Good win. They got their effort level ramped back up right out of the gate, which is I'm sure what Brindy made priority one for this one. Somehow or another they've got to start converting a higher percentage of the quality chances though, because that long stretch of domination early could easily have led to the Canes going into the break down a goal or tied 1-1 and that would have been well out of line with what was happening on the ice. By my loose count, they had 6 or 8 really good chances before they eventually scored, and maybe 4 of those were good enough that I was actually upset at the eventual shooter for not burying the puck. Howard played well, but not that bloody well. Finish guys ... finish.
Thoughts on trends ...
Power play ... little bit of personnel shake-up, but they pretty much stuck to the same patterns with one dedicated point man and fluidity otherwise. I like that this gives you a second guy in the crease from time to time, but do not like that only Ferland and Zykov seem to be both willing AND effective in that position. I'd really love to see one of the other more rough and tumble guys (Foegele, Martinook, maybe McGinn) get some PP time to see if we can't find another effective crease crasher. Either way ... 2 PP markers, so not complaining so much as thinking out loud.
Penalty Kill ... hidden in Detroit's crappy start is a pretty effective first power play unit and I thought the Canes did a pretty good job of killing off penalties by dialing back the point pressure a notch. We chased less and kept to a more disciplined box and it let them build some confidence to then take a few chances jumping into lanes. Good changes by the staff on the kill. They also clearly bore down on blocking shots on the kill and did a good job on that all game ... McGinn in particular but he wasn't the only one.
Hamilton ... while he's clearly getting more comfortable working with Slavin as a partner, he's reached the territory where he starting to look (and maybe feel) a bit snake-bit shooting the puck. He's the kind of guy that when he finally gets one of those bombs to go in, they'll come in bunches. We could use that boost right now.
3rd line ... as Wallmark and especially Svechnikov get more and more comfortable, Martinook is starting to slow down that line a bit. He's fine and he's killing himself out there, but they are getting to the point where somebody with a little bit more offense to their game would round out that line and help the other two find a bit more room to create and finish. I'm thinking McGinn might be a better long term fit on that line and that Martinook would be more comfortable playing the kind of hockey that Bishop seems to want to play. Remember, for this team to really over-achieve, we need Svechnikov well in the 20s in goals scored and right now he's at a 18-ish goal pace. He's playing well (although he needs to work on the dumb reaching penalties) but we need better than "well" ... more like a nice medium rare.
Defense ... still not loving that third pairing. Pesce is on form, but TVR still has 4-5 bobbles per game playing on his off side and he's TVR ... so "meh" is the ceiling. Here's hoping Fleury gets his head together down in Charlotte because I think he fixes this issue eventually ... so long as he's here to follow instructions and stick to his role.
