Was at the game with the kid, so I had to leave early (thankfully), but I thought there were a couple of positives.
Backlund/Frolik started slow, but improved as the game went on. They will be effective.
Bennett is playing with confidence. Better when Brouwer is in the line-up, but that should be a really good line. Tkatchuk will be a tough call, as he does need to bulk up to play his style effectively.
For the PTO guys, I thought Korpikoski and Grigorev looked OK. Prefer Korpikoski over Higgens, from limited viewings.
Really tough game to evaluate, seeing how poorly the goaltending was in the first half. A couple of bad breakdowns in the D zone, but I didn't think they were hemmed in as badly as last year. On offence, I don't have a feel as to how they want to play. Hopefully a product of having half a line up, without our best players, but it seemed like we were shoveling the puck towards the net, and hoping for the best.
They need to cut this thing down to 27-28 players and get on with it.
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From HFBoard oiler fan, in analyzing MacT's management:
O.K. there has been a lot of talk on whether or not MacTavish has actually done a good job for us, most fans on this board are very basic in their analysis and I feel would change their opinion entirely if the team was successful.
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