Shea is not getting scrathed and yes I was so frustrated with him tonight too, but understand how much we also need him to play and play well or at least better than tonight. I'm not sure if people here were saying that he should definitely be scratched, but I saw a lot of people saying it on reddit. It annoyed me so much reading unrealistic posts wanting him benched for him having a bad game. Hes only one of 2 puck moving dmen that we have and is the power play quarterback on the first PP unit. He's 22 and will make mistakes. It sucks that it cost us a game in the finals, but a lot of other players didn't contribute either. When he puts it all together, he's going to be a great dman. Possibly even a star one if he can be a better shooter. He's come a long way from October. He's gotten better on defense and passing which is his forte, but his shooting frustrates me. He needs that added dimension in his game.
I need to see the game again, but I believe the caps are doing what the sharks did to us and that is to collapse if we are cycling the puck and blocking shots from the outside and denying anything in the cleavage aka the slot. I also call the face off circle and the dots, boobs and nipple. The caps are giving us shots from the point and from a distance from bad angles. I think this is where Miller and even Schmidt needs to shoot more one timers and clappers. They need to make the caps players not want to block shots and if they want to stand in the way of a 100+ mph shot from Miller then by all means enjoy the pain. Or if our dmen aren't accurate with wristers and snap shots from the point, then they need to rotate and let one of the forwards do it. And if they are indeed collapsing, then we should walk in closer and take our shot. Shots from the point will rarely go through. At least the way we are playing it won't go through. We don't have someone in the crease to screen, tip, or get a rebound. The caps are great at putting a skilled forward up front and have cashed in multiple times already in the series with up front traffic. Neal, Tuch, and Karlsson (I think he's our best crease player on the top line) needs to do this. Haula was also good at this, but I don't know where his head is at right now.
After thinking about it, the player that needs to be benched is Perron. Perron can be a good puck possession guy, above average playmaker, and can even snipe sometimes if he can walk in on the goalie, but he's doing nothing at all except making mistakes and taking penalties and trying to be a goon/tough guy. I'd put Tatar in for Perron. At this point it can't hurt the team any more than he already has. Even Carp fights for the puck and sometimes comes away with the puck and passes it to the slot where no one is except for a caps player.
As much as I'd like to see Sbisa sit, I don't think we see a change on defense unless someone gets hurt on defense. And who would take his spot? Hunt or Merrill? As bad as Sbisa has been at times, the other two make me cringe even more.
I'm ready for giving Tatar another chance on the 3rd line. He'd be a much better choice of extra attacker than Reaves (wtf GG) and on the power play over Perron at this point. Perron is making a case for not being extended right now. He's been awful throughout the whole playoffs. I wonder if he's got a bum wrist. All of his shots are missing the net from 10 feet away.
Where is Schmidt? He also needs to skate and make things happen on offense with accurate passes. It would be nice for his defense to show up too. Did he leave his game in winnipeg?
If you put Tuch on the 2nd line, then Neal has to play the sniper role. We can't have two power forwards in the crease down low. I don't like Tuch's shooting with the exception of him on a breakaway or in the slot. He really needs to work on his wristers and snappers from the circles.
We need one player on every line to play in the crease or in the slot. We're giving away chances for a tip or rebound. Holtby tends to give up rebounds early on and we are not taking advantage of what he's giving us.
Game 4 is a near must win game. Sure we could win 3 straight, but if each game is going to be like this, it's going to be near impossible to scratch out 3 wins out of 3 games and I really hope that we win on monday as I'll gladly take a best out of 2 out of 3 games with home ice advantage back in our possession.
I saw this on reddit. It was the only thing on reddit that was good tonight.
Lastly, here's my line combos for monday.
Marchy - Wild Bill - Smith
Tuch - Haula - Neal
Tatar - Eakin - Carp/Perron
Reaves - Belly - Nosek
"Brandon" McNabb (thanks pat sajak) - Schmitty
Engelland - Shea
Miller - '80s porn stache