Is there anyone right now on the Komets whom you think is playing very well? Who's someone you can point to and say, ``Wow, that guy is really hitting his stride going into the playoffs, and I'm impressed with his play every shift of every night?"
I'm not sure there is anyone right now, and if I was the coach that would scare me to death.
Comments
Blasting Leo for missing on a breakaway.... Ok... I will say he had twice as many breakaways as the rest of the team combined. While he didn't finish them off, the effort was there.
For me it's Lardner and Thomas. Lardner was a great mid season pick up for the K's and continues to play hard. Thomas, although not producing on the score sheet, has shown me a lot of effort out there every night.
Ratchuk and Podshendyalov can really handle the puck. Lardner has a "nose" for the net (thank heaven). Shrock is an asset with his hustle and toughness. Chaulk makes everyone on the ice better.
The art of passing the puck has been the achilles heel for the Komets all year long. Drouin is guilty but I would point to the defense more. In fact, as a whole, this current set of defensemen are terrible passing the puck and out of position quite often. ( In a perfect world I'd keep Ratchuk, DeAngelis, Cescon, and Molle. Maybe Phillips. The rest would go.)
Without some college help on defense, it won't matter who the K's first round opponent is.
These are my observations based on what I've seen the entire year, not just this weekend as I know they had to be exhausted after two shootout games, a twelve hour round trip, and an early game on Sunday.
I wonder what Welker said to Al and the Bloomy coach before the start of the 3rd period. Maybe he apologized for being incompetent.
I was hoping instead of doing the interview with Al in between periods Wayne would have just stuck the microphone in between Welker and Sims.
The officiating did not cost the Komets last night. It was bad both ways. If you can't touch anyone anymore then this might as well become collegiate womens hockey. However when you cross check someone in the back or slash someone and the referee is 2 feet away from you, you can't expect it not to be called no matter how soft it is. You can't blame the referee for all of the shots that found boards and glass instead of net.
Like consistently stated, Welker was terrible, but the Komets lost this game on their own. While refereeing is somewhat subjective though, the job of the linesmen calling offsides is not. You really wonder at times what in the world the linesman is watching out there. How many times have we seen players six to ten feet offside and never get called? Way too many. It seems like the linesmen spend way more energy looking for men to throw out of the faceoff circle that they do do minding the blue line. Between the lousy officiating and the lousy game play this year, the season hasn't been one for "making hockey fun".
Don Cherry spent 5 minutes on the NHL linesmen a few weeks ago. Showing how they are getting more and more demonstrative about throwing guys out of the circle etc.
They all look extremely tired and this week isn't going to help. Individuals that look bad, to me, Guy and Warner aren't looking very good right now and haven't a while.