On goal 2, Harley need to push his man out of the crease. He just kind of stood there and let the goal scorer keep prime positioning. Harley has to be more physical. He is struggling this season because he's consistently getting outworked by opposing players...
Harley had a terrible night. Seemed like he constantly fumbled the puck when uncontested, lost most contested puck battles and, as you note here, allowed an opponent to not only camp out in the crease but start a fire and cook a meal.
On the one hand....LOOK at that forward group and tell me you would expect quality hockey. You've got six guys whore are essentially 4th liner/minor league depth. Add the 7 games in 11 nights (!) and the season long compressed schedule and yeah, they have legitimate reasons for not being their best.
But watching Rantanen bothc two consecutive uncontested puck handles to ruin a power play, or the league's best shootout player fail to convert a clean breakaway or your goalie to allow a bad goal or Harley to look like his skates were on the wrong feet...there's been a lot of bad hockey the last 10 games. Just like there was in January.
We saw them turn that around. But man, most of those missing will either not be back by the time the playoffs start or will be trying to get their legs under them. We've seen with Rantanen he's still working his way back and has not been his usual self, with only brief glimpses.
I'll remind myself what I said during that long winning stream...teams are never as good as they look when winning and never as bad as they look when losing.
These final weeks are feeling like drudgery; that was a dull, uninspired game just like the Philly game. Hopefully some time at home will see some energy.
On goal 2, Harley need to push his man out of the crease. He just kind of stood there and let the goal scorer keep prime positioning. Harley has to be more physical. He is struggling this season because he's consistently getting outworked by opposing players...
Harley had a terrible night. Seemed like he constantly fumbled the puck when uncontested, lost most contested puck battles and, as you note here, allowed an opponent to not only camp out in the crease but start a fire and cook a meal.
Sigh.
On the one hand....LOOK at that forward group and tell me you would expect quality hockey. You've got six guys whore are essentially 4th liner/minor league depth. Add the 7 games in 11 nights (!) and the season long compressed schedule and yeah, they have legitimate reasons for not being their best.
But watching Rantanen bothc two consecutive uncontested puck handles to ruin a power play, or the league's best shootout player fail to convert a clean breakaway or your goalie to allow a bad goal or Harley to look like his skates were on the wrong feet...there's been a lot of bad hockey the last 10 games. Just like there was in January.
We saw them turn that around. But man, most of those missing will either not be back by the time the playoffs start or will be trying to get their legs under them. We've seen with Rantanen he's still working his way back and has not been his usual self, with only brief glimpses.
I'll remind myself what I said during that long winning stream...teams are never as good as they look when winning and never as bad as they look when losing.
These final weeks are feeling like drudgery; that was a dull, uninspired game just like the Philly game. Hopefully some time at home will see some energy.