The mistakes in the defensive zone are just so f***ing boneheaded. Why are they trying to force long breakout passes through a forechecker? Almost cost them three times in the 1st.
Lindblom: relieved an Arizona flurry of pressure with a great centering breakout pass. He had to shield the puck from the pinching dman, forcing him to backhand it. Right on the tape. Great play. The pass to Patrick for the breakaway was also perfect. He just makes so many little tertiary plays out there...he creates behind the scenes. Love it. First full season boys.
Lehtera: All he had to do was pick his head up, take a stride, and make a pass to clear the zone. Instead he blindly tries to hoist it over the blue line, right into a Coyote. 40 seconds later, Laughton gets called for a penalty. Shocking, I know.
Provorov: continuing to play well. He did have that brutal turnover but he made some really good "Provorov plays"
- Fended off two Coyotes behind the net, one handed it to the winger at the half boards for the easy out
- Jumped up on the play for the semi breakaway, drew a penalty
- Gathered the puck whipping around the dasher in would-be forechecking traffic to spin it around behind the net, all in one motion, to relieve pressure
- Made a nice pinch down below the circle on the boards to keep the cycle alive
Hagg: it's funny, because Provorov on my last bullet point up there pinches and keeps the play alive, and Hagg 15 seconds later pinches, stutters as the puck rattles around his skates, then waves at it as it's poked past him by a Coyote. Like back in 2nd grade playing kickball when the athletic kid belts a ball over everyone's head for the easy home run, then his chubby friend comes up, tries to do the same thing, but muffin kicks it 2 feet off the ground right back to the pitcher who catches it. Night and day. Offense dies on his stick. Shocking, I know.
Patrick: couldn't finish on the breakaway, shocking I know, but the breakaway speed was impressive and promising. His defensive game has really improved this year. The kid makes great defensive reads and is in a good, disruptive spot more often than not. At least once a game you see a real nice stick lift/steal, and this one was no different. He picked Galchenyuk from behind to cause a NZ rush.
Sanheim: that 3rd goal. omg.
- Instinctively jumped on the puck. That's the word the coach used right? How bout those instincts to launch forward, make the heady short pass in the NZ, keep driving the net looking for the give and go, and make another great pass to Giroux. Just out of his reach. All's well that ends well though
- Just by memory, I'd say Sanheim's egregious turnovers/60 is very low. Just something to throw out there
Folin: The man is much better than AMac. But so am I. While we're on the topic of great plays-
- He jumped up in front of our blue line to try to smoke OEL, which was easily sidestepped and turned into a quick scoring chance as Folin was coming back into play, leading to an icing
- Then needlessly iced the puck off the ensuing defensive faceoff
- Then got a holding penalty after the second ensuing defensive faceoff
Pickard: he made a difference tonight. That isn't to say he stood on his head or if it wasn't for him they would have lost or anything like that, but he made some good saves, a few great saves, and some timely saves tonight. Competent goaltending makes this team look that much different.
The Coyotes PK...imagine seeing our team send a man hard on the puck and then have a player half support him? Man, one can dream. It's like it's not a crime to move your f***ing feet on the PK! Who knew?! Meanwhile, our guys watch an opponent rip another one past the goalie with no sense of urgency. At all. Shocking, I know. They even do it on the 6-5! All in all they played well tonight. Still too many egregious turnovers but I thought the NZ play was pretty well executed and they didn't look like pansies defending their blue line. Sanheim and Gudas still need to play more. Hakshell still needs to stop. But you can't be too picky
