OV Rocks
Registered User
Patches penalty was terrible. About to go on a PP with their best face off PK guy in the box and he gets called for a lazy high across check.Couple of thoughts:
1. The degree to which our 4th line got outplayed by theirs is troubling - supposed to be a strength for us, and it was anything but yesterday. Dowd seemed invisible, NAK as well. Would probably sub Sgarbossa for NAK, to get a bit more skill there.
2. Ovie-Mikey-Oshie was awful. Carbs has got to tell Mikey to stop thinking he has to defer to Ovie. Mikey played yesterday liked he did under Lavi: as if he was thinking about what he should do next, instead of just f***ing doing it. You can't win at playoff hockey if you're in your head. And the puck shouldn't be passed to Ovie anyway unless he's in a position to shoot or wide open - because he fumbles pucks and can't stickhandle away from coverage.
3. Even though Protas-Strome-Wilson looked decent, probably need to switch Protas for Oshie - cuz Mikey-Ovie need someone who can retrieve pucks and maintain possession.
4. Also troubling that the Rangers think they can push us around. I don't mind Max going after Trocheck after his penalty on Lappy, because he was defending Lappy - who the Rangers were clearly targeting. Think Willy really needs to get hits on their D, especially Trouba and Fox - he should not waste time with Rempe. Also, this was the kind of game that Ovie typically responds to by going and trying to hit the opposition's D-men, but I think he's too slow and too apt to get himself out of position to do that - so Carbs shouldn't encourage it.
5. I do think it will help to have last change when we get home, because there are some matchups that could be more favorable to us that we can't really get in the Garden
I said that Max is the X factor for this round. If he could rebound and have 4 goals and 5 assists the Caps win the series. Instead he’s got no gas left in the tank at all rangers speed was too much for him, took an awful penalty, and had just useless giveaways in the offensive zone and even worse on the pp.
Sit him