Topper wrote: ↑Tue Dec 10, 2024 10:11 pm
Most of the game, Vancouver considered it a win if they were able to get the puck out to the neutral zone.
Zone entries and dump and chase were a disaster.
First goal, St Louis defender was frozen out of the play in fear of a too many men.
Second Canuck goal was an own goal by St Louis
Most of the time, the goal was to get it out to the neutral zone. That can't be the goal most of the time. When they were passing, it wasn't precise. Except Hughes. Always except Hughes.
I get benching Brannstrom as a healthy scratch (assuming he's healthy), he's not good enough to be comfortable and he can probably learn a bit watching the occassional game from the box. But it is also pretty clear that he actually tries exits with possession and makes it happen a fair amount.
Desharnais = pylon.
Soucy, my man, why? Turning away from the shooter in OT looked like a play a guy on the take would make. He had an angle to disrupt a shot with his stick, but he was realllllllly making sure there wouldn't be a completed pass by the guy 5 feet from the goalie to another guy 5 feet from the net who was already blanketed by a Canuck.
Juulsen, my man, passing practice. Please. The times it wasn't "off the glass" it was passes in feet, hard passes where area passes would do. He's got good company in this, but he wins the prize last night.
On the plus side, Hoglander looked like an NHL player for the first time in a while, the team turned it up when they had no other choice, and Demko made the kinds of saves you need to stay in a game, Garland buzzed all night (but see shorty), and Petey and DeBrusk continue to point up points even though its sort of a good shift bad shift thing. Also, PP moved puck well.
