It was a victory, but if Ellis is out for as long as I fear he could be, it was a costly Phyrric victory at best. a few thoughts afterwards anyway;
..in our last 5 games, our defensemen have scored 2 of our goals. 2 of the 3 in each of the last three games, so 6 of our last 9, and 11 of our last 17 goals have been scored by d-men. we need our forwards to pick their offensive game back up, quickly.
..we played well in the first. it went downhill rapidly from the moment that puck snuck under rinne's arm.
..we were sloppy with passes, in both zones. we blew coverages, we gave up a near unforgiveable goal with under 2 seconds. and yet we found a way to win anyway.
..thank you salamaki. what a great night for the new kid. more impressed by the way he threw his body around out there than that big goal. wasn't intimidated at all, which most first game youngsters are. almost sad to say he might well have been our best forward tonight with the goal and 7 hits and more shots than anyone but weber and josi.
..Wilson with another great effort all night.
..still can't get over what we were doing on that goal allowed. we were totally out of position everywhere, josi off for a skate, gaustad in between open men, bourque not helping back. so unlike us, and it really wasn't a scramble play really.
..and honestly, that first one might well be the worst positionaly fault goal rinne has allowed all year. he ALWAYS closes on the post. he was far enough off of it that the post actually interfered with him closing the gap. very un-rinne like..
..weber's two goals. lol. both defied odds and especially lehtonen. he actually knocked that last one back over his shoulder and in.
..strange call on Forsberg no goal. the ref that pointed the goal good was pointing and screaming at the dallas guy that he cross checked smith into lehtonen so that's why the goal was good.... and then goes into the huddle with the other ref and chicken****s out of standing up to what he called and said. gutless on his part. if he would have waived it off immediately I would have lived with that.
and despite it all, the deflating first goal, the horrible tieing goal, the psychological letdown of watching ellis hurt, not much from our forwards, the crushing waive off of the Forsberg winner... and still go out and find a way to win. an ugly, sloppy, grinding, but a gut check victory.