I blame Stamkos as much as anyone. For a guy who's supposed to be our best player, he was awfully pedestrian. The more money you're asking for, the less acceptable that gets. He was easily the worst player on his line tonight, and that just can't happen. At least not with the regularity it's been happening in the last year.
I'm more worried about Kuch though. Wondering if he's out of shape or something. He's been really, really quiet by his standards.
Eh I've seen worse. He at least kissed one off the iron. If that goes in we're looking at a totally different game. Agreed about Kucherov but I would say he had a far worse night than Stamkos. I literally didn't notice 86 out there one time. I think he's going through one of his funks.
If I have to point at anyone it's at guys like Brown, Filppula, Condra and Killorn. These are the guys who are supposed to get behind the big red wall of the Detroit trap and sustain pressure. They didn't do that and the PK was mediocre to average at best.
You HAVE TO skate hard to beat Detroit. Seriously that's literally the only thing you have to do. Get your legs moving, beat them on the wall (and it's not even like they're that tough) and you'll pull the "wall" away from Howard because you'll inevitably draw them out.
Very few times did we see that. The boys need to take a nap, hit the spa do SOME kind of damn thing to get their legs back because they're gonna be in a hell of a game against Dallas on Thursday. The only person who showed up tonight was Bishop, Drouin and Callahan for his slap shot.