Barrie's been our best dman this season. I dunno what he changed in his training but it's a sky's difference from last year. His passing and some of his offensive decision-making still isn't that of a top calibre puck moving dman (because he's not one) but overall he's been the biggest difference maker on the back end.
Also hope Duchene gets more ice-time in this game, friggin 16 minutes+ for Comeau and 12 for Duchene? Who's managing the bench.
Well, I suppose in Bednar's defense the Avs jumped out to the early lead, so I suppose it makes sense he'd rely more heavily on his two checking lines more often than his scoring lines, but I agree, if yer gonna roll four lines, roll them. Just my opinion as a fan, nothing more.
And Terry should absolutely be on the power play. I've yet to see him really let that cannon loose.
As for Barrie, I think the changes around him are the big difference. The team was SO SLOW last year, watching them try to break it up the ice was so painful. It looked like this methodically-moving wall of players, no dynamism, no creativity, just a bunch of drop passes that petered out into nothing because the opposition knew all they had to do was stack the line and wait. Barrie needs room to generate offense and move the puck, last year he wasn't afforded the opportunity. The team was kinda forced into a dump-and-chase mode and that pretty much killed his game.
