HumanSlinky39

I don't think offensive numbers need to suffer significantly to play the bare minimum of defense needed to help out your friggin' goalie. Almost every night goals are going in because d-men are out of position and/or blowing their assignments. It seems like you can count on a couple of flubs of that nature from Joker and Bryson when they're in, and Boosh more than I'd like. Power I can forgive because he's a kid, and honestly for his experience, he isn't a habitual offender. Dahlin and Muel are very solid. Yes, they find themselves on the wrong end of a goof-up sometimes, but not a lot. Dahlin-Muel-Power are very good already and will get better. Power especially with his length is going to be a nightmare to play against. I'd like to see another solid veteran defender brought in to hopefully prevent us from having to ice guys like Bryson outside of emergencies. A lot of our defending woes seem to boil down to coaching to me. Both our forwards and defenders too often don't seem to know where they should be or who they should be covering. That leads to way too many guys wide open in the slot to snipe our goalies. You don't need to suffer offensively to be a sound defensive team. If they can just get to league average, they're a borderline elite team, and a guy like Levi in net with some help from his D likely makes us elite. I like Granato, but he needs to recognize that trying to win games 6-5 or 5-4 every night isn't a recipe for sustained success. You can ice a team that defends well and can still put the puck in the net.

Fought until the end. I can't ask for more. 2 more games to enjoy with this special squad. Next year is gonna be exciting.

Good for Muel.

We just ran out of gas. CAR-NYR-NJD is a brutal gauntlet, especially with the last 2 back-to-back. There's a handful of guys that I hope we say "goodnight and good luck" to after the finale. This is a good team that will be better next season. But there's some fat that needs to be trimmed; especially on the blue line.

I've grown increasingly frustrated with Jokiharju all season. Pretty much every game, he's unnoticeable, but when he is noticeable, it's for the wrong reasons. I don't think they move on from him, but I wish they would. He's just not good.

I'm okay if we don't have to endure Bryson or Jokiharju anymore after this season.

Another nice kill.

Levi saving our bacon again.

Win the third by 3. Easy peasy.

Nice kill. Still alive...

WOW Levi...

Need a big kill here. They go up 3 I'm not sure we can overcome that.

SKINNER

Of course.

PETERKA

Came up big again tonight. Casey has been one of our 2 or 3 best players over the season's final month. Fight me.

It dragging out like this leads me to believe he doesn't want to sign here. Hope I'm wrong as I think he will be a solid, if unspectacular NHL D-man, but if he wants to play elsewhere, so be it. It wouldn't be a devastating blow or anything.

It was ELITE. Panerin is maybe the best SO guy in the league and Levi froze him. He played Kane perfectly, so patient. Zibanejad and Kaako looked lost, too. Kaako got so crossed up that he didn't even get a shot off and tripped. ***** beautiful.

Seriously, ^ this is his inspiration. Look it up. Cold blooded.

Admittedly, when Power went out for the shootout, I audibly said "WTF, Meatballs?" Then I mumbled, "shut up, idiot."

40 wins for the first time in a dozen years. I'm tellin' ya, add another reliable veteran on the blue line, and this team wins 50 next year. Hell, if we had Levi playing like this all year we might be pushing it this year.

That stonewalling of Panerin was BIG TIME goaltending.