Before we begin, I just finished reading On Frozen Blog's article about Kevin 'Killer' Kaminski. Last night, after watching our guys get manhandled again and again, I turned to my fellow season ticket holders and said "We don't have an inforcer. There is no one to stick up for our guys right now." It's true. Bradley was supposed to be the 'New Brashear'; the guy who made you pay for the late/dirty/cheap hits. The Flyers don't need a standard 'enforcer', as they have Carcillo and Hartnell. We do.
-Once again, beating a dead horse here, we can't stop running around in the defensive zone. It all starts with puck posession, and we can never get it. When we do, there isn't a break out happening; it becomes the C-league dump out of the zone. Tom Poti was guilty of this EVERY TIME HE TOUCHED THE PUCK last night.
-Our breakout starts much, much to high. I don't mean the 'D behind the net, center looping past and up the ice' breakout; I mean the 'I have 2 Flyers within 6 feet of me and need to get this out under control' breakout. Our forwards bolt from the zone the second our D gets control of the puck, but our D can't make that pass. The Caps need to shorten their passes getting out of the defensive zone. Period.
-I love Keith Aucoin. I now use his 'built for a 6'2" player' stick. The last few games, he's either not backchecked or made a costly defensive blunder (see: pass to Kovalchuk). Last night, Aucoin backchecked like mad, made hits, had confidence with the puck, and was tenacious on the forecheck. Perfect.
-Speaking of backchecking, Backstrom FINALLY started playing some proactive defense and the chances against dropped dramatically.
-Jose Theodore STOOD ON HIS HEAD. A 4-2 win can be deceiving: we should have lost last night. Badly. The only reason we won was Jose. If he can continue that level of play, he's a Stanley Cup-level goalie.
-How would you feel about getting Theo Fleury for the league minimum? Just a thought.
-I will say it till the day I die: Alex Semin has THE BEST WRIST SHOT I have ever seen. He shot it off the wrong foot, on the 'wrong side' of the ice, with a man on him and he put it top-shelf as hard as I've ever seen a wrist shot. Emery looked broken.
-I missed Q's presence on the PK. We looked confused.
-Why am I not all that excited about getting Flash back?
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