10-7-11 CBJ vs Preds
Oct. 24th, 2012 08:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ionthesparrowWell, for one - it was the CBJ's home opener, and it set the tone for their season, which is to say, they lost. But aside from that there are few interesting tidbits:
- It's Carter's first game with Columbus, and he sets a franchise record for most faceoff wins (24/77%). Not too shabby.
- It's the rookie debut of Atkinson, Johansen, and Savard
- Columbus is up against the fearsome Suter/Weber pairing
Lines for the game:
Who do we care about? Well, their top line obviously. Carter was pulled in to be a set up man for Nash, and so is centering him and Prospal. Vinny Prospal is interesting for a bunch of reasons: 1) he's been bouncing around the league since 1996 2) He's wildly inconsistent - sometimes posting awesome stats, sometimes languishing for long periods in obscurity. 3) He's on his, like, fifth team, 4) It's also his first season with CBJ. He also played part of the 07-08 season with Carter in Philly (from Feb on), so they've got that going for them.
Umberger is another former Flyer (05-08) where he posted decent, if not stellar numbers, and was a sometimes center, sometimes LW, before he got traded away for picks (one of which became, I think, Sbisa) .
Tyutin is their top defensemen at this point - you'll notice Wisniewski isn't playing, that's because he's currently suspended for a nasty head hit on Cal Clutterbuck. He sat the preseason and the first 8 games of the regular season.
So what happened in this game, and what does it tell us about Columbus?
Oh, Columbus. Here is the thing - they're not all bad. I mean, they're not good by any stretch, and this game isn't very pretty, but they're not as bad as their record would seem to indicate. And if not here, per se, they definitely almost start to get it together later in the Fall.
But that's later in the fall. As for this game. Well, this happened alot...
See that? That's Umberger chasing the puck. Why? Because Vermette winged it way, way past him. If anything is dogging the Cbus team, it's their utter inability to communicate, and to pass the freaking puck to each other.
The other thing that's dogging CBJ? That would be this guy:
The goalie. He's just not very good. Sad, but true. He gets most of the starts this year for CBJ, although some go to Sanford (who is decent, but injury prone). He was bad enough that Columbus traded for Bobrovsky over the off-season. Whether he'll be any better remains to be seen.
But of course, goalies can't do it all by themselves.
After a first period in which nothing much happens (except for bad passes, lazy backchecking, and a general lack of hustle) Nashville goes up on the powerplay early in the second, after Dorsett (15) - who has lost his stick and can't get off the ice - closes his hand around the puck. Despite the fact that last year, Columbus had some of the worst special teams in the league (29th and 30th respectively), things start off okay:
Everybody's more or less where they're supposed to be. Pretty classic diamond. Preds players are (mostly) boxed out.
But Columbus seems to lack a certain... situational awareness, which leads them to situations like this, a few seconds later:
The D, Clitsome and Methot have drifted to the near side of the net, drawn in by the action. But you see that stick at the top right of the image? Yeah, that would be Ryan fucking Suter. A guy you do not want to leave open. And a guy that scored just a second later to put the Preds up 1-0.
Okay, so defense could use some work. But what about offense? Because, after all, Carter and Nash are supposed to be stars, right?
So, Carter's on the topline now, and he's getting a lot of minutes, including some cushy PP and O-start minutes. And he's got slick Rick Nash on his right. But is it working? Well, you do get some of this:
Here's Carter and Nash together, crashing the net for what was an ultimately unsuccessful scoring opportunity. And in general in this game, you find Carter hanging out in the slot, waiting for the puck, and looking for open ice (which is to say, doing what he did best in Philly) - this is especially interesting in light of what columbus will try to do with him later in the season, but for now, in this game, he's doing what he's good at. The only problem is that it often looks like this:
That's Carter, setting up in front of the net... all by his lonesome. You've got one Dman (51) hanging back by the point, and the rest of his line clustered in corner, where they're not in great position to get him the puck and in really bad position to handle the rebound. And Carter, while I love him dearly, is not a playmaker. He sets up in front of the net, you get him the puck, he scores. But for that to work, you have to get him the puck.
When Columbus DID score, it was because they managed to pull it together for situations like this:
See that? 1, 2, 3, 4 Cbus players all high-tailed it back to the north side for a scoring opportunity. One guy crashes the net, everyone else sets up for passing opportunities and to control the rebound.
I knew you could do it, Columbus!! And indeed, they tie the game here.
Of course, Nashville comes back to score, like, two minutes later, and ultimately win the game, and here's why:
What you're looking at is Cbus all clustered in the corner, leaving the points open, and totally, totally failing to cover the guy (I think it's Smith) hanging out in front of the net. Yeah. That's not going to work so well.
Also, it should be noted that Pekka Rinne is a fucking baller, so the Preds had that going for them too.
So, where does Columbus stand after the home opener? Well, let's be generous and say, not a total train wreck, but needs improvement for sure.
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Date: 2012-10-29 01:43 am (UTC)