StevenToddIves
Registered User
Yeah I agree. I think the refs are a bit old school in that they want our kids to fight through it.
Do you have a breakdown by period, or do we just throw up a chart and bow to it as usual?
He was absolutely dominant in the first period with 3 shots, 2 more blocked and one goal. He got hit once.
He had 2 shots in the second, 2 blocked, and got hit twice in the 2nd. We went almost 10 minutes with 1 shot on goal.
He had 0 shots on goal in the third, 2 blocked and got hit twice.
He had a great expected goal number at the end of the day, but with 0 shots in the third, none of it happened in the third period.
Peeke singularly blocked 4 Hughes shots. I mean, that's an amazing stat if you ask me. The entire Devils blueline blocked 5 shots all game.
That being said, I feel Hughes played well -- he was dangerous all game. Columbus defended him quite well with a "contain" strategy of matching Peeke up against him and keep Hughes on the perimeter while clogging up the shooting lanes. Basically, the gameplay was "let anyone on the ice beat us except Jack Hughes".
Lindy Ruff countered this (pretty well, I'd say) by moving Bratt up to the Hughes line later in the game. I liked the mentality of "well, you can't stop them both". It almost worked, but Merzlikins came up with a couple of huge stops against that line in the 3rd period, which were huge in deciding the outcome.