Well, a game 1 loss was to be expected, so the single point is nice at least.
Good:
-Tanev plays really hard, skates well, and I thought that he was making very good pinches, especially early when the forwards were getting more done out there.
-Markstrom was unfortunate to face such a dangerous sniper on a breakaway as one of his first shots. The second goal was a horrendous giveaway by Lucic and he made a great save prior to the finish.
-Backlund gave his usual consistent performance. Skates well, strong on puck and on PK. One of the only forwards who managed a three period game.
-Bennett carried the puck well, forechecked hard, created some chances for himself, made a great pass to Andersson on the Forbort save, and was their best forward in the second half of the game.
Bad:
-Valimaki looked like a rookie... moreso than 2 years ago when he was a pure rookie. We probably underestimate how big of a jump it is from the Finnish league to the NHL. Poor decision making and terrible accuracy on passes tonight.
-Gaudreau-Monahan-Leivo... yikes. Gaudreau was falling all over the place. Monahan was pretty disengaged, and Leivo was mediocre.
-Dube was so much less noticeable. He made a nice pass on his assist, but his forechecking and puck carrying were barely noticeable and the whole line overall was terrible in the second period.
-Powerplay entries were inexcusably terrible tonight. They were stopped so many times at the blue line and even when they got in, they would dump it off to Monahan who couldn't make the second play.
-Lucic was an absolute giveaway machine and I don't know if he threw a single bodycheck
Miscellaneous:
-Nordstrom doesn't seem to be great enough at the PK that I support playing him over Simon. I think Simon adds a lot more flexibility to the forward group.
-Older players Giordano, Ryan, and Lucic really seemed to struggle. Probably need more time to get up to speed.
-Honestly the whole team looked gassed (and so did the Jets) in the third period.
-Nestorov was pretty good and Hanifin looked a lot more dynamic in the first period.
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