Good write up, as always.
Rittich was great, despite the gaff, which he should never have played. The D would have easily won the race for the puck. As a Dman myself, I always found it difficult when the goalie played the puck because I was never sure what he was going to do with it. I always found it froze the D and gave the advantage to the attacking forwards. When the goalie is as good as Smith, then great. But for most goalies, I always felt like: just stay out of the way!
As for the game, I thought it was a really gutsy effort. Obviously they were exhausted and had nothing. They couldn't make a pass, which resulted in lots of turnovers and lots of possession time for Philly, which only made things worse for themselves. On top of that, they gift Philly two goals. And they got no breaks from the refs. Yet they never quit. Despite all of the available excuses, they put their heads down and kept going.
And nothing epitomized that more than Brodie's effort on the game winner. You could actually see the pain in his legs as he busted his ass up ice. It was very satisfying to see him finish it because he - and they - deserved it, strictly from their efforts.
The way they stick with it, the way they backcheck, the skating, the offensive creativity... this team is really easy to like. Just the polar opposite of last year. Again, this game epitomized that - they had nothing, yet they found a way to give us an entertaining win.
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