gcom007

Sometimes it feels like our defense isn't used to a goalie who can play the puck.

Drew Miller: two deep lacerations by right eye. No major damage. Return doubtful for tonight. "Considered good news for now."

I'm surprisingly fine with Q for the most part. But Ericsson? I've never warmed up to that guy and nothing he's doing these days is helping to change that. I would not be upset to see him go.

Apparently he still exists.

We got real lucky there...

1 shot in 10 minutes. Brilliant.

Sad that getting out of the first 5-6 minutes without giving up a goal feels like a big victory lately.

I'd have to assume he wanted a light touch and someone who can more directly coach him through it. The goaltender plays such a unique position and the mental element of it is far different than what the skaters deal with. But it does seem a bit odd, though of course, I really have no understanding of how things go internally with teams. Maybe that's the norm.

Skate to the face...the mirror neurons are rapid firing at the site of that.

Great......

That's mildly shocking. Nothing against Mrazek, but I would've thought Babcock would take almost any reason to ride Jimmy into the playoffs, slump or not. I like Mrazek, and I think he's taking Jimmy's job next year or the year after, but I just don't know how I feel about this being the year. The one thing I thought that could be working in Mrazek's favor is the puck-moving ability and the fact that we tend to score a lot of goals when he's in net. When he's on, we're scoring and not giving up much. When he's off, we may give up more goals, but we're still scoring a lot of goals. Unless Howard is a far bigger mess than he seems, this is about the only reason I can see for really riding Mrazek into the playoffs.

This is the unfortunate truth right now. Howard doesn't have his head screwed on straight lately and Mrazek is a promising rookie with plenty of rookie problems. Either way we go is likely to lead to issues, especially with the way the D has been playing. This team is going to have to really tighten up around their goalies if anything good is going to happen in the playoffs. But I'm not holding my breath. We shouldn't be disappointed if this turns into another learning year for this young team. There's no shame in that.

I knew we'd pay for how well yesterday went...what an absolutely ridiculous game this is.

A rookie and a slumping Howard...we really are not in great shape in net. Should be no doubters left about that after today.

#tanktothefuture

Like I said, no one in Red was very impressive in that series sans game 1.Edit: don't take this as me suggesting that I think Mrazek is the answer right now. Hopefully he can playing strong if we need him, but it worries the hell out of me that we need him this year.

Good first game, yes. After that, like the rest of the team, rough. Same as Gus. I wasn't impressed with much of anyone in Red outside of game 1.

The team was terrible, but Howard wasn't quite "fine." He was about as lousy as the others. Maybe because he was sick, maybe not, but he really wasn't too good.

All I've got to say about that is that I said again and again and again that season that Osgood would be great when it matters most, and was he ever. I really feel like we got robbed of a Cup that year; we just had too much going against us with injuries to overcome some of the Penguins incredibly timely calls. I don't like to blame the refs, but with all we had going against us with injuries, those terrible calls ended up playing too big of a role.

He's not beating Howard out because he's playing out of this world though. I'm not saying he's playing bad, but he's getting this shot because Howard's been in a serious funk since coming back from injury. If Howard was playing even halfway-decently, Mrazek wouldn't be in the conversation this year. And I do think Howard's problems are a result of his injury, one way or another. If Howard hadn't gotten injured and kept playing well and Mrazek still found a way to be better and win the starting role, then you could somewhat justify a little righteous victory if it suited you. And I'm not trying to knock Mrazek or anything; I think he's played great for a rookie all things considered. And I still think he's likely to be able to beat out Howard for the job next year or at the latest, the year after, even with Howard playing well. I think the kid's got the goods to get a great goalie in this league and he's younger and cheaper so he's very likely to get the job sooner rather than later. But everything that may or may not be happening this season is happening ahead of schedule because of a flukey injury. It's simple as that.

A lot better than another loss, no?

Hell of a game. They needed to make a statement and they did. Something to build off of to finish this season strong.

I forgot what it feels like to have a lead like this. Wow. Feels all good and stuff. It'd be nice if this GCL feed would stop cutting out though.

Abs! Love it!

Holy smokes! Anderson did something good!