Could have been worse. We got some lucky bounces and terrile goaltending on our side, Caps got some soft penalties on their side. Pretty fair end result.
In general I liked the new look. Glencross-Stajan-Stempniak managed to keep Ovechkin mostly contained 5-on-5, which is something we'll need a lot this season.
Baertchi-Monahan-Jones were really fun to watch.
Bouma was great. Street was out of his league. Galliardi was up and down.
Russell seemed to fit well with the style the team played.
I really like the mobility of our top 4 D, and really hate the decision making of Butler-SOB.
Rämö was okay. Didn't stop anything crazy, didn't let in any real softies. Generally nice and calm, you can tell that he's got some games behind him, even though not that many in the NHL. Didn't show anything that makes me think he's going to be a long-term starter in a good team though.
Speaking more generally; a lot of mistakes here and there that started to add up at times. We're going to get burned badly on a lot of nights if that keeps up, which it propably will. The effort was very much there, and there wasn't much panic, so that's good. The Caps are not a bad team and they obviously got their train rolling, so the score is nothing to be ashamed about.
What was obvious is that we're going to be wishing for some real top-end veterans a lot of times during this seasons. We just got nothing in the level of Washingtons first line, and that's going to be the case with most teams we'll face.
We'll propably also get a lot of easy starts like that, due to teams not taking us seriously. So basicly I predict that this game is a pretty accurate first impression of things to come.
To sum up:
I like it for what it is. It's rebuild hockey, a team built largely from scraps, biding their time and hoping the boys grow up fast. They gave an effort, got something for it, scored some goals and played a pretty entertaining game of hockey.
Life could be a lot worse for a Flames fan right now.
|