Finally got a chance to watch this one. I put the game on two people. Barrie and Varlamov. Barrie was on the ice for all 5 goals against, and directly responsible for poorly playing at least 2 of them. Varly made some saves, but allowed a couple he should not have (a .852 sv% is gonna have at least one bad one).
Tatar goal, Barrie should have boxed out Nyquist to allow for more time to clear and to not screen Varly...but given the horrible luck of the bounce to Tatar, not counting this as one of the two. Varly is off the hook due to the bounce and the screen on this one.
The Nyquist goal on the other hand....so weak by Barrie allowing him to get that shot off so easily. Varly should have been on his feet, no reason for him to be down that whole time...but Barrie has to tie that stick up, or knock him down. Split the blame for this one.
Abdelkader's goal is all on Barrie...tie up the stick, box him out, whatever...play some kind of defense there. An in close redirect, hard for any goalie to seal every little hole in that situation.
Richards' goal: Barrie gets beats out of the corner to allow Richards the easy rebound attempt. Varly giving up a rebound straight to Richards' stick puts this squarely on him as well. At least he got a piece of the shot, but not enough to keep it from fluttering over him into the twine. But Landy with the pass to Kronwall is the main culprit.
Not really going to put the ENG on anyone. Maybe Duchene for losing the faceoff, but nobody is gong to win every one.
I read in the GDT that folks were blaming Tanguay for the turnover leading to Richards goal. Then once it was determined that it was Landy, some were wishing it was Tanguay so Roy would come to his senses. That is my point in defending him around here. I do not claim that he is anywhere near the player he was, not even 3 years ago. But people are seeing him as worse than he truly is, because they are looking for him to be that horribad old guy....because old guy is in the way of new guy, and this is Hockey's Future. Observational bias in effect. I will agree that he has no place on the roster next year...even more slowing down, and Rants better be top6 to start IMO. But tonight, he was 9th of forwards for TOI (and Iggy was 8th). Tangs was team best CF/60, CorsiDiff, and individual high danger scoring chances (iHSC). As much as folks may want to believe, Tanguay was not the issue this game. And that being said...I am done with my ranting about Tanguay or any other goat of the week/month/season. I know I cannot get through to the worst offenders, and I fully understand the feelings of those that only rarley fall victim to this type of thing. So no more about it from me.
I would like to see a bit more fire from the guys. Not so much the chippy, borderline cheap kind of play, more like the will to win that I know they have...we have Stanley Cup winners, Memorial Cup winners, Olympic Gold winners...we have guys with that will, but they do not play like it entirely too often. But mainly I would like to see them play without mercy. There is no shame in running the score up against teams. Yet they play like they feel bad if they win by more than one. I know they don't actually feel that way, but they play like it. They play prevent once they get a lead, and the longer they do it, the less likely it is to work. Play the game that got you a lead, bury a few more goals...then play prevent with a 4 goal lead. Nothing wrong or unsportsmanlike with a 3 goal win.