I think if I had to order the players (top 5 and further 5) that were off my expectations of effectiveness vs. their reality of play this playoffs - with #1 being the most off:
Most off expectations:
1) Bratt (least effective per expectations - not that he has almost no goals, but it doesn't seem like he adapted his game a single bit and can't help anywhere it seems to make a tangible difference).
2) Dougie (He had the good OT goal in round 1, but otherwise very ineffective offensively. Maybe "OK" defense game at best. Given he is our star defenseman this is very disappointing and I expected a hell of a lot more control and ownership of the flow of the offensive rush game and some more points, like we had seen all regular season)
3) Vitek (you can order this maybe higher or lower depending how you view him - overall shock factor from regular season play)
4) Tatar (basically as ineffective as Bratt, he has history of this -- but I didn't know that, so I expected more given his regular season was pretty stellar per expectations).
5) Meier (hard working, expected more goals/points, mostly hoping for a bit more impact production wise, can't say he has been bad overall because he's doing a few other things like taking a beating for the team.)
Slightly further down the list of concerns would be:
6) Graves (not as effective as regular season, maybe he was nursing injury even before Carolina injury, but he had some rough games)
7) Nico (Mainly GOALS lack of goals. Otherwise, he's played a pretty solid game overall, tied for 2nd in team playoff points [with Palat] behind Hughes. Racked up some decent primary assists, plays the hard mins. The lack of goals put a moderate damper on what would otherwise be a very solid playoff showing.)
8) Hughes (Points leader, so probably all good, but not as effective as maybe anticipated. He did well at times, but other times looked a bit like Rookie Jack.)
9) Mercer (maybe its stupid to have him here, but I was hoping to see more. Its probably on me for stupid expectations but oh well, his regular season was really nice.)
10) Palat (started out slow, but mostly came on strong as both series went along, tied for 2nd with Nico in playoff points. I think he can probably fall off the list just about.)
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On the flip side.....
Biggest surprises (so far) per original expectations:
A) McLeod by far (dude has found an extra 2 playoff gears. that was totally unexpected)
B) Haula (well, maybe our super fans expected this [myself included], but to be honest it is really nice to see his game in both these series)
C) Schmid (we kinda expected he'd be decent, but not that good in Round 1)
D) Severson - mostly solid, maybe this was expected, but he was pretty consistent both series (not bad Sev like)
E) Luke (better than expected, to me at least, but small sample size. That doesn't mean he had a good game 4 though)
Still at least one more game to change the optics! Hoping the team can pile a few more decent games together and I can re-calibrate this list.