Weird game. Felt like there were lots of good individual performances, felt like the game was in control the whole way ... but in the end we actually gave up a lot of shots and lose.
Some iffy reffing didn't help but that wasn't the sort of control with the lead that the coaches will be happy with.
- JT Miller is just unreal. Having one of the best seasons by any player in franchise history. Was absolutely everywhere tonight, superstar performance. His last couple games have been right there with the best players in the sport playing at their best. Solid games from his linemates as well.
- Pettersson was 'pretty good' but the problem is that should have been a 'pretty average' performance for a $12 million player but is one of the best games we've seen from him this month.
- Hoglander I thought had one of the best games of his career. Just an absolutely terrific game on the forecheck and was driving the success of his line. Unfortunately Mikheyev is just a total mess right now and is dragging things down on the other side of things. Not sure if they're trying to showcase him or give him the opportunities to play out of this.
- Garland-Lindholm-Bains line got absolutely caved. Lindholm looks like a complimentary scoring winger, not a C who can carry a line. Very underwhelming so far, looks exactly the same as the player who was struggling in Calgary. Last year in Abbotsford I described Bains quite a few times as a guy whose brain was trying things that his body couldn't execute and it looks the same right now in the NHL. Good news is that he was able to get stronger and improve his execution in the AHL this season, and he'll need to do the same thing again next year. I've seen about enough, though - he's not ready.
- Lafferty had his best game in 2024. Looked like the player from October and November.
- Zadorov is a weird player. Comes up huge in big games, tends to drift out of other ones and that was the case tonight and that pairing with Juulsen struggled. Juulsen is maybe starting to lag in the last few games and it wouldn't be the worst thing to give him a night off for Friedman.
- Hughes I thought looked sluggish tonight, was as poor as I've seen him skate this year.
- 'Myers was actually really good aside from that one really dumb penalty' feels like something we've been saying a fair bit recently.
- Demko was excellent and deserved a W.