game.
Staal-Strålman was sort of the inverse of McD-G. Great breakouts, great offensive pressure, but a few breakdowns. I think the breakdowns are worth it as in a large sample the goals for will significantly crowd out the goals against. AV seems to agree as this pairing actually got the most minutes as long as the game was close.
Moore-Falk were so-so, nice goal by Moore but these guys usually found themselves stuck in their own end and had breakout issues. But it could mostly be down to the fact that Falk is pretty much a slightly more talented Bickel, i.e. it will get a lot better when MDZ returns.
Hank was amazing, I think his confidence needed a shutout against Ovechkin and the scary Caps PP.
All in all, pretty much the perfect game from my perspective.