Everyone but Mercer and Vesey played like shit.
Bernier let in a weak goal but was good after that and can’t blame him on the other goals after the soft first one.
An overall crappy game by almost everyone .
Anyone else notice how the other team is starting to key in on Mercer? The Preds seemed to have paid extra attention to him and would always make sure to finish their checks on him and give him an extra little shot. I’m expecting we see more of that as teams realize how good he is.
THis game looked pretty bad for good chunks of it (at least whatever parts I saw).
My main themes from these losses:
-Horrible passing skills, both sending and receiving. Pucks shot out too far ahead of skater, or into skates.
-No rebound presence. Either bad positioning completely (usually too close in/deep near goalie), or jittery stick/hands and they can't corral pucks in any meaningful way.
-Really bad decision making ONCE they get puck with space and time. Too many quick passes wide to a winger who is half-covered. Just skate the puck in when there is space, instead of going wide with a winger who is already half-stick checked.
-Defensive play that looks like Hynes system. (AKA. NASreddine is the only common thing here, why Ruff allows this shit, I don't know).
-Is Recchi working to help Pittsburgh/Philly/Boston out, or is he working for this damn team? The PP is horrendous, and the PP lineup choices are HORRENDOUS. Get skill guys out there at least if they lose you can argue and say that you freaking tried to put the best out there. Putting Vesey out there and having Bratt and Mercer on the bench (or Zacha in previous games until last PP) is bad asset management. I don't care how good Vesey is playing, and its no diss to him, but there is no way he should be up on the PP instead of Mercer, Bratt, or Zacha.
Wake the f*** up for these games, if this team wants to be in the post-season this ain't the formula. Games like this one, and these lagged starts are going to haunt the team down the stretch.......