There are a lot of ways to look at this game, both good and bad. 

We went into this with the absolutely lowest of low expectations after the Luke and Dillon news. History will paint this season as one riddled by unsustainable injury issues (and to puck knowers a failure by Fitz) and piling on was a kick in the nuts. The team on the ice showed up despite being decimated and this game came down to missed opportunities on our end, and one capitalized opportunity on their end. My main silver lining takeaway is that this game showed growth when they easily could've just folded. I realize this is commentary that should be reserved for early regular season games, but in series, game to game, showing growth is also important. We have very little chance to win this series, but enjoyable, well played games where we have a chance to steal a win is what I want to see. 

I was pleasantly surprised by Nemec and Cholowski (moreso Nemec) in a game when we needed them to hold their own. There were a few iffy moments (Robinson early breakaway, and a wrap/post opportunity for Carrier) but Nemec was generally poised, joined the rush and set up a great chance for Bastian in the 3rd. I LOVED Kovacevic absolutely burying Jackson Blake twice, gotta learn to not admire your passes kiddo. Really set the tone for us. Dumoulin was very good again, and I'll go out on a limb here and say he was our best TDL acquisition and would prefer him next year over Dillon - if there is a way to get out of that contract. He made an excellent back track on a Jarvis semi-breakaway where he smartly didn't take a penalty and eliminated the chance. 

Pesce deserves his own paragraph. What an absolute WARRIOR. Not only was he forced to play his off-side, but he was fantastic all night, saved two sure goals and had a balls-out PK shift in the third where he ate multiple pucks. Handsome fella too.

Dougie is clearly still rusty, and if you listen to us or have read these (thank you!), you know I go to great lengths to defend him. Butttttttttt he had several naked looks and missed the net maybe 7 times. I am really close to firing up the move-Dougie-in-the-off-season bus. However, my biggest concern there is our lack of offense and production on D, and the rest of the D corps (aside from Luke) doesn't. Also I will point out he made 3 excellent defensive plays to break up 2 on 1 passes. So now am not firing the bus up? I can't help myself defending him.

Got a little carried away detailing the D-Corps, sorry about that. 

To the game: The first 10 minutes was incredible. The quote I thought of was Herb Brooks in Miracle about the Russians and taking their game and throwing it in their face. We won battles, caused turnovers, and pressured Carolina all over the ice. We were Canes-ing the Canes. And guess what? That led to Bratt's goal. Nico and Timo had a great in-zone shift, swapped out for Mercer and Bratt. Mercer had a great keep at the blue line, got the puck to Haula with good low shot and Bratt cleaned up the rebound. 

Up front, They continued what worked in the 3rd period of the first game, separating Bratt and Nico. Carolina decided to continue lining up against Nico with Staal (9:12 5v5 TOI) and Slavin (8:58 5v5 TOI) while Bratt was up against Aho (10:09 5v5 TOI). Once we get to NJ, it is going to be interesting to see how matchups play out - we might be able to catch Carolina in some sloppiness and RBA tries to line match on the fly, since we have last change. Bratt had a helluva game, was generating chances and on the front foot all night - away from Staal and Slavin he had more space to operate and he delivered. That boy good.

Penalties disrupted momentum a bit and the ice tilted back to even but that was the best first period we've seen in months. After 8 minutes the shots were 7-2 and after the period and we won the 5v5 shot attempt 19-13 and were even on Scoring chances (7-7) and HD Scoring chances (2-2). Coming away 1-0 after one period and winning the territorial battle was exactly what we needed.

So obviously after a great period, we were under siege early in the 2nd as Carolina got some push back and got to their game. And they do what they do best, sustained pressure, broken play, freak bounce and Ghost rips one high over a sprawling Marky. Watching the slo-mo back, we got a shit bounce off of Dumoulin and it's tied. Ugh, we really needed that second goal here.

Our vaunted PP - and something that was supposed to be a difference maker - continues to be a problem. Losing Luke was a big blow, because in a high pressure PK, we need his dynamic ability, Dougie is too static and that cascades to the rest of the PP set up. Our zone entries were dogwater. And that high pressure PK led to a brutal clusterfuck on an offensive zone FO. Carolina is very good at disruption on the PK, their whole system is predicated on it, and their intention is to not allow a clean FO win. After a little chaos, they are so good at puck retrievals and get to their Power Kill. Not sure what Timo was doing pinching down from the opposite point, but this left Dougie in a bad gap on a 2 on 1 break and miles of open ice for Devil killer Martinook to turn into prime Brett Hull. How does this fucking 3rd line neandethal know how to shoot like that?  

Speaking of shooting, Timo. He is getting absolutely flamed today and rightfully so. He had tying goals on his stick 3 times in the 3rd and couldn't bury a single one. I defend him a lot (like Douigie, bad day for me) because he gets these chances and puts himself into position to score. But if he's such a good goal scorer why can't he score good? His schtick is power forward volume shooter and they eventually go in, but since 2016 he is the third worst finisher in all of hockey in the playoffs. He has 9 goals on 18 xG, which exposes a shooter like Timo. xG is chance generation, and goals is conversion - he can't shoot for shit. This was on clear display on that 3rd period PP one-timer from the flank where it was low and center of the net. He HAS TO get that high and to a corner. This is the 4th time I have mentioned this exact one-timer that he hasn't converted this season. The bouncing puck is a different story, I'm not even going to flame him for that. But this guy needs to score, this is what you get paid to do. Not just generate chances, fucking finish them asshole.  

Timo was the biggest culprit, but our other issues scoring were on full display last night as well. Bastian off a Nemec feed. Cotter-Dowling in front (twice!). Nico from Timo early. Dougie a billion shots wide. Glass backhand form the slot. Aside from the PP, Andersen was the biggest advantage we have and we are making it too easy on him. Now he's feeling himself and confidence is a major factor for goalies.

Marky was still the better goalie and was excellent again (.926 sv pct, 2.2 GSAx). Defensively we did a much better job limiting shots (under 30), but ones that got through Marky swallowed or stopped including a couple breakaways, including an early Robinson breakaway, a Jarvis semi breakaway (with some help from Dumo), Stall off a cross slot pass, Martinook off a cross slot pass. This is the guy we signed up for. It's a goddamn shame that Fitz didn't get any help for what was so obviously an issue with our depth and we are pissing away this performance. 

The goal right now is to get back on a plane to Carolina after the 2 games in NJ. Oh and get/keep leads, and make them multi-goal this time. The most disheartening graphic during the ESPN feed showed they are now 20-0-0 when having any sort of lead during the game. 

This team has a voodoo curse over us but through 6 periods - we have two bad periods, two very good periods and two 50/50 periods. We can get back into this, but we need perfection. 

I was trying to find the Rangers series, where'd that go Valiquette?

LGD