Thus far he has easily been the best defensemen. Reliable in our own end 5on5 or PK. Wonder if he gets some PP time soon. The last 2 games our PP has looked awful. No zone time, and when we have had zone time teams are looking for that cross pass to Nylander, or in Marner's case teams are collapsing to cover that cross crease feed. I know shot blocking is part of the game but would it kill our defense to get a shot through. Last night I kept saying "hit the net," or "get it through." Rosen is terrible at it, Gardiner of late cant get it through, Rielly hits the defender or it is way wide. Our strength is supposed to be quick movement, and that is lack. Further to that our zone entry especially on the PP has been terrible. Teams know we are giving it to Nylander to walk in, and in that case not bad success rate. But a lot of times Gardiner or Rielly fire it in too hard, or on the weak side, other team grabs it and easily clears. Yet Zaitsev seems to have a good touch. He shoots it in correctly, he gets pucks through, and the other night I think it was against Chicago, and NJ instead of wiring it he found an open guy *aka the Brown goal. I think soon we may see a change back there as well. Hainsey is Hainsey, and I think he has been great defensively. But Rielly has not taken advantage of that stay at home play. I am not sure if Gardiner would be better with him. But at this juncture maybe try, Hainsey with Zaitsev. Zaitsev is offensive minded, and so far picking the right team to jump up and create. I get why we have the pairs the way they are but so far both Rielly and Gardiner have had little to no offense. I will say last night I think Babcock told them all defense first, do not even think offense. Both D exited the offensive zone early, contributing to little pressure and zone time. Also the only player I saw jump in was Borgman. I really love that guy. Problem is Carrick almost had him get burned for it, if it werent for our forwards hustling back. Anyway it is good to see Zaitsev playing this well, hoping the rest takes care of itself. It is worth noting it may take another week before Rielly gets really comfortable with Hainsey (since he is so new to the team).