• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

GDT: Canes v. Ducks 1/12 5:00

Glad to get a point - the game was basically unwatchable throughout most of it - so we probably got more than we deserved. But I'm not happy with Kooch. He is what he is and that's not gonna change. He can make some brilliant saves only to blow what should be more pedestrian shots.
 
On the game ... yeah, that sucked. Kochetkov's focus was all over the place and he was reacting all night. He's pretty good at that, but MUCH better when he anticipates the play a bit more. Everything surprised him. Not great, man, and that's the kind of crap that keeps me from believing in the guy.

That said, go freaking play hockey in the first two periods and it wouldn't have mattered. What in the name of Henry Staal's DNA was that crap? They just couldn't be bothered. No forecheck, no box-outs, poor handoffs in the D zone, only spotty individual efforts here and there. Whatever bollocking they got from Brindy after the game, they well and truly earned.

And yes, the officiating was just awful, but I'm pretty sure getting ticked off at the refs is the only thing that finally got the Canes going yesterday. Which is pitiful.
 
The inconsistency in the past 6 weeks or so is concerning...yeah the paper thin goaltending depth at times has hurt and a few injuries here and there all start to add up but overall, too many guys that were going pretty good the first month or two have cooled off considerably and this team is lucky to have a built a strong start to provide a bit of distance from some other teams in the East. Maybe the return of Freddy will allow a nice platoon in place and settle things downs a bit in goal but we all know the Freddy health is always on the edge of disaster to ever count on him too much.
 
I'm ready to pull the plug on Kotchetkov. His mechanics just come and go like the wind.
Unfortunately we have no options right now, but long term, this is not the guy.
 
Freddie coming back will definitely be good for Kooch, as I think the weight of expectations this season has really done a number on him. He's pressing to be "the guy" and just doesn't have the sustained level of focus to pull it off ... which is frustrating ... which makes it worse. I'm pretty sure it's not mechanics so much as mentality. When he loses focus and starts flopping around reacting to shots and spraying rebounds all over the place instead of controlling them, the mechanics go out the window. Again, I think he's fine in a platoon but with Freddie going out and Martin losing whatever mojo he had last season, it's hardly been a platoon around here. And for all the many good decisions Tulsky made last summer, deciding to go with the same three guys in net was NOT one of them.
 
I think Kooch is fine if he has someone else in a 1a/1b scenario. But he doesn’t. We didn’t lose because of goaltending last night but that was sure part of it.

Thought they looked slow/tired. Was it 6th game in 9 days? We know 48 is dinged up. The whole pre game activities. It didn’t look like they had the energy to sustain a winning level of play. Passes were off. They just looked tired. Against a team that just wants to beat you up it’s not the game to not have your legs.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top