This team is beyond frustrating at this point.
I'm not going to analyze all the players because it was much of the same.
One thing I will say though is that we are a terrible team. Do you know how I know this? Because we score 5 goals in one game and lose yet get near-perfect goaltending in the next game but can't even pot a single tally. That is the sign of a terrible, inconsistent team.
We are just as bad as our record says, and if you doubt it, you are in denial. Inconsistency is a massive problem with this club right now and I don't think there will be any way to change that during the course of the season. It's time to call a spade and spade and start expecting more OT losses each night.
I agree with what you're saying, I feel the major problem is our defensive zone positioning. If you watch when a team is in our zone, our forwards are floating around in the faceoff circles and not shadowing the opponent's defenseman. Typically the only way we relieve the opponent's pressure is to ice the puck, chip it out it and give them back posession or we just dump it down and go off for a change.
The offensive part of a game starts with a solid, smooth and clean defensive zone breakout which we don't execute at all.
Another major flaw is our passing which is just as bad. If you watch Detroit, Pittsburgh and Chicago pass the puck, it's crisp and tape to tape. These two things are basic fundamentals of hockey you learn at a young age. How many odd man rushes or breakways do we get a game? maybe 1-2 of each.
Our system when it works and it does work "sometimes" and is beautiful to watch is to dump and chase, cycle the puck behind the net, work the triangle around the net or pass back to the D for a shot and get a dirty rebound.
We don't have those superstar players that can skate it end to end and set up plays that way, we are and will continue to be a "work by committee" team. Skille, Matthias, Kulikov and Campbell do this once in a while but not consistent enough. When other teams figure out our system, we have to rely on our PP typically to score goals which most nights is a roll of the die. Sometimes it could be top 5 and other nights it's like were killing a penalty.
This all being said, the compete level was better than I've seen lately and I understand most see a 1-0 game as boring. Everyone views a game differently, a 6-5 game is obviously more exciting to some because of the scoring. The game last night was hard to watch at points espcially where we only had 2 shots in the 2nd period until 6mins left in the period but we did kill off 2 penalties. (Our PK is slowly getting better which helps).
I still thought the game was exciting because it was a goaltending showcase and to be honest, it was nice to see our team actually not give up 3+ goals. We are a hit and miss team for the most part. Sometimes we score no goals and sometimes we can score 5, sometimes we give up 1 goal and sometimes we give up 4,5 or 6. That's hockey, every team is different. We are getting points which is a positive thing but we could have had an extra 2 points if we didn't implode against Washington and didn't have an unlucky bounce against us last night and had an opportunity to win in the SO.
To say we are horrible is a bit harsh, you know the makeup and style of game we play. It's not flashy and filled with highlight reel goals everynight. We are a grinder style team that needs EVERYONE to do their part to win games. To say we're not better than the first 6 games is not paying attention to the finer details of the game.
