If it’s not one thing it’s another with this team. If it’s not poor starts, countless bad turnovers, or poor goaltending, then it’s something else. Tonight it was bad penalties leading to two goals, and bad coverage, and another turnover lead to the other three goals.
1st goal - Turnover from Girard on the breakout leads directly to the goal.
2nd goal - Miscommunication on coverage between Barrie and Landeskog leaves the entire right side of the ice open for Spurgeon to skate down low and score.
3rd goal - Two bad penalties from Kerfoot and Cole lead to the 5 on 3 goal.
4th goal - Andrighetto caught puck watching down low, lets Coyle skate right past him and get wide open for the backbreaking 4-2 goal at the end of the period.
5th goal - Nemeth golfs a puck laying flat on the ice into the net 180 feet away.
Delay of game penalty leads to another 5 on 3 and they score.
This team didn't play that much different than they have for about a month now. Good defensively except for a handful of moments where they completely break down, and they end up in the back of their net.
Props to
@AllAboutAvs for being the only one I saw to be consistent and call out Grubauer's .821 save percentage in this game. He isn’t the reason they lost, but I think this shows that if you're just looking at save percentage it can distract you from the other problems with teams.
Don't fault Grubauer in this game, but I don't like how eager he was to call out the team after this game. What he said sounded like he's been calling them out privately for a while now, and that is just ridiculous given the way he's played this year in multiple bad stretches.
Francouz should get the next start after the break. If not the next game, then it should be Varly, and then Francouz. They need to see what they have in Franc and the other two haven't done enough to earn starts over him.