Long time reader, first time poster here but I’m feeling compelled to air the grievances...And by no means is this me trying to crap on the team. As someone who has been watching since a young boy in 1994, I’ve witnessed the good and bad of this franchise. Through the 50 loss seasons to Stanley Cup redemption in 2004. But over the last few years we finally have a team where expectations are sky high and we’re a perennial contender. Most other team’s fans would kill to cheer for a team this successful, so maybe this means we’ve become spoiled a bit. But we know what this team is capable of and how frustrating it can be to watch them shoot themselves in the foot when clearly they are better than that. Im not worried about tonight, it’s just game 1, and I do believe we’ll bring a better effort Sunday. But here’s a few issues that grind my gears...
Killorn- aside from not giving a better effort on Ovi’s goal, he really hasn’t done much these playoffs. I think we all love “playoff Killorn” but I’m beyond annoyed with his soft play and constant falling down. Seriously, I’ve never seen an NHLer lose their edge as often as he does. Anytime he tries to stop suddenly or pull up, woops down he goes! At some point you just have to laugh and move on.
PK- at what point do the coaches try something new? Have you noticed how passive we are in this situations? We form a collapsed 4 man box and rarely move out to challenge the puck carrier. Check it out Sunday when we’re on a kill... see how they almost make a perfect square with that box and allow the other team ample space to work with. It’s almost as if they don’t mind spending the whole 2 minutes in their own end and would rather take the onslaught and look to block shots instead to create turnovers. Take a look at how some of the better PK units around the league force the play and challenge the shooter/puck man. Some teams, (gasp), even create offensive chances for themselves while shorthanded. But for now I’d settle for a little more aggressiveness. Now I’m just an average Joe and maybe I’m way wrong here. But if my PK units were struggling to get kills and I watched the film and saw that...wouldn’t ya think that would be a damn good reason to try a new strategy? I mean at this point what do we have to lose?
Kunitz- I like the addition this summer and understand what his role is. And for the most part this season he was effective. But he’s become too much of a passenger lately only good for taking penalties. His line with Cally and ceddy were great vs Boston, but at some point he needs to generate some offense . I’m not expecting him to be a goal scorer or hero, but lately he’s reminded me of how we used Brendan Morrow in 2015. Just a warm body. And I swear, if I have to hear about his 4 cups one more time...
But I digress, we’ve got a pretty good thing going here and i suppose I should be grateful to even be in this position in May. Just a couple things to get off my chest lol. Thanks for listening
Go Bolts
