Confidence is a big issue. And to exacerbate things…
Puck luck wasn’t on their side tonight. They worked the puck around the zone for a minute, to the point where Sportsnet showed shift lengths for the Rangers. They astutely continued to wear them down then failed to capitalize when they lost the puck. Rangers change, TV time out, strategy is for naught
Also there was a point where Rangers overloaded strong side and I think it was Kadri that made a cross ice pass back to the opposite point, but it hit the boards weird and they lost the zone
It’s gotta be mentally trying. They didn’t play that badly on the whole, but were trying to play safe
People raving about Shesterkin’s save tonight also (and pining for Wolf) to me leads to a conversation about what exactly it is that goalies do
Shesterkin is awesome, and one of my faves. But the shots he faces matter.
Shesterkin made a great stretch to rob Coleman. Great lateral movement, and at the same time… the actual outcome was that the puck was simply stuffed in to his pad.
Goalies are great at covering the bottom of the net. People rave over the save when lateral movement is involved and a Flame stuffs it into a pad, however when a guy on the other team goes top corner off the iron and in, it’s one the goalie ‘needs to have’ and now we have to call up our AHL guy?
Calls for Wolf tonight? Yeah, one got through Marky, but the other team has to win the race to score. The other 2 are pretty unstoppable tips. How good teams score.
Enough on goalies
This team needs confidence, but the problem is that there is a doggone other team that is actively trying to undermine that confidence, and they have to create situations where they have time and space to capitalize, and build that confidence
They played better tonight. Maybe didn’t deserve to win, but didn’t deserve to lose as much as last game - certainly didn’t get the bounces
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