The things I took away from this game:
-4th line will be good, but they need to learn each other's games. Same with the current 3rd line, actually, even though they were the only line that scored. I noticed a lot of missed passes on those lines, and it was because someone would drop the puck to where they thought a teammate would be, and that teammate had already started skating away from there. Timing was an issue with those lines, and that'll come together in time, as they play together and get more familiar with each other.
-Coyle on the point is not great. The only reason to have him up there is because he's a right handed shot. The problem is his shot isn't about being a boomer from long distance, and his style isn't one that does well from the defensive line. He's a forward, a big, skilled one! We need to utilize his strengths as such. We could have used a right hand shot among the forwards for that first PP line. Also, what are Dumba and Spurgeon for? Both are good offensively, both are defensemen, and both would do better up there at that point. Why aren't we using them there? Bruce is a smart coach, so there must be some reason he put those lines together like that, but it clearly didn't work.
-We're going to miss Pominville and Parise. I was thinking that even before I saw Pominville's stat line last night. He was just really good on that 3rd line, and they were missing him. Luckily, we should be getting one of them back, eventually.
-As usual, Dubnyk is great at making the difficult saves, and for some reason has lapses on the routine ones. I've always felt he's a goalie that will let in 1-2 goals against most games, occasionally 3, but will rarely either get a shutout, or let in 4. If you can score in front of him, you'll win most games.
All in all, disappointing game in that we could have won it, but I can't be too upset. A lot of what went wrong is fixable.
