Three Stars:
- Artem Anisimov, 1 G, 3 A, 4 P
- Corey Crawford, 37 SA, SV .973
- Artemi Panarin, 2 A
Well. We’re clearly better than the Stars. At least right now. They’re lacking in defense and goaltending has showed itself, and the Vezina candidate Crawford was in full force. This is gonna be a fun rest of the season. And oh, by the way, we’re back on a winning streak.
This whole season I’ve been calling the second line the best line in hockey because of Kane and Panarin. I also said Artem is the luckiest center in the league. Well, he proved there’s a reason he gets to be that center last night. Four points in 19 minutes on ice. He also won some good faceoffs. If we could give the Hart trophy to more than one person, this season it would be this second line. Artem deserves some hardware to go with Kane’s and Panarin’s.
Like I said, Crawford should be a Vezina candidate. Actually, there should be no should about it. He will be either the winner or the first runner up this year. Otherwise he’d be the biggest snub in the last ten years. He’s playing out of his mind and I don’t think I’m the only one rooting for him to get #50 up in the rafters after that One Goal ad.
Shaw should be on penalty kill duty when not in the box serving the penalty. He’s not getting enough time on ice, and him and Desjardins helped make one of the best shutdown lines ever in last year’s playoffs. Let’s see them shutdown some power plays. Food for thought.
Erik Gustaffson was an Edmonton Oiler. They could really use him, but screw them. I don’t want to ever let this kid go, and if we do make a deadline deal for a veteran 4D, him and TVR would make a lethal third pairing.
Can we please let Jiri Sekac back on the ice? I’m tired of Mashinter. That’s the one thing I’m gonna complain about this game. It was perfect. And it was huge in keeping the Stars back. If we run away with the Central, it’ll be because of games like this. And we have games like this in us. No excuses.
Up next: San Jose at home Tuesday.
Next Article: We should be releasing a trade deadline article in the next 48 hours. Stay tuned for that.