Gotta say the more I think about tonights game the more I am pleased with it. Brantford has some really high end guys & they outplayed them a good % of the night. Outside of 3-4 bad turnovers I loved how they played in their own end. Team like that is gonna generate great looks because of their skill, but they did a great job limiting how good of opportunities they were. Especially for Lardis & O'Brien.
It was a really mature performance. Stayed to their game, didn't get discouraged by tying goal & while up 2-1 in the 3rd they didn't turtle they kept pushing until they went up 3-1. They were really disciplined which I mentioned as a big key. Puck management was strong for the most part.
The effort & desperation in their game has been rather impressive over these last 9 games. Being physical, making other teams earn it, not backing down to better rosters. Wins over KIT, LDN, SAG, BRNT is a damn good sign for this club. Tonight without Doucette, too.
The top-4 has become really reliable with 5-13 & 6-72. They are defending hard & making teams earn their ice. Bridgewater is becoming a solid OHL Dman & I haven't minded Omeri with him. Not seeing nearly as many brain farts/mind numbing plays or easy/free goals for other teams.
Edwards is back to looking damn good at C, Karimov looks great in the T9, Wainwright is actually looking pretty damn good on the wing with Di Iorio as his C. Luecke is taking the increased ice time & running with it. Brown continues to look amazing out there & that line w/40-11 no matter the opponent seems to play most of the games in the offensive zone.
The PP is finally looking solid. 4 straight games with a goal. 4/20 in that time for 20%. Tonight outside the 2nd one I thought the other PPs looked legitimately dangerous. Quicker puck movement, using the bumper more & getting it down low to Karimov who's really good around the net. the best part is both units look solid. Let's hope this keeps up. Be huge for them.
They are becoming quite an elite face-off team too. Beamish is clicking at almost 60%. He went 18/21 tonight! Wainwright is at 55%. Filak at 51% & for 16 year olds Edwards & Di Iorio are just under 50% which is pretty good. That helps everywhere but especially on the PP/PK & late game.
In rookie scoring they have the 5th (Edwards), 7th (Di Iorio), 8th (Karimov, imagine if he played T9+PP all yr..) scorers. Beamish is 23rd, but has played half as many games as the guys ahead. If he just had 10 more games he'd more than likely be in the top 10 as well. So 4 rookies being among the more consistent & productive is really great to see. Among true rookies (16 year olds) Edwards is 3rd & Di Iorio is 4th with the two ahead being Wassilyn & Belchetz. Who play on very high scoring teams & play with elite, NHL drafted players. Obviously they are elite too, but helps playing with He/Roobroeck & Greentree/Protas compared to our team which has good players, but certainly not elite ones like those 4.
A lot of positives lately which is great to see. They now sit 10 points clear of 9th & are only 1 point behind 6th & 2 points behind 5th. Games in hand for all yes, but still considering they had a 2-17 stretch or whatever it was you take that. Ton of home games rest of the way. Ton of rest. Team has put themselves in a solid spot to compete for 5th or at least 6th depending on how the next weeks plays out with trade deadline.
