Av-merican
Un-Tenured Professor of Hockey
Joined: 17 Oct 2007
Posts: 1458
Location: Denver
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 Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 1:22 am Post subject: |
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Well Budaj's horrible rebound control wouldn't be such a glaring problem if we had a defense more adept at clearing them. Seems like they give the opposition way too much time and too much space in front of the net, it's not just Clark, though he's definitely the biggest perpetrator of the crime.
Cumiskey is slowly becoming our go-to guy on defense, has mad speed and puckhandling skills. I hope in time they find a defensive partner who can offset his obvious lack of size and toughness. Liles, no idea what the fuck his problem is, at times I see some of the savvy and skill that made him such a revelation the past two years, but more often than not he's turning the puck over or making a poor defensive-zone play.
Red Wings are the shortest, lightest, oldest team in the NHL. They're also the best.
Bottom line, if the Red Wings give you four power play chances, YOU HAVE to score on at least one or you ain't gonna win. I saw a lot of good things from the Avs, they played a pretty solid game, but when they made mistakes, as usual, they were bad ones.
Some things I liked:
Stastny (on his 22nd birthday) played hard back on a line with Smyth and Hejduk.
Saw some good things from the new line of McLeod, Hlinka, and Svatos, though Svatos really has to learn the fine art of a puck possession game. Far too often he's trying to do too much with it.
Once again the 4th line of McCormick-Guite-Laperriere was huge.
Some things I DIDN'T like:
The newly formed "second" line of Wolski-Richardson-Brunette worked about as poorly as I expected. Richie would dart down the ice as fast as he could only to find he had no one to pass to.  Way too big a disparity in relative speeds there for that line to really work. Besides, Richie's best asset is his shot and with a bum shoulder and bum wrist his shot is probably about as powerful as mine. He's also not a very good playmaker, he should be shifted to the wing. In Cleveland. At least until he heals up.
The defense, while starting to yield good results from guys like Hannan and Cumiskey, is still terrible. Brett Clark is only getting more minutes with all these injuries and his many deficiencies are getting all the more exposed. If we had an elite goalie to clean up his many errors we'd be okay...but we don't.
Oh well, not too bummed about this loss. Guess that shows this rivalry is all but dead. Nonetheless, an entertaining game with plenty of flow and a lot of physicality, but no chippy play. I look forward to the next meeting.
Oh and Cap'n, the snowstorm wasn't as bad as expected, I think we only got about 7 inches.  |
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