Friday, November 5, 2010

They Don't Ask How, Just How Many...

- Congrats to Braden Holtby on his first NHL appearance and win tonight against Boston. Didn't have much to do, but that was a ridiculous position to be thrown into, and he responded well.

- Congrats also to Michal Neuvirth for being named the NHL's Rookie of the Month for October. Well deserved I say.

- I have huge reservations about the way Bruce Boudreau manages his goalies. I think it's a highly underrated skill in a coach, and BB has done a lousy job at it going back to last Spring, in my opinion.

- Having said that, he was dead-on when he said Neuvirth looked tired after Wednesday's shootout win over Toronto. I'll dive deeper into this over the weekend, but Neuvirth was going down too early and staying down when he shouldn't have, which are telltale signs of fatigue.

- Additionally, his play on the tying goal tonight was terrible. He played it essentially as a 2-on-0, and in the end basically just flopped and handed Shawn Thornton an empty net.

- I will say in his defense, however, that both Wednesday and tonight he had very little to do during the first two periods (16 shots vs the Leafs, nine tonight) and that makes it difficult to suddenly turn it on in the third when your team goes on cruise control. And he's not giving up howlers, he's just not finding a way to make a key save to preserve a lead.

- On that note, as "things" go, blowing three goal third period leads at home is at the very bottom of the list of "things" you want your team to have. As in: "Oh, letting three goal leads evaporate in 7 minutes at home? That's just what they do... it's there thing." Not good.

- Finally, if nothing else, these last two games have been extremely entertaining. My wife and I saw our first game at the Verizon Center tonight, and had a blast. Very good crowd tonight too.

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