Stupid oilers! Koskinen is bad. Glad the oil have him otherwise we might have been done after period 1.
Loved the lines yesterday aside from line 4. Barring injury, they should keep them this way. When Ryan comes back he should center our 4th with the new set of plugs we got in Simon/levio/Nordstrom or whoever they want to randomly pull up for a game. If we see any of these guys enter the top 9 outside of injury or a significant change in production I’ll start siding with those that say coaching is an issue.
Regarding our “top” line, it doesn’t matter who plays in spot 3. JG and Monahan are good enough on their own. It actually makes this the perfect spot for bennet. He can crash and bang a bit, take offensive starts and if he’s invisible that doesn’t go outside of what we see from JG and Mony as well. People harping that we didn’t see them for 40 mins doesn’t understand what they are. They are exactly that, and I thought they did their role perfectly. Slide by unnoticed, try not to be a liability, but hold a potent offensive strike that can be a dagger in games when it matters. That and maintain the PP. Their role was played perfectly yesterday imo.
Bennett needs the pressure off so he can simplify his game. The pressure was too big for him to be something he’s not, with higher skilled proven guys maybe he can focus on North-south crash and bang hockey and not try to force stupid toe-drags and reach-in out of position plays. Perhaps this creates room for JG and Mony to do their thing.
Mange and Dubes are going to dictate the success of this team. Their motors and compete are the highest on this team. If they continue to develop and are providing that complete game for lines “2 and 3” we’ll be a good team. I have no issue with lindholm/chucky aside from they’re a bit streaky, so I feel maybe mange and dubes hopefully balance that out some.
Roll these lines for the next 15-20 games please!
Re; Cassie. I do think she’s terrible. She was raving about JG’s defensive play and then goes on to show a clip where he turned over the puck in the defensive end. It’s stuff like that, that is executed so poorly on a regular basis that make me so opposed to her commentary. I am a big proponent for bigger roles for women in the game. You just have to point out the extreme contrast in love for Hextall that will tell you this isn’t an anti female thing. I personally just don’t think Cassie is good at her job and on-top of that, we get WAY too much of her. Perhaps if we had her involved a few times a year it would be palpable, but it seems like we get her every few games which is too much.
Ok last thought. I like hannifin, but am I alone in thinking his offensive instincts are really bad? Every time he shoots when a clear pass is available, or when it’s the right time to shoot but he fires it 10 feet wide I can’t help but notice. I hope this team is gearing up for Valimaki and Rass to be the PP drivers of the future.
Overall that was an entertaining BoA so not going to nitpick, I’d take another 9 of those this year
