When watching Phaneuf's play today, it seems, that Avery makes his presence felt despite his suspension. He is -2, had a couple of bad turnovers and looks pretty shaky.
When watching Phaneuf's play today, it seems, that Avery makes his presence felt despite his suspension. He is -2, had a couple of bad turnovers and looks pretty shaky.
Yeah, Phaneuf isn't having a good game. But the rest of the team seems to have fallen asleep after that 2nd Stars goal.
Not a bad period, but certainly not a good one by any stretch of the imagination. The first half of the second was all Flames all the time. Great offensive pressure, amazing forecheck, and shots actually going in on net. The second half of the period was all Stars . They brought the game to the Flames in the way we would expect our heroes to play. There was no sense of urgency in the boys that period, and the score reflects that.
The powerplay was fantastic, and even though the goal by Moss was one second too late to count as a PP goal, it was still the hard work of the secondary PP unit that made it happen. And good on Bertuzzi for the hard work behind the net to feed Aucoin. The PK unit also was phenominal. Bourque in specific with two great shorthanded chances. It's so great to feel complete confidence in the PK isn't it? 17 successful kills in a row now! That's a very nice stat.
Moss and Bourque were the players of the period, no doubt. Both of them played hard and made every second of their respective shifts count. They were skating hard, and making all the smart plays that need to be made by the whole team. My biggest concern was the lack of skating in the neutral zone. Everyone seemed to be "gliding" instead of pushing hard to the Dallas zone.Against a team like the Stars you simply must keep your feet moving, or they will stick it too you every time.
Also Miikka, buddy, you have got to get better at the rebound control. Certainly you are not solely to blame for Dallas' second goal, but you must take the lion's share of the blame. A bad change, coupled with a complete lack of coverage led to the first chance, but had that rebound been into the corner, or even held, that would never have been a goal.
