Good morning, boneheads!
I am going to start with silver lining today, OK? They are playing decent hockey. Miles better than it was against the Fishsticks on opening night. They give up very few high scoring chances, and they defend with more determination. The wins will come. Whether they have enough time this season to catch up is a different story.
Continuing with good news. The best D-man they have is Adam Fox. He is like a grandmaster in chess, he knows what will happen in 5-7 moves. What did they give up for this kid again? A couple of second rounders? My gosh!
The second best D-man last night was Miller. He is still very raw, and still needs to add a few more dimensions to his game, but his physical ability and his ice vision are obvious already. He is also very even-keeled. In a good way, though adding a touch of nastiness would be great.
Colin Blackwell did make me eat crow last night, but he is not replacing Lemieux or Gauthier. Maybe Rooney? He is definitely not replacing Chytil if his injury is going to knock him out of the lineup. In fact, the Rangers don’t have anyone in their system who can replace Chytil at the moment. That’s too bad. He was just starting to play his best hockey.
And now the bad news. Igor Shesterkin is yet to win a game this season. Also, Igor Shesterkin didn’t deserve to win a game this season. Should we worry? Look, this kid has dominated every single league he’s played in. And his numbers are eerily similar anywhere he’s played, including NHL. But something is off. I don’t want to speculate. I also do not know what’s the right next step. The obvious would be to put Georgiev in on Tuesday and let Igor work with Bennie. Georgiev too, for the record, has been far from stellar. Or should they let Shesterkin go right back in on Tuesday and have him sort things out that way? I have no idea, that’s why we have our management. But something needs to be done. Because despite them playing much better hockey it’s getting late early.
Click here to read Carp’s game review.