Less than stellar performance.
But we again struggled mightily against a team that backed down against us and was prepared to be patient and take advantage of our mistakes.
We are a young team and there is a fine balance between stifling the kids by holding them back and just exposing everyone with an unrealistic approach.
DQ is most certainly not erring on the side of caution. Two things annoys me a bit in this perspective, and no 2 a lot more than 1.
1. We can fairly easily adopt and play a little more conservative. We did it when Zibanejad was hurt for example. It was quite obvious that Philly with experienced coaches were going to expose us and that NJ wouldn’t run and gun against us again. DQ could read these things a little better. Like we get the lead twice. Let NJ try create something against us and see how well they can do that without giving up grade A chances.
2. Look we have 4 lines. I think that the roster structure more or less gives us 3 lines. Ziba’s, Panarin’s and Chytil’s. Players around them are a bit interchangeable, but Panarin can carry his own line and Chytil isn’t a perfect fit with him.
So that leaves us with the 4th line. How should we build that line? Is there anything the teams lacks? Is our team uneventful and a little flat, does it need a 4th that can give us a spark? Is our team short on offensive talent, and do we need a 4th with some hidden offense?
From my POV it’s extremely obvious that we could use a 4th line that is can settle things down. More like a 3b line.
This is the biggest objection I have against DQs work in NY. Some will say, but what is he supposed to do? Gorton creates the lineup. But that don’t hold up. DQ has for a long time been on record that he wants a 3 line team with a 4th that can be used to provide a spark at times. The GM gets the player types the coach wants. McKegg for example, definitely hand picked. Smith has played there most of the year.
I was watching Philly’s 4th, a skilled Austrian in Raffel, a good 2-way guy in Nate Thompson and a 5’10 QMJHL in Aubel something.
And they are not alone. Most teams are having 4th built to play hockey, not berserk the ice. Very few teams have Hollweg-Betts-Ortmayer type of 4th anymore... As it is our 4th almost never has a positive impact.
It irks me a bit that DQ, but also our organization, aren’t a bit more solid and in tune when it comes to issues like this. It would help us so much if we had a line that could just hit the ice and play off some minutes. Provide stability. Expose teams we play against instead of getting exposed themselves.
