Ortio was terrible on goals 3 and 4. 3, he should never ever get beaten over his shoulder from that angle. If that was Hiller, he'd be getting crucified. As for goal 4, it's a goal. He's outside his paint, which is fair game for skaters, plus he puts his arm up and makes contact with Ryan. Maybe he was trying to instinctively defend himself, but it doesn't make up for the fact he was way out of position. Sorry, he didn't have a good night tonight. He should start the next game, because hey, the alternative is still worse.
The way this team defends concerns me. Been an issue all season, with all the players. Gio and Brodie have often been chasing shadows in their own zone and giving up awful goals, the rest of the defence hasn't been much better bar the recent 2 call ups. Forwards haven't helped in this regard either. Now, we either have a group of players that are just not good enough to defend effectively over the course of an NHL season, which is a concern. Or, we have a group of coaches that aren't coaching this group in how to defend effectively. Either way, it's a massive massive concern and if Hartley can't get more out of this group next season, his position(and that of his coaches) has got to be under scrutiny.
We were outworked and outfought by a faster hungrier team tonight. No excuse for that pathetic 3rd period, none whatsoever.
As for all this "2 Matthews points", please GTFO! Thats classic Oiler mentality and its downright embarrassing, no matter which way you slice it. Getting him or Laine won't matter if we believe that efforts like what we saw tonight are in any way acceptable, at any stage of a season. Get em in tomorrow for a bag skate, gutless performance.
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