An important 4-game stretch

[SpikeDDS]

I’ve gotta say, last night’s game was a well-played hockey game by these Wings. What impressed me was the 4th line. Helm, Glendening, and De La Rose. Relentless. Irritating. And rewarded. Helm scored the first one. Glennie closed the door with an empty-netter. Helm was the most obvious with numerous scoring chances.

 

And Bernier was as well-positioned as I’ve seen him play as a Wing. He swallowed pucks. Rebounds were rare. He was tracking the puck well. And one of the two goals he let in was a fluke off the glass that bounced off of his arm into the crease for Domi. Normally, when Bernie plays, it’s a veritable shooting gallery for the opposition, and Bernie looks like a deer in the headlights, and his numbers suffer. Often playing on the second of two nights, he rarely gets solid support. Nice to see him play well when he does get it.

 

But we’ve known we need secondary scoring. The 4th line’s ascendancy has been somewhat organic. They have played well, tough on opponents, and last night they got rewarded. Other than the top line, Glendening leads all scorers in goals.

 

We/I have been tough at times on Blash. And I will openly state here that I have kinda wondered why both Babs and Blash like him as much as they do. I questioned giving him an A this season. He seems to have responded. So far, good move by Blash.

 

But I also have to give him credit for Mantha. Two Thanksgiving’s ago, Mantha was struggling to find his game. Blash showed him on video the best vs. the worst ten shifts and let him see that moving his feet was the main difference. Mantha seems to have taken that the way Blash had hoped he would.

 

And even defensively, this stretch of 4 games hasn’t been too bad. Better than I thought we would be. And it may not be so much about the D-men, but about the forwards being a bit more responsible and helping out. The D core haven’t been perfect, but they’ve been solid. And it seems like right now, we are getting juuuust enough scoring and juuuuust enough good play in net when we need to to win these closer games.

 

Quick nod to Larkin’s line. Definitely the most consistently good line. They were also noticeably good, especially in the O-zone. They are moving the puck well. More no-look passes.

 

Now if we can just get AA scoring too and give him some confidence, this could really get interesting.