I watched the game partly last night. Some of the guys look fine. Wilson continues to make an impression and did hit a post also. He is an impact player...when he's on the ice, everyone (opponent) has to adjust. Kuzy looks pretty good - if he could quit it with the dumb stick penalties. I think the refs are tired of his mouth and any chance he goes to the box. Some of those are just like WTF ref, but all of them are from the Russian flyby stick check instead of getting position and putting the body to someone.
Its flat out embarrassing to see Kuzy beat a guy in the shootout. I heard one of the announcers say teams really don't like the way he does it, but...WTF? Too fucking bad - he's supposed to beat the goalie...if you don't like the way he makes your GT look bad, then just stop the puck. We don't like it when your fast guys make our slow old fuckers look slow.
And FFS, give someone else a shot in the shootout. Ovi is NOT a shootout guy. That's not his skillset. Play the hot hand - Phillips scores his first NHL goal ever, and has an assist...has his dad and girl at the game, and is in the play ever single one of his 12 minutes on the ice. The guy is absolutely on cloud 9 - put his ass out there and give him a shot. Or Mcmike, or Strome, or Willy, or Milano, or SOMEONE that has some stick skills and hands.
I really don't mind when they put Oshie out or even Backy, both those guys are pretty good, but I'd like to see giving the young guns some shots at it.
Kuemper actually looked good all night and did exactly what we needed; gave his team a shot to win the game. I don't see him as a spectacular highlights kind of goalie, but a stable guy with a reasonable chance to help you win some games. I'm hoping he does more of that this year than last, cause we gonna need it.
