I’m mixed on Sprong. He can skate and has a shot, but he seems too eager to go 1 on 5. That play where he brought it back started off okay, but then he skates past his teammates cand carried it back in and took a low percentage shot. What the...?
And Kase can't be dropped to the 4th line.
John
To be fair and IIRC, he received a crappy pass when he was in a clear spot for a breakaway. That's when he turned it back as opposed to just dumping it around the boards(RC was probably fuming) and turned back subsequently "wheeling it up". At that point, at least I knew he was going to go full Rakell and just fire it at the net or try to dangle the D. It was meh at that point. It was absolutely a low percentage shot, but IMO it was exactly what I would've expected out of a goal scorer first mentality play and was actually a pretty safe play at that point in the game.
Offensively, I think a majority of Pitt fans understated his game and tried to pigeon hole state that he is a shooter only and has a low overall hockey IQ that doesn't use his teammates (there were definitely some that said that he has underrated playmaking abilities and a majority referenced the less than advantageous positions that he was consistently put in). That absolutely was not the case tonight, if anything he was too quick, creative, and thinking steps ahead of his linemates. He made a couple of beautiful quick 5-10 foot perfect passes that his teammates completely whiffed on because they weren't prepared to receive the pass. He also created space for himself by finding soft spots multiple times tonight. Defensively, he tried/s and you can see that which was as advertised. There were a couple of times that he went swimming with his stick, and it appears evident that he dislikes that side of the game, but that also was advertised. Yes, sample size.
Gibson looked and played disinterested the entire game. Was still solid though, what an incredible steal if he stays healthy.
