So, this is what I saw tonight:
+Henrique - Big goals. He played with determination and intelligence
+Boucher - Big plays, got into the thick of the action
+Kinky - Great saves, didn't get bent out of it by the goals
+Gelinas - Laser. Actually played good defence. Paired well with Larson
+Larson - 1 gaffe, but played like he should have 2 years ago.
Points of interest:
Havlat - Played great, had good vision, got to the areas needed to make chances.
Ryder - Good showing, just has to keep it up.
Kaberle - Waiting to see him with a few better players, may become a hidden gem.
Tootoo - Played agressivly, but took a bad penalty in the O-zone. REgardless, still is in the running for a 4th line spot. I expect he'd be better with Gomer then he was with JaJo.
JaJo - Had moments, but overall status-quo for him. Has to step up his game.
Matteau - Played good. Nothing I noticed was bad, but was kinda invisible for a bit.
Kelley - Had some good plays, but duffed it on the 3rd goal. Complete bush league coverage, but Komisarek is also to blame for that.
- Clemmer - 2 garbage goals against. Shaky after both, didn't really do much else.
- Zubrus - Not that he did anything wrong, but too slow.
- Komisarek - Wow. Got burned a few times, seemed lost for large portions of the game.
- The PP - Outside of the Gelly Bomb, not much happening here. The PK was way more aggressive on the net then the PP was.
So overall, the forwards were decent, the 2nd half of the goaltending was good, and our already existing defence was good.
I think that the PTOs up front may bear fruit, but the backend is a waste of effort for the organization. Komi was junk, if we wanted that kind of play we could have kept A-Train, and would have at least had a guy who knew the system.
Pete's new 'Attack the Net' strategy, if that's a thing, seems to be a good change, but let's wait until Jagr/Zajac/Cammaleri get onto the ice.
