I was ready to ***** about Miller because I thought he shied away from the last game vs. Washington (until he lost some teeth), but I think he showed up for this one. Stamkos might have been the best player on the ice, or maybe Kuch, so that was nice. I think there may have been a directive from the coaching staff to not get carried away with the physicality, so our best players, in general, were our best players, whereas our bottom-six carried us last game.
Palat... I just don't know. Everything is off. It was the old Teddy Purcell "plays are dying on his stick over and over" syndrome. He's not generating much of anything, regardless where he's at in the line up, but what's more troubling is I'm not noticing him defensively the way I used to. It seemed like two or three times per night you would see him come up big defensively in previous years. This year, he's just kind of "there," and it's Cirelli and sometimes Paquette, sometimes Johnson, who I notice making the extra effort on D most times.
