The sad thing is that our team play continues to be better than it was for weeks. That just goes to show you how far off we were… because tonight was not enough to win. At least we plugged most of the gaping holes in our defenses, improved our PK (somewhat) and have limited odd man rushes (somewhat).
The first goal of the game from the Ducks I called after our shot. The Ducks carried up ice 4 against 2. One of the two was Stralman (who again looked poor tonight). Needless to say the puck found the net. Other than that there were not many odd man rushes.
This team always seems to struggle with goal scoring confidence. If we don’t score early… we don’t score often. This is the value of a good PP, but that didn’t cash in tonight. We had a 5 on 3 to get it done, but we just didn’t. We go in and out of the zone.
Brassard, Voracek, Nash, Torres, and Chimera were all invisible tonight. We need more from 61. We need goals.
Fredrik Modin returned from injury and looked pretty good. He skated hard and got more than a couple shots on net. It still drives me crazy how a man that big doesn’t hit someone.
We do lose Derek Dorsett tonight, likely with a broken hand. We seem to have a much better record with this guy in the lineup. Looking at the replays he had already injured his hand and then challenged a guy to a fight… not a bright move.
Mancrush: Kristian Huselius. I thought he played real well in all three zones tonight. He competed hard and made some nice takeaways.
Doghouse: Commodore and Hejda. If these guys plays like this they are not a value to an NHL roster. These guys absolutely have to shut down players from the other team. There were far too many sloppy shifts from these guys in our own zone. Kyle Calder made them look silly tonight. When they are not shutting down players they are not contributing. Mark Methot has been our best defensive defensemen for the past month… that isn’t going to cut it. Hejda’s penalty in the final 10 minutes sunk us tonight.
Very disappointing game tonight. We absolutely have to finish strong in December and this is the type of game we have to win. Everyone seems to be winning in the Western Conference right now. We need to hang in the mix.