By some peoples standards there were a number of veteran goalies last night and many games this season who are not NHL starters even though they are seasoned veterans. In a split second decisions need to be made, and sometimes the unlikely happens, I'd rather see Berra be aggressive and trying to dictate the terms and force the other guy to make the play. I do agree he needs to wander less, I think he can learn to play aggressive and still keep position, but it'll have to come with time, settling down and working with goalie coaching. I'll take confidence and trying hard any day. Not to mention he kept them in that game till the end.
I thought they played hard for most of it, and when they were up they were getting confident and even out worked the Hawks for a lot of it, I saw a lot less running around confused in their own zone, a lot more get the puck give it to a winger and get it out cleanly then I've seen for quite a few games.
Still way too many forced passes in bad places especially through the neutral zone, I can accept some of this from the rookies, but wow I'd really be taken cam and stemp to task on their errors, they are not setting great examples on those, but at the very least they are hustling to make amends afterwards.
I think Sven is over thinking at times, gripping it too hard, and that he will settle in with time and the game slows down a bit. Wish he has more of Monahan's confidence. What I really don't like to see is that he quits on plays sometimes and gets lazy, but I thought overall he was pretty active and trying hard, that's really the biggest thing you want to see.
Against a seriously good team, I think they had a good showing. You never want to give it up late in the 3rd, but against the Hawks its always a possibility. A few pucks bounce the other way and its a different story, I wouldn't be too hard on anyone in this loss, they played well overall. There were a lot more positives to be seen in that game then negatives, this is a rebuild and I'd be a lot more pissed off if they lazy trend I saw from a few games was continuing. They rose to the challenge against a solid top tier team and in the end got beat by a few plays and had some mistakes. Not exactly unheard of or unexpected... while you never really want to base your own play on other teams failings, you don't have to look hard or far to see that things are not that much greener in other pastures around the league on teams with way more veteran or supposedly skilled players. I see a team learning to play as a unit, building confidence and finding the style of game the coaching staff wants from them, it ain't always pretty but its more exciting then its been in years, and a heck of a lot more promising to boot.
All in all I'm happier as a long time flames fan then I have been in years, I honestly thought this year was going to be a lot harder to stomach then it has been.
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