Defense and goaltending were fine. Holding the Panthers to 2 goals is not easy as they have a good team and good offense. As usual Lou failed to upgrade the offense. To many muckers and grinders and not enough skill.
Florida was the top scoring team last year and are arguable better this year. And their two goals were were more unfortunate bounces and just a bad decision by Sorokin on the second moreso than the Isles getting overwhelmed by a better team. the only concerning defensive issue was Salo’s seeming desire for a little me time during the game. When you get your chance, try to stay out of the penalty box. I’ll worry about the offense if we can’t score against Anaheim.
Pretty refreshing to see the Isles play freer and still retain their defensive effectiveness, even if it has led to some sloppy moments.
It's not Lambert it's Lou. He simply can't build a roster anymore in a salary cap world. I would look to teams who have been built successfully thru the draft like Colorada, Calgary, Carolina, Florida as examples. I would look to bring someone in from those organizations and let them run the show here as the GM. It's up to Malkin and Ledecky to fire him.
Can't blame Lane, the only notable addition from last years roster is Romanov, they did nothing to get a goal scorer. It's unrealistic to expect Brock Nelson to repeat what he did last year, likely not even Lee.
Bellows on waivers. Maybe Lou should have traded him when he had value in 2019 and gone all in for a playoff run that year.
This is pretty much a must-win game. A four game losing streak book-ended by your two neighbors and not a murderers row of opponents will likely pretty much end the season before it starts for this squad. The Isles made the Lightning and Devils look better than they are, and the Panthers are only .500 excluding their two wins versus us.
Always nice to beat the Rangers. Sorokin with a 41 save shutout as well. I still think this is a bad team. They play Carolina and Colorado this Fri/Sat. Could easily be 3-6 by Sat night.
Perhaps these guys have some good hockey in them after all. But the defense is still extremely sloppy.
