It was once again, individual mistakes causing goals.
Screened goalie and allowing JT to shoot from the slot.
Gudas not watching his side of the ice, even though Ghost points to that side to let him know to stay over there.
Mason allows a weak shot along the ice
Streit was poor most of the night. Certainly not a guy you want with an offensive minded D partner. But Streit knows he is a UFA and not getting re-signed. He knows if he gets points, another contract will come his way. So he wants to push the play. But it's the little things like simple keep ins and handling if the puck that is declining with him. It happened with Kimmo as well.
Honestly, it seems like we give up breakaways every game, and often multiple ones in games. I would LOVE to know our breakaway attempts vs given up thus year.
Mason. I have defended him. I expected him to eventually get his **** together because he is too good to be posting a .900 AV% this late in the year. It hasn't happened. Lots of games, we bled high danger chances against which left him out to dry. But then there have been way too many games like tonight where he allows 1-2 bad goals. It kills the team. You can't re-sign either goalie after the year they are both having. Mason is worth a 1 year 2 million dollar prove it contract. He likely moves on to see if he can get behind a better D and post good numbers again. It would not surprise me if he bounces back to a .915+ guy next year and is considered a steal by his new team. Other goalies like Elliot, Bernier, etc...will be on the market for cheap. And they will get backup money. I see us signing 2 guys. One as a split starter, and one for the AHL who can come up when an injury occurs. The one thing we can offer a FA goalie, is a chance to be a #1. Most other teams are after the same guys to be backups. All these guys coming off bad years, our starter should only get 2 million next year. More cap space for other holes I guess. Hell, Bishop has a .907 and plays behind Hedman and Strallman. He too could be looking at a paycut. Offer him 2 years at Mason's cap hit. He might bite. Darling could be guy to take a chance on.
Speaking of bleeding chances, AMac. I have been very critical of him and deservedly so. But the last 2 weeks, he has played much better. He has cut down the bad plays WAY down. When you have games where you don't notice him much, that's a good thing. I will give him praise when he has earned it and he has been much better as of late.
The offense. Well, we lack depth. We all know that....especially with Konecny out. Every line has guys in it who kill the offense. We overpass because no one is a natural shooter. We need like 3-4 guys who actually want to shoot when they get the puck. We only want to shoot when we are against the boards or at the point. We pass up shots from the slot, or miss the net when we do get them.
Most thought we would be a playoff tweener. And that's what we are. But how we got here is certainly different than how I expected. Mason haters have reason to hate, but ignore that Neuvirth has worse SV%. We do seem to score more with Neuvirth in net though. Our D is shaky, and that was expected. MDZ decline has really hurt the team. We got lucky not re-signing him.
Last year, even in loses, we were fun to watch again after the Berube years. This year, it's become painful again. So boring. No emotion. As others have said, we have taken on the personality of the coach. I do think we lack youthful enthusiasm that can get a team going. Fast skating. Big hits. Emotion. We have none of that.
Sorry for the long rant. This team is just so bad to watch. Bad coaching decisions. Bad goaltending. Bad defense. Bad offense. How the hell are we a quick win steak away from being in the playoffs again? I can't imaging how an Avs fan feels.
I just pray Hextall can work his magic and sells off some guys and gets a good return. Under 3 weeks left. I hope to wake up to finally see "Confirmed with link" every morning. Maybe this is the day.
