I will admit that Grossman had a brutal first period. But anyone who thinks he was that bad for the entire game is just hating on him for the sake of it.
Usually it's tough to respond to this kind of argument where you're just supposed to believe the premise (X player was bad at early on but he stepped up after so you're a just hater if you don't like his play) because it usually covers a much, much larger timeframe than one game. So I re-watched the 2nd in which he played ~3 minutes to see if there was any truth to this. This is the log:
(Time indicated is time remaining for the period)
14:42 - Made a pass to Backlund. The obvious thing to do.
14:29 - Loses the race to the puck, leading to some o-zone time and a shot.
11:52 - Punt the puck on the PK after a clean faceoff win by Monahan.
10:59 - Tough to tell, even with multiple angles. My interpretation: Could've done a better job covering Eberle, who would've taken a shot had McDavid been slightly more accurate with his pass. Hamilton's hit is independent to this.
7:30 - Loses the race to the puck, leading to some o-zone time but no shot.
6:25 - (after a d-zone faceoff) Gets the puck snagged from him by Kassian, leading to a shot by RNH.
6:18 - Failed to recover the puck.
6:08 - Dump the puck in the n-zone.
Conclusion: When he was forced to something, either it was a play a ECHLer could make or he failed. You and the others like you act as if we're the one reacting on emotions and biases. There's absolutely no doubt me and most likely the others are affected by confirmation bias and emotions (therefore so is the above analysis of his play, but you can re-watch the game if you want to verify the validity of the comments). But if you're going to say we think he sucked the whole game solely because of some irrational emotions, back it up with evidences.
I don't "like" Grossman, but I don't hate him.
Give me a break. You and the others defending Grossmann right now are the same people who defended the signing and the others traditional defensemen. I'm not big on deflecting, but it always bothers when people on the internet think presenting themselves as neutral, rational and unbiased and the opponents as biased and emotional prove they're the one in the right.