In forty one shots against Montreal tonight, Blake only registered one.
Seriously.
Perhaps tonight can be a learning experience for the grizzled veteran. He was effective and played a decent game tonight despite the fact he didn't fire that many shots. He was a bulldog crashing the net and creating ruckus all around. His speed and tenacity is what makes him an effective player. If he can forget about trying to score a goal on every possession, we could see him become the player he is designed to be. He took a few penalties tonight, at least one of which is directly attributable to a crash the net style of play.
Poni seemed to cuddle right up to Antropov after the brilliant goal. Perhaps there's more to their friendship than meets the eye....
Very fun game to watch.
Vesa has got to start stopping some more pucks. After the 3rd goal, it was only 12 shots against. A .750 save percentage. Terrible. Granted he stopped the last 8 when they mattered, but he has to get that percentage higher overall.
The west coast swing should be fun. It's always a good time to head into Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. We'll get to see Kyle Wellwood up close and personal again. Can I still call him fatty? He's on a tear. It looks like we could have another Steve Sullivan/Freddy Modin in the making.
Not that it matters much when Grabs, Hagman and Kulemin are playing some absolutely dominant hockey right now.
Until next time...
Thursday FTB: Playoffs are like this
5 hours ago
3 comments:
I would love to see him become effective again. What has happened to recently is NOT the player he is.
Perspective is a funny thing. I was talking to a couple of people after last night's game who thought Blake played like complete shit. They were uber pissed about Blake's goaltender interference penalty. I didn't think it was a penalty, and I thought Blake played an alright game, considering his confidence is at an all-time low.
I really want the guy to do well. It's hard for him to play his type of game when he's on the third and fourth line, barely playing. He saw 10 minutes last night, and I'm sure that was a season low.
beleaf,
That's the great thing about hockey. In Bob McCown's 100 greatest hockey arguments, he starts the book with a description of one of the many reasons why hockey is the best game in the world.
He says, and I'm trying to recall it from memory, that 2 people watching the exact same game can generate 2 completely different opinions about the same subject. That's the beauty of the game.
I want everyone on the team to do well, and I think blake needs to forget his seasons as a sniper, and begin to play what turned him into one in the first place.
He's a bulldog and needs to use his speed and obnoxiousness to drive the net. The goals will go in. He doesn't need to make a sniper shot from the top of the circle everytime, in fact, he's not capable of that whenever he wants anymore.
Post a Comment