Positives:
I think the 2,3, and 4 forward lines played great. The bottom two lines were especially good and that bennett-brouwer line generated some chances as well. Elliott was also far better than last game and made a some big saves. We also played a solid possession game, which is completely the opposite of the last two seasons and will definitely cause some growing pains.
Negatives:
At some point you have to start blaming the defense for the number of goals we have given up. Wideman was a tire fire, but gio, brodie, and hamilton looked pretty bad as well. They pinched too often and there was absolutely noone covering the breakout and it cost us a lot of breakaways. Also our top line has looked super rusty and that needs to change soon if we want to win games this year.
I honestly do believe this team has the potential of being a really good team moving forward, but our defence is an absolute liability at this point. I understand 3 of our 6 dmen like to pinch, but when you have someone as fast as mcdavid on the other team, you need to be able to be in a good position to cover him coming back. I am willing to give gulutzan 10-15 games before calling for his head, but it is clear that he needs to make some changes. He made the correct change on his defence pairings and taking grossman out after the first game so at least he is willing to try different things. Hopefully Kulak is in tomorrow for wideman and we can get our first win of the season. GFG!
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