Great opening night. Then again, the score could have been reversed and I still would have been on a hockey high. It's great to have hockey back. My "post game" posts will be primarily done in bullet format. I may expand on some thoughts making full paragraphs, but the majority will be one liners. Away we go...
- Rampage dictated play for 75% of the game. There were times when they struggled to clear the zone or maintain possession. But overall, a fantastic effort and it was reflected on the scoreboard.
- The team seemed to really focus on playing from the edges with a ton of centering passes and shots on goal with multiple players crashing the net. They missed on 3 or 4 passes through the crease where the pass was just out of the crashing players reach. These should find the nets sooner or later.
- With the exception of the 2 minute meltdown in the 3rd period, the team played awesome team defense. Most of Chicago's shots were harmless shots from long distance that Climie had no problem seeing, and stopping.
- There were 3 or 4 chances early on for Chicago and Climie flat out stoned them. The biggest being the series, midway through the 2nd, right before he was crashed into. He made a fairly routine save on a hard wrister from the right circle, then flashed the right leg out and made a ridiculous save on the rebound from right in front.
- I was certain Climie was done on the aforementioned play. He was in a semi-splits position and was run into pinning his left leg between the attacking forward and the post. Great to see him jump back up, after a while, and then make 2 or 3 more good saves right away.
- The Beaudoin-Kearns-Hollweg line was amazing. Looking at the stat sheet confirms this, but just watching the energy and hustle from these guys was a thing of beauty.
-Ahnelov showed a TON of rust. He was the one defenseman on the team that had me shaking my head. Questionable positioning and several misplays of the puck. I will definitely give him a break, however, as he has battled some pretty serious injuries the last 2 years.
- Yonkman is everything as advertised. Just can't get around that guy, no matter how slow he is.
- Stafford really surprised me with his defensive skills. I knew he was a great offensive blue-liner, but he showed some excellent positioning and stick work in his own end.
- Boedker was terrific on the back check. Great hustle, and he left me saying "that was just "Datsyuk like", a couple of times.
-Crowd was awesome. 8k+ is a huge crowd on a Friday night in Texas. We usually don't see those numbers until High School football season ends. And they were loud and appreciative at all the right times. A great way to welcome the new guys!
Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better opening game. The 3 goals in 2 minutes not withstanding. Fun game, great crowd, and a very deep team. Think about this, the Rampage put up 6 goals against a potentially good team and a goalie that historically owns them. They accomplished this with Tikhonov, Stapleton, Boedker, and MacLean scoring 1 goal and 1 assist. They also did it without Alex Picard, who should return to the lineup next weekend at the latest.
See you all tomorrow at the rink, when our boys battle the Evil Texas Stars in a 3pm matinee.
No comments:
Post a Comment