Three Stars:
- Jonathon Toews, 1 G
- Tomas Fleischmann, 1 G
- Teuvo Teravainen, 1 A
The Blackhawks continue to play abysmally in front of Darling. It must be they’re just not as confident with the young goalie in net than with Crawford. And that’s not a hard thing to believe, considering one is a top 5 netminder and one is only in the top 40 odd. We took a beating, and defense is mostly to blame. Let’s get into it.
We couldn’t keep the puck out of our zone. It’s something the team as a whole has needed to work on the whole year. It’s the reason Toews isn’t even in Selke discussions this year. We haven’t been playing well enough in our own zone to keep the puck off net, and it showed last night.
We’ve also made too many costly turnover mistakes. Artemi Panarin’s was the latest example, and again it led to a goal. We also allowed the Bruins to score on a shorthanded shift. Guys. Come on.
There’s many mistakes that contributed to last nights defeat, but we’re here to focus on the positives.
The third line looked great. Weise-Teuvo-Flash is gonna be something special to watch, because Teuvo is back at his natural position and he will have the benefit of veteran wings who will be able to help him in both ends of the ice. Flash really is something special, and I wouldn’t be surprised, if we’re able to trade Bickell for some extra cap space, even with the cap not rising, if we found a little bit of money in the budget for Fleischmann. He’d be something good to keep around for Teuvo’s development. Like a permanent, actually able to play Timonen.
Desjardins has been really moody lately. I think the incoming shifts in the lineup, with Hossa and Kruger coming back, will be good for number 11 because he’ll have a sense of consistency again and he’ll be back to playing with a line that did some defensive damage last year. If the line can keep the puck out of our zone as well, it helps. Shaw’s ne found offensive capabilities should be able to do that, provided he fixes his breakaway problem.
Ladd still isn’t getting into as many corners or playing well enough in our own zone for my liking, but he’s gotten better. Something will also need to be done about the two screens on the power play, because only one is necessary. If Ladd goes to a side it gives Toews, Teuvo (or Hossa) and Keith an outlet and it lets Shaw play his natural role. Shaw looked really uncomfortable as a second screen.
And once again, the lack of defensive capabilites on the second line may wind up hurting us. Somebody on that line needs to learn two-way play, and I don’t think the best pure offensive force in the league should be that guy.