Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry Lime
It wasn't the whole team though. Up front it was Lindholm, flashes of Johnny, Backlund, flashes of Frolik, Bennett and the fourth line, all who played hard enough to win.
The defense was mostly young and suffering from a lack of backchecking from any of the forward core not mentioned above.
Smith played great.
Any of the forward core not named above should be considered expendable, and there are some really good pieces there, just perhaps not for this team. I would make an allowance for Tkachuk, who looked like the definition of a player in his first playoff game. You can grow out of that.
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I would disagree, I think the forwards that you listed all threw a few more hits than they normally would have, but other than that they didn't play anywhere near playoff level hockey. Bennett might be the exception, and Gaudreau in game 5.
On defense, if we want to give a pass to the young guys, I get that, but Giordano, Brodie and to a lesser extent Hamonic were no where to be found.
Smith played great, I will agree with that.
So basically Smith and Bennett were the only players who were ready to take their games to required level.
I think the team as a whole was just lulled into a false sense of security and weren't ready to perform.