Sometimes you paint a portrait, sometimes you paint a barn. This game was a barn.
I was happy to see the team trying and giving a damn. There’s still a lot of work to do - Petey and Quinn are still slumping, the PK is brutal, and our defense is a shambles - but they gave a solid effort tonight.
A big welcome back to Rookie Brock Boeser’s shot. How we missed you.
Horvat and Miller with big games up front, too.
Actually felt Jay Beagle had a pretty strong game. He might well be the hardest working guy out there, which I’ve got to respect - just too bad the talent can’t keep up with the heart.
Motte and Hoglander had good nights too, I thought. Sucked that Hoglander got benched in the late going and OT.
Roussel, Sutter, Gaudette, Virtanen, Pearson...rough nights. Sutter looks absolutely done. I think there’s a solid argument to be made that Loui Eriksson would probably be an upgrade on him at this point. His stamina and speed are totally shot.
On defense - Schmidt is a hero. Head and shoulders our best defender right now. Hughes going through some growing pains along with Pettersson at the moment.
Hamonic is having a rough ride. You hope it’s rust, but man - he made a bad decision on Toffoli’s first goal.
I was actually quite impressed with Chatfield. He hustled, he hit everything in sight, and he actually made a lot of smart moves with the puck. Didn’t look terribly out of place when Edler had to leave the game, either. He definitely staked a claim to his spot with his effort here. Regardless of how people feel about his standing in the organization, it’s good to see an undrafted kid fulfill his dream and look solid doing it.
Thought Holtby had a tough night (probably the worst of his starts thus far), but he delivered in the shootout when we needed it.
Anyway - take what worked, throw out what didn’t, and let’s try and win the next one. This game was certainly entertaining.
