While we were bound to lose again sooner or later, last night was the first game we've been outcoached. Igor clearly had a bad game. Jones and Schneider proved yet again they are a dumpster fire and need sheltered minutes.
Yet after an outstanding first period, a mediocre second, and a brutal third, they were still down 2 goals late with a chance to tie. Challenging the Dallas goal was the wrong call. Pulling the goalie on the PP with 4 minutes left was the wrong call (both times).
Video replay can choke on an entire bag of dicks. I don't care that the calls were right, because when the calls go the other way, they're never made right. As far as I'm concerned the league owes us about 5 BS calls in our favor just to get back to even. In the past week, we've learned that when the whistle doesn't blow and is not intended to blow, but the puck goes in, it's still not a goal...but when the whistle blows before the puck goes in, it's still a goal. You don't have to make a distinct kicking motion for the puck crossing the goal line to not count, the "call on the ice" can be changed from the actual call on the ice before going to replay, and a coach can reverse challenge a no-goal call too apparently. The more leagues drag on, the more I hate video replay in general. Let the refs go back to calling the plays on the ice and if they get it wrong, oh well, at least bad calls will happen both ways with human referees than a bunch of disphits watching a video monitor trying to place their finger on the scale. Again, this is not about last night. This is about 0 for the season, and if anyone wants to go back farther, a probably no higher than 25% success rate overall on these stupid things. The explanations often make literally no sense anyway, so it's not like delaying games for up to 7 minutes at a time has made the on-ice product better. Besides, nothing takes the air out of an electric game atmosphere more than a huge late goal resulting in 5 minutes of hushed silence while the Jeopardy music plays and everyone waits for a decision that will invariably either be wrong, or right for the wrong reason anyway. Kill video replay with fire already.
In the third, I really wanted to see Laviolette ride 10-16-13 more. That line should've been playing every other shift, and should've alternated with 20-17-24 and 50-21-26 with Pitlick subbing in for Wheeler as needed, and Bonino taking faceoffs as needed then going right off. Zibanejad absolutely deserved to be stapled to the bench during the third period last night, though you give him a chance when they get the PP with 4 minutes left. He was soft, consistently passed up good shots and made bad plays in scoring areas, and he was not willing to go into the corner and dig out pucks. He floated in the middle of the offensive zone most of the night looking for "shots" and didn't take them when he got them, and on the rare chance he did either missed the net or hit the goalie in the chest. He's on pace for 10 goals and does not deserve 21 minutes a game right now. There was no reason to put him between 10 and 13 last night and break up what had been a pretty good thing, even if it was just an attempt to "get him going." He needs to ride pine for a game, sulk, then immediately be given an opportunity tomorrow...not potentially drag down the best NYR 5 on 5 line when they need a tying goal.
Would also rather see Goodrow with Kakko and Cuylle. Give that line a little more snarl and maybe some of it will rub off on Kakko. It's telling that even for Kakko's goal, it came on an attempted pass/stickhandle in a shooting situation when the D spiked the puck into his own net. At this point I'd also throw Vesey on with 20 and 93 and just call that line the third line at even strength.
Coming back with Jones and Schneider after a TV timeout was inexcusable. That pair has also got to be better about changing opportunistically. They consistently don't change after 30 seconds during second periods, and get pinned in their own end for long shifts. No other pair consistently does this. It's twice a game, every game with those two. I still hold that Zac Jones is not an NHL defenseman, and Fox can't get back soon enough. I just hope that this can at least be a showcase so we can get something valuable back for the second coming of Matt Gilroy/Thomas Pock/Mike Mottau.
It was bound to happen sooner or later, but even as bad as Igor was this game was winnable. Hopefully Laviolette is able to look at some of what he did critically because there were plenty of takeaways re: coaching last night. I've been largely uncritical of what Lav and the staff have done thus far, because most of it has made sense, but last night definitely needs a look in the mirror on the part of the coaching staff, especially some of the decisions in the third period.
