GloryDaze4877
Barely Irrelevant
I was at last night game and Nordstrom & Bjork were all over the place. It’s obvious after 10 games Nordstrom is another player with a plus hockey awareness.
I would throw Donato with them as others have posted
Eventually you are going to be fine at center long term but right now
Donato-Nordstrom- Bjork
Works
That shot by Donato in the second was heading right at us and I was watching him and I still haven’t seen him release it was so fast
Don’t want to turn this into a Ryan Donato thread, but...
I Like Donato’s offensive game a lot, but there was a play last night that highlights his lack of awareness and really worries me.
Third period, B’s are up two, but Flyers have a brief 5 on 3 with Donato in the box (think he was serving the extra two on Kampfer).
He jumps out of the box and the puck comes to him in the NZ. I believe he had Bergeron with him, but the B’s are still short handed 5 on 4 (with Chara in the box), the Flyers have two guys back (one may have been a forward) and you are up 2 goals with not a lot of time left.
Situational hockey.
If you are down a goal, maybe you take a chance there (especially if it was a F back) and try to get the GTG. That was NOT the case and the smart play would have been to get over the red line, get it deep and get a PK guy on the ice.
Instead, Donato stalls in between the red line and the offensive blue line. I think he was waiting for Bergeron to join the play, but I’m not sure? He continues with the puck and then when he gets to the blue line, he tries to make a deke/move on the Philly player with the intention of generating an offensive play. I start yelling at the TV,
“Donato, WTF are you doing? Dump it and change up!!”
Of course, he loses the puck and Philly transitions back up the ice, still up a man with Donato chasing the play. In the meantime, I’m listening to Brickley giving Donato credit for “hustling back”. If he had made the smart “situational” play to begin with, he would not have turned the puck over, nor would he have had to hustle back.
I get it, Donato is young, and he’s still learning, but on the other hand, he’s been playing high level hockey for years. At this point in his career, inexperienced or not, getting that puck deep is a no-brainer.
I hope that one of the coaches had a talk with him about that play. Not sure if he saw the ice again because it was late in the game, but that’s the kind of thing I would sit somebody a shift for doing.