Okay as harsh as i was not 5 minutes ago.. my overall analysis is fairly simple.
As a goaltender myself I know that when you don't have a consistency in the shots your facing the game becomes difficult, which is probably why Kipper had a hard time tonight. 2 of those goals should have been stopped, there is absolutely no excuse for letting those in.
On the other hand, Kipper almost had that 5th goal with his blocker, in fact he got a piece of it but it bounced down. Would have been a great save, and it shows he's still capable of being the most athletic goaltender in the league.
We can't say, oh, Kipper's gotta go, after this. He really was let down by his team tonight. Obviously the 12 up front were excellent for roughly 50 minutes of the game, but the 6 in the back definitely should have been better, Jay was easily the best defenseman and has been for the past 2 games. For 6.7 million a year, that's what he needs to do.
A first line I wouldn't mine seeing would be Hudler-Iginla-Cervenka. Iginla should be the one shifted to center, if anyone. He's great in the dot as we've seen. That line would probably light up every goalie they face. If Hudler and Cervenka get broken up, I would not be shocked. Hartley broke up Baertschi and Backlund, and now Baertschi has probably lost a lot of confidence and Backlund lost this teams most skilled finisher.
We weren't a bad team tonight. Our goaltending should have been better, and I say that very rarely, so I'm not going to say Kipper's bad. Our defense should have been air tight in the last few minutes, and our PK needs to be worked on. Our powerplay should have been high-pressure "go-go" style, maybe then we would have won.
And for christ's sake, HIT THE NET!
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