Mater_Horn

Yup. Around the crease on the pp. Well said!

Agreed. Although they were on the same line by accident. Looking at the whole season, this line hasn't worked great.

The wrong Swiss scoring

Has Datsyuk-Z-Brunner worked out really? Ever?

Kudos to Gustavsson. Coming in cold, he's done a very good job thus far.

Brunner again not looking good tonight, sorry to say. He tries to not lose the puck once, and boom: 2 min.

Nice try, lifting the goal and put it in from behind! Why not?

.... yup. Either net it or miss the goal FTW

Agreed. But I still think the first chance, 1-1 with the goalie, was better. Sidenote, since you mentioned European leagues: I've just checked, and e.g. in the Swiss league, this situation would clearly not be a penalty. They mention the situation explicitly in their "Casebook", i.e. where a player is fouled from behind, stands up and gives a clear shot on goal without being disturbed. If NHL refs are judging like this too, it would have been better if he shot wide on his second opportunity, sigh.

Got nothing to do with European leagues, which have different rules. Given NHL rules, the only question is which scoring opportunity was better. The first "opportunity" was a penalty-shot-like situation. The second was not.

The refs defined it wrong here IMO. Clear penalty shot.

Really?

How is that not a penalty shot?

Nice one. Dats-Z-Brunner line seems to work better than in the opening games of the season.

Apparently was the best goalie in the Swedish League in the previous two seasons. I've seen a couple of his games this year (tuned in cos i wanted to see Hiller play though). He's pretty darn good!

Agreed. Hopefully he finds his way back to scoring in the upcoming games.

3 goals after turnovers by Brunner. Bad night for him.

The more games I see, the more I think that it's a bad idea of Badcock to let Brunner play on the blue line in pp. He never keeps the puck for more than 1 second, meaning that a) he's quicker than anyone in the team or b) he doesn't take time to grasp the situation In any case, it hasn't worked out. Also, the plan to have him move quickly into the slot area after he plays a pass or shoots exposes the team to breakaways, since he's often not sufficiently backed up. I'd love to see him play the pp in the slot or corner area, where his quickness and sniper qualities would make for better chances.

Cleary and Brunner scoring for the win tonight and making up for their performance. Please.

Both of the goals SH and EQ by St. Louis were initiated by a Brunner's turnover

Pardon me, but these three players make for a weak comparison. All three played pk right from their first NHL season. Ovechkin and Franzen are also significantly taller and heavier than Brunner, which of course makes it easier to them. If these three are bad defensively, then what is Brunner? Franzen is very solid defensively compared to Brunner. Could be seen in every game so far. There's a lot of room between "being really bad in the defense" and "not belonging to best defensive forwards in the league". I'd be surprised to see Brunner play pk this season. And if he drops below 0.5 pts/game, he'll have a hard stand in the medium term.

Maybe not too old. But it's Brunner. It's just not his style. Do you see Brunner playing a physical game anytime in the next 2-5 years?

He won't adapt much more than he already has. He improved a lot already in his defensive game during the last 5-6 games, in that he's not just barely floating around anymore but instead at least makes some effort to attack the puck holder, or is trying to carry the puck into the offensive zone rather than just looking for a pass always or shooting it in the corner. Is Brunner still playing in the NHL in 3 years? I think it will all and almost solely depend on his scoring record. His defensive play will play a role, meaning that if he really sucks (like in the first 2-4 games), he won't have a chance. It could be seen from the last couple of games that his "engagement" in playing for the team was accompanied by a smaller number of shots on goal (went down from around 3-6/game to 2-4). I think that's a good thing, as long as he can still get the puck in regularly. Physical play? Forget it! He's too old to learn these new tricks. Playing more for and with the team? Possible. (Even) score more? Well possible.

First Wings game in HD for me. Thanks ESPN America!

NVM, I got it. New to the board, sorry...