Morrow had a lot of moments of looking like he fit in out there. The tools are all there. The frame, the edge work, has just enough ego to think he totally belongs out there, which works in this situation to not let him buckle under in the moment…. He did catch up to the speed as the game went along and it didn’t overwhelm him. I would have thought either of the next two games coming up would have been better options for his first game…. But given how well he settled in and how well the rest of the team helped him, this one ended up working out just as well…..and now he conceivably could play another one or two or both to see how he handles multiple games in a short window at this level…
As good as it went, he did show signs of being lost out there a few times and he went on a few adventures chasing and rotating way out of position and our guys covered for him. He wasn’t playing man on man a bunch of times.
He had a couple *sweet* stretch passes (which were a common thing when I watched his UMass games) and then a few awkward short ones that jammed up or hamstrung our guys trying to recover for him. He did the simple, smart thing most times and just got the puck deep and didn’t try to be a hero when he stopped pucks at the blueline.. he just shot them back down in deep under pressure and didn’t risk coughing it up and creating a turnover breakaway….Orlov had a heck of a game out there and really covered well for him. They played better than the Skjei / TDA pairing…. I’d be curious to see if he plays the next two if they keep him with Orlov the whole time or try him with Skjei…. Obvious why they would put him with Orlov if they keep him there the whole time….but might be interesting to see him play a period or two with Sjkei…… you know… just in case one of those unique offers they gave him tempts Sjkei at the end of the year….
One game does not a guaranteed spot in top 6 dpairs make for next season. Not ready to reserve him a guaranteed starting job next season with the big club. But he looked better at times than I expected him to… which was really great to see…