Oz looked lost for most of the game. It was his first game and their forwards are fast. Zaitsev was horrible he can not make a simple pass. Time after time he fail to pass to his puck support option when they were wide open and he was standing still looking for a pass when he should be moving his feet and looking. He could not process the game at the speed the Habs forwards played at. It is going to be a long season for him if he can not find his support player even before he gets the puck. Gardiner was more then fine. Zaitsev is among the hardest D man to play with in the league as he plays like an independent contractor he runs around chasing players with out thought to rotations and systems.
I saw Zaitsev make lots of good little passes and a few stretch ones too. He transitioning well last night, had some solid board play and was pinching well when needed. He also pulled off the amazing feat of having the toughest zone starts (with Gards) and yet, by far, the highest scoring chance differential of all dmen.
Here are the numbers I posted in the other thread:
5v5 Dmen stats for the opener:
TOI:
Gards: 18:13
Zaitsev: 17:28
Rielly: 16:28
Hainsey: 16:13
Dermott: 14:58
Oz: 12:16
Corsi%:
Dermott: 62%
Oz: 50%
Zaitsev: 50%
Hainsey: 36%
Gards: 33%
Rielly: 29%
Scoring chances%:
Zaitsev: 65%
Dermott: 57%
Gards: 48%
Oz: 42%
Hainsey: 38%
Rielly: 26%
High Danger chances%:
Zaitsev: 67%
Dermott: 57%
Gards: 43%
Oz: 30%
Hainsey: 29%
Rielly: 20%
I'm not saying what many others have said that Zaitsev should be pushed up on the top pair but he was a damn solid number 4 last night. Thats what we want from him and he certainly earned his money last night. If he plays this way all year, his contract is a steal.
Zaitsev had a rough year last year and its just strange to hear some around here and a few pundits crapping on him when he was probably our best dman in the pre-season and carried it over to the first game. I thought people liked comeback stories?