- Carolina lost in regulation. Nothing gained there. And nothing lost either.
- Stafford's hit on Grabovski.
- Killing that long 2-man disadvantage.
The Bad -
- That shorthander was just terrible. Miller out and not set? Vanek and Leopold don't separate the man from the puck? Connolly with a hideous giveaway to set it in motion? Yeah... "best players" weren't the best players.
- Ennis missed AGAIN. The kid's got to start burying these chances.
- Caught parts of the first and second and all of the third -- too many guys reaching, very few bodychecks, and very little in terms of quality shooting late.
The Ugly -
- Getting back within one. AHL side? Yikes.
- Throwing donuts on the PP and giving up ANOTHER shortie. League worst most of the year there and it's the same guys on the ice over and over being stupid over and over. Whoever runs the unit ought to be relieved of those duties *again*.
__________________
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
The Good:
- Actually not much harm done. Giving away two points to the Leafs, well, they are out of the race anyway. And you can't win them all. Our winning percentage still has us tied for 7th!
I am so sick of that weak-ass neutral zone drop pass. If Pierre McGuire sees it coming, so will every team you face. And then you get stung. And lose games.
The PP was brutal tonight. Especially in the 3rd. they couldn't even enter the zone FFS. I guess that's what you get when you try to make pretty plays at the blue line. They refuse to play dump and chase on the power play, then again it does require skating hard and possibly taking a hit in the corner, so I guess I shouldn't be that surprised they don't do it.
G:
- At least Goose got a goal.
- Miller looked really good.
- Ennis had some good moments, but mostly in the 1st period. After that, he just flew around the ice like a hummingbird and gave the puck away.
- Toronto's defense. They shut us down.
- Carolina lost.
- The Leafs got their win against us. Now we can go back to blowing them out every game.
B:
- Leopold looked lost.
- Our forwards. Stafford? Vanek? What happened?
- SH goal. Wow. That was just awful.
-Miller. Liked his game tonight. Was locked in. A lot of big saves.
-Morrisonn. Really physical. Just a solid game.
-Weber. See Morrisonn.
-Liked Myers' game.
-Gerbe. Love his effort.
Bad:
-Leopold. Absolutely horrific tonight. Hated him on both goals. He started the first one by making a bad pass to Ennis that got kept in the zone. And on the shortie, that was the worst defensive effort I've seen this year. Putrid. Probably his worst game as a Sabre.
-Connolly. Made his linemates worse. Terrible giveaway that led to a shortie.
-Butler. He's just not very good. It's sad to see. He's regressed a lot.
-Vanek. Relatively invisible for the third straight game.
-Kaleta. Lindy, his hand is bothering him. He's a sideshow right now. Put Byron back in. He adds speed to the lineup.
Ugly:
-Our home record. Sub-.500 now at the HSBC Library. We have the 4th best road record in the conference, and the 12th best home record. And we have five more in a row before the deadline.
-Getting 1 of 4 pts against the Isles and Leafs, playing against the likes of Koskinen, Montoya, Giguere and Reimer. Not good.
Consistently trying to stick handle into the zone even strength and on the power play instead of just shooting the damn puck in and retrieving.
Hard shoot in, soft shoot in, lifting the puck in, shooting on goal for a offensive zone face off are ALL better options than ALWAYS trying to stick handle through 5 guys, turn around and try to find the point man. Wake up guys, it doesn't work.
Hard to score goals when you can't get control of the puck. Toronto dominated us at the dot, Connolly especially got his clocked cleaned winning only 5 of 19 chances. I swear that there was a 15-20 minute stretch of time between the 2nd and 3rd period where we couldn't buy a faceoff.
I'm all aboard the Byron over Kaleta train. Seems like a no-brainer for next game.
Any thoughts on dusting off Rivet? I've personally seen enough of Butler. Ruff can double shift some guys thus reducing Rivet's time. Does the aging vet have any gas left in the tank?
Hard to score goals when you can't get control of the puck. Toronto dominated us at the dot, Connolly especially got his clocked cleaned winning only 5 of 19 chances. I swear that there was a 15-20 minute stretch of time between the 2nd and 3rd period where we couldn't buy a faceoff.
I'm all aboard the Byron over Kaleta train. Seems like a no-brainer for next game.
Any thoughts on dusting off Rivet? I've personally seen enough of Butler. Ruff can double shift some guys thus reducing Rivet's time. Does the aging vet have any gas left in the tank?
I didn't see the Kessel goal, so if that's the "softie," I'll be more understanding.
If we're counting the Crabb goal as that, I can't fault Miller too much. He came out to challenge a guy who was on a 1-on-2. Leo and Vanek played it horribly, but even then, the puck went off someone and ended up to the side of Crabb where he could put it around Miller.
Could Miller have stayed back further in the net? Sure. But if you peg that on him and not on a lucky bounce/poor defensive play, you're way out of line.
