A few comments/observations regarding Game 1 the other night ........
- Because of the short preseason and no exhibition games I'm not overly concerned about the team yet ...... we lost 6-3 but it was 3-3 in the 3rd period, it's not like they came out and blew us out early, we were in the game in the 3rd period ....... we'll see how they develop.
- I was fairly pleased with the 3rd line of McCann/Jankowski/Tanev who scored 2 of the 3 goals and were our best line ...... hopefully they can keep up their good play.
- Malkin's line seemed a bit lethargic but did have a few good chances ..... I think in the long run that will be a good line.
- We need Kapanen to get into the lineup on Sid's line as soon as he can and hope he plays up to expectations.
- Forecheck was not as strong as we need except by line #3.
- Defense in our own end was overall poor ...... we just aren't always good positionally and don't seem to always know our assignments ..... need to have more structure there.
- I'm not concerned so much about the number of hits we have but more about our overall physicality or lack thereof ...... it's not only hits but also strength/physicality to win battles along the boards and strength/physicality to move or tie up opponents in front of our net, etc. ...... we had some problems there.
- A few too many odd man breaks against us.
- I agree that we may need to consider trapping more as "recruits" said above ....... there was a long stretch of games last season where we trapped and did well, then dropped it and didn't do as well ...... not sure why the coaches did that.
- Power play did move the puck pretty well and there was more interchanging of positions but still wasn't very effective ..... we were 1 for 3 on the PP but only because of Crosby's highlight real goal (when he batted down the ill-advised pass from the Flyers goalie from behind the net up the middle) and one handed it into the net ..... an amazing goal ...... hopefully, with time, the PP will improve and yes, I'd like to see more shots on goal on the PP.
- Penalty kill was poor ..... Flyers were 2 for 3 on their PP ...... both goals were on deflections right in front of a screened Jarry ...... our Dmen couldn't get the Flyers out of the slot nor control the Flyers sticks.
- Jarry was hung out to dry by our defense quite a bit but he had some technique problems on a couple of the goals (goals #3,#6, and maybe, maybe not #4) that he needs to look at on tape and get corrected in practice.
- We were really poor on face-offs especially in our own end and that needs to improve.
- Matheson was on the ice for 3 goals and in the penalty box for another ...... he can skate and looks to have some offensive potential but needs to improve in his own end ..... they need to simplify things and give more structure to him in the defensive zone IMO ...... with the short preseason, he had limited time to get used to the Pens system and teammates so hopefully they can coach him up with time ....... I'm not overly confident but think he could improve and will need to be patient and give him some time to see.
- Game #2 Friday ..... hoping to see some adjustments and better results !
