What I’ve been loving about Koskinen is he is unphased by turnovers (usually) and follows the play in front of him incredibly well (unless he is playing the puck). He sees the defensive breakdowns and adjusts and prepares mentally to make the save on the open guy. It’s great to see. With Smith you can watch him see the breakdown happen then collapse into his crease, opening up a lot of targets for an NHL shooter. Perhaps he is compensating because his lateral movement is poor or painful, but if he can see it happen why not time it and cut off the angle (like Kosko!) Smith is good when we play well defensively for him. But obviously, we make a lot of mistakes.Didn't comment much on the game overall. Clearly we have to tighten up. Koski was stupendous at moments in the game and arguably keeping us in it as Jersey were allowed better scoring chances earlier on. Then again when the Devils took a 3rd period lead.
Good as it is to be getting these wins its still a matter that we are outscoring our mistakes. The ones on the 3rd GA being pretty bad. Drai starts the unwrapping trying for too much and turning puck over at own blue line. But then BOTH Nurse and Ceci over pursue to guy that didn't score, and leave the net and trailer completely open for that guy to score.
The last part isn't momentary resilience and "levels of D" Its still the team blowing it when one guy makes a mistake. The team, and D, still get rattled, and even our best D. I'll be confident the team can survive its mistakes better when I'm seeing more consistent cover for mistakes. When we screwup, we still screwup big. We're somewhat fortunate the game is against NJ and they have difficulty defending or protecting a lead.
I think Koskinen is not perfect with rebound control and it seems to bite us on the penalty kill (after he makes 2-4 massive saves.) But I still would rate him well for rebound control.
On Drai, also Kassian and Hyman if I’m picking names, look before throwing the puck into an area you haven’t seen yet. And simply check your blind spots often.
I see them let guys walk in unnoticed way too often. Make a habit of shoulder checking! Simple stuff that prevents goals. I’m sure lots of the guys are guilty of this too :/
Wish I weren’t so lazy so I could make a compilation for each player. Just simple mistakes that can be easily fixed if you are aware of it.
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