Absolute dogshit effort.
-They played afraid of contact tonight. No one followed plays to the net. No one stayed with their man on the backcheck. No one cleared the front of the net with force. Multiple defenseman actually skated AWAY from the net when the goalie made a save even before the play was dead.
-Trocheck had an absolutely terrible game. -4 and horrid in circle today. Made one good rush with Vesey and that's it. Was directly responsible for missed checks/lazy backchecks on two of the Washington goals. Oshie was not Goodrow's man on his 2nd goal...if Trocheck comes back with any urgency, that's not a goal. Goodrow just happened to be in the area and saw Oshie open so he went there, but that was not his man as Trocheck was half a step behind Oshie at the redline and let him go.
-PP: still too stagnant.
-If I'm Gallant, I tell Harpur that every time the goalie makes a glove save on him from the point, he does 5 Herbies in practice the next day. STOP SHOOTING HIGH. Shoot low and hope for a rebound, your shot sucks dude.
-Lindgren injury - I'm guessing it's a dislocated shoulder, hopefully not separated. It didn't look good. Could have easily been a boarding penalty but I think calls for 5 and a game are a little overdone. Trouba went over Oshie a few times in the 2nd, that was fun to see...Knocked him on his ass at least 4 times yet somehow was only credited with 2 hits.
-Kuznetsov - definitely should've been a spearing penalty, very dangerous, and not a "hockey play." Disappointed at the lack of response to him for that especially when the game was out of hand. So what if he's a skill player.
-Fox looked like Shawn Chambers on Mario Lemeiux on the Wilson goal. Really, dude? What a weak, soft play.
-Igor was mediocre again. He's really been struggling with angles and depth, and going down early - especially when shots come high.
-Miller was low key awful again. His passing was off all night. Schneider was their best D today and it wasn't even close.
-When Mikkola decides to play physical he can be a monster. Huge hit right before his penalty, then got carried away and too aggressive with his stick in the defensive slot. Overall, really, really like his game though, he's just got to be smarter especially with the stick. If he uses his body, he's a beast. It'd be fun if Trouba could teach him the reads to lay people out open ice because I think he has the other skills (skating, size, strength, explosiveness) to do it.
-For all of the kid line cycling, at some point someone's got to put a bug in their ear to just come off the wall and try to drive the net. Unless they're auditioning for the penalty kill, there's not much there right now. When they were scoring, they'd look to exploit coverages and either center the puck or take it to the net themselves. As they've stopped scoring, they're back to playing perimeter hockey. Kakko's goal helped mask what was overall a very timid afternoon by him. Great pass by Kreider though, who was probably the team's best/most involved forward.
-Good riddance to Jake Leschyshyn. If he clears waivers, he'll go to the AHL where he'll fit nicely on the Pack's third or fourth line.
-Not thrilled with Lockwood and a 7th as return for Kravtsov. Guess we'll see, but seems like a smallish forward who tries to play physical...unsure how his offense will translate. Obviously, guessing the move was mostly to clear cap for Kane or another bigger move.