[CsInMyBlood]

It is so obvious that Mikael Backlund is our smartest player on the ice. Every shift he demonstrates such a high hockey IQ and makes great quick decisions as well as showing a very strong 2 way game. The faceoffs may not be there, but hopefully he will get better with time. People tend to forget he is still only 24 years old.

Thought Monahan and Baertschi were solid in their 11 minutes of play. Not so sold on David Jones as some are, he had a couple of brutal giveaways in the game and made some questionable decisions with the puck.

Matt Stajan and TJ Gallardi took some brutal needless penalties at the end of the game that really hurt the team and their chances to win. I mean these guys aren't rookies you would think they would know not to be so stupid. Stajan with the stick slash (why?) and Gallardi right after Stajan with the face wash on the goalie (seriously double why?) Sad stuff to see.

The Butler-SOB pairing is such a disaster waiting to happen. Butler is always in pure panic mode when he has the puck, he also NEVER ties up his guy at the net. He will be beside his man but wont actually do anything to impede or stop the puck coming to that man. So frustrating to watch OVER AND OVER again. Hopefully Smith draws in sooner than later and puts in some great games to keep Butler out.

Kari Ramo was like a tale of two goaltenders in that game. At the beginning he looked so solid, calm, excellent rebound control and followed the puck well. When the goals started going in he looked way too busy, guessing at things, and wasn't following the puck well. He did pull it all together near the end, but it was really hard to get a read of what he is actually about from that game.

All in all I enjoyed the game, the effort was there, we had some great chances and there were a lot of positives that these guys will hopefully build off of.