Red-White Game Reaction: Meh

[SpikeDDS]

I was really looking forward to seeing the annual Red-White Game marking the end of training camp. The first period, all 5-on-5 ran as expected, as it seemed most of our better veterans were on the Red squad. Daniel Sprong hit a nice one-timer after a cross-ice pass from Veleno right around a minute into the game, and I was thinking maybe we were going to see some scoring. We did see one more goal in the 5-on-5 by the Red team, and there were some nice saves and more than a couple of posts hit. But not as much scoring as there could be.

 

But don't worry, the second period consisted of 16 minutes total of all 5-on-4 play, 8 minutes for each team on the man advantage. Surely there would be some goals scored in the equivalent of 8 power play opportunities.

 

Nope. The PP on both teams went 0-8 on 1:00 power plays. The penalty kill looked good and the goalies did well, but nobody could finish.

 

Only in the third period and the shootout was there some scoring to please, with 10 shooters for each side in the shootout. The Red team held serve. Team Red took the whole game with a final score of 6-4.

 

The big yawn for me was the lack of PP scoring. Not. One. Goal. Our PP has been one of our consistently weak aspects of our game since the playoff drought began. It was THE most legitimate criticism of Jeff Blashill during his tenure. And while it did improve under Newsy, it was still far from decent. I was really hoping to see some good finishes. And while I do acknowledge there was some good puck movement at times, the same could be said for the Red Wing PP for the last 6-7 seasons. Newsy noted the movement in hist post-game presser, but he had to find things to be positive about, so it was predictable that he would mention that as a strong point. Unfortunately, when it came to the PP that WAS the strong point.

 

I suppose good things can and should be said about the PK and our goalie play. OK, but that wasn't what I wanted to see. 16 minutes of PP time. Not one goal is what I got.

 

<YAWN!>

 

 

[yave1964]

11 hours ago, SpikeDDS said:

I was really looking forward to seeing the annual Red-White Game marking the end of training camp. The first period, all 5-on-5 ran as expected, as it seemed most of our better veterans were on the Red squad. Daniel Sprong hit a nice one-timer after a cross-ice pass from Veleno right around a minute into the game, and I was thinking maybe we were going to see some scoring. We did see one more goal in the 5-on-5 by the Red team, and there were some nice saves and more than a couple of posts hit. But not as much scoring as there could be.

 

But don't worry, the second period consisted of 16 minutes total of all 5-on-4 play, 8 minutes for each team on the man advantage. Surely there would be some goals scored in the equivalent of 8 power play opportunities.

 

Nope. The PP on both teams went 0-8 on 1:00 power plays. The penalty kill looked good and the goalies did well, but nobody could finish.

 

Only in the third period and the shootout was there some scoring to please, with 10 shooters for each side in the shootout. The Red team held serve. Team Red took the whole game with a final score of 6-4.

 

The big yawn for me was the lack of PP scoring. Not. One. Goal. Our PP has been one of our consistently weak aspects of our game since the playoff drought began. It was THE most legitimate criticism of Jeff Blashill during his tenure. And while it did improve under Newsy, it was still far from decent. I was really hoping to see some good finishes. And while I do acknowledge there was some good puck movement at times, the same could be said for the Red Wing PP for the last 6-7 seasons. Newsy noted the movement in hist post-game presser, but he had to find things to be positive about, so it was predictable that he would mention that as a strong point. Unfortunately, when it came to the PP that WAS the strong point.

 

I suppose good things can and should be said about the PK and our goalie play. OK, but that wasn't what I wanted to see. 16 minutes of PP time. Not one goal is what I got.

 

<YAWN!>

 

 

I never worry much about preseason. I watch every game just to see the kids play and this year more than any other in my memory see how the new faces mesh with the returning players. We open tonight against the Penguins, cannot wait to see how that goes.

 

  I think the power play will be so much better that year with the Cat and most important Ghost on the point. IMHO those two are simply huge, our P/K will be much better as well. Looking forward to the season. I know a lot of folks ripped on Yzerman but honestly the team has zero holes anywhere in the lineup. Yes it would be a lot more fun to ice an all star team every night but no weaknesses is a lot better than the Ericsson/Abdelkader/Helm/wasted low pick era that he inherited.

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

I honestly don't get the ripping Yzerman thing. He is doing EXACTLY what he said he would do, and he let everyone know FROM DAY ONE that this was going to take a long time. Certainly the fortune of Debrincat deciding to jump ship from Ottawa helped Yzerman accelerate things tremendously. Hard for him to take full credit for that one, but rather get a deal done and say thank you to the hockey gods.

 

My only criticism from the offseason is that for the sake of bringing along their young talent, I might have wanted one less veteran offseason signing. It's gonna be tough for the kids to get up here and stay up here, maybe a little too hard, IMHO. Hopefully, some will get opportunities during the season (or even preseason) that make Yzerman's decisions difficult. I'm hoping one of the kids plays so well, Yzerman has no choice but to bring him up and lose a vet.

 

And it's too soon to poo poo Cossa. He didn't have a great prospects tournament, so it's too soon to say Wallstedt should have been the choice.

 

And I'm really hoping Raymond has a breakthrough season after the predictable more-pedestrian sophomore campaign. From the reports, he's added 12 lbs. since last season. Sounds like he took it seriously.

 

And I liked hearing that Edvinsson came to his senses realizing that he needed to compete for a job. He's gotta commit himself, and maybe that plus hi injury made Yzerman cover his bases with an extra veteran D-man.