If Glen Sather were smart, he'd be on the phone with Girardi's agent right now trying to re-sign him after Boston re-signed Seidenberg to a steal of a contract today (4 yr. $4M per.) That's if he were smart...
shitty game but at least you can tell we're going ot be more entertaining this year. The game had a pace to it.
Got home from work at midnight and it was 4-1, but my son was watching and said the exact same thing you said Jonny...more watchable, better pace
A few things I noticed: Like some of you guys, I saw the pace they're running is very uptempo. They're really quick making passes on the breakout rather than carrying the puck. The neutral zone breakout is interesting. Requires a lot of trust and commitment to it. One thing you generally don't like to teach in X's and O's hockey is making rink-wide passes in the neutral zone. Seems like their breakout has a lot of it. But they looked crisp for the most part. There's gonna be a lot of balanced scoring O-to-D this year. Not just cherry picking the obvious that Staal scored the lone goal, it seems like there's gonna be a LOT of offense generated from the D-men. And there should be. Girardi or Stralman might be the poorest skaters out of the bunch and even the two of them aren't chopped liver. Lots of playmaking ability between McD, Moore, Staal, and yes DZ (let's face it his offensive potential has never been the issue). Staal looked really, really good. Also not just talking about his goal. Great hit on the near-side boards early in the game. Sound play to break up the 2-on-1. Good read on the PPG to pinch down with only one Phoenix d-man in position. I'm happy for him. Only one game, but he didn't seem uncomfortable in the least. (Anybody say "Oh God not again when McD took the puck up high?) Unfortunately, the glaring mistakes were the penalties and the in-zone defense. Stepan blew his assignment on the initial goal. Pretty simple, he's the center that has to pick up a man cutting down the middle and he got lost. Step is better than that so it's not like it's something to be overly concerned about. The second goal is really all because of Smith. They kept raving about his ability to handle the puck and honestly before he made the stretch pass that led to the second goal, I didn't see where the praise was coming from. Just because he plays the puck often, doesn't necessarily make him good at it. He nearly turned the puck over a bunch, but he was reason they couldn't get Girardi and McD off the ice at the end of the PP. I didn't think Hank looked particularly strong. He still looked like dog shit trying to play the puck out of the crease, but I suppose you can fault him on most of the ones he gave up. Overall disappointing, but it's gonna be a work in progress. Let's go Rangers.
