...and that’s the season folks. What a brutal game to watch, feel bad for fans who attended that snoozer. Both teams put on an absolute clinic defensively, but the Flames’ skaters had no desire to get to the hard areas to score whereas the Wild did. I suspect the room knows they’re done, so the urgency just wasn’t there.
Only one line and Markstrom bothered to put any effort into the game. Thought Kadri’s line had a rough night, giving up a couple goals and generating no momentum, no scoring chances and killing the powerplay.
Not sure why everyone is so down on Kadri tonight though. I thought it was Huberdeau who really sunk his line all night with poor decisions and turnovers. For instance, he receives a nice pass from Weegar which leads to a prime opportunity right in the middle of the slot and instead of shooting, he makes a lateral pass to Kadri on the wing for a much lower percentage shot.
There was one play by Huberdeau though that had me absolutely baffled. Kadri takes a pass in the neutral zone, does a 180 to gain the offensive zone and stops up, sucks in his defender and dishes it off to Huberdeau on the side wall and instead of turning the puck upwards where Pelletier has established position in front of the net with Andersson wide open on the back door, he curls back towards the blueline and makes a blind spin pass through coverage to no one and it gets easily picked off and leads to a counter attack for the Wild. Like, this is the kind of stuff we’ve seen from him all season long, baffling decision making, wild passes, turnovers, lack of poise and etc.
Kadri isn’t without his warts either and should get plenty of blame for how the season has unfolded. But he’s also a Stanley Cup champion and was a big part of the Avs’ success over the past few seasons. He’s proven he can do it on the big stage, against tough teams and in difficult conditions.
I don’t think it’s fair for Kadri and the rest of the team to bear the brunt of the criticism while Huberdeau gets to constantly play the “no one is ready to accept his passes” or the “he needs better linemates” type of BS. Honestly, it’s Huberdeau that needs to step up his own play and show that he’s worthy of the $84M contract he was offered and signed. Elite players are supposed to make their linemates better, not the other way around.
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