I wake up this morning still angry about last night’s game. Angry might not even be the word for it. I have a toxic mix of disappointment, anger, disbelief, and worry that is rocking me this Sunday morning. I’m doing my best not to fly off the handle but, like Devan Dubnyk, I might not be up to the challenge.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
That was the game tying goal. Note the 36 second mark of the video when Dubnyk caught the puck and, seeing that the Leafs were swarming the ice, decided to throw the puck back out there instead of stopping the play.
The Oilers, had Dubnyk simply stopped the play, could have put any number of groups on the ice and been confident that they could regain possession and reset the play. Arcobello was 75% in the dot last night. He could have taken the draw. Don’t like him? Maybe Eakins was huffing glue and decided to put his 4th line out there with 30 seconds to go. Not that bad, Acton was 70% on the draw. Ok, neither of those options? How about Gordon who was 67% on the dot???
NONE OF THOSE OPTIONS? FINE. THEN MAKE A LINE WITH 2 OF THEM PLUS RNH.
The possibilities are seemingly endless…IF YOU STOP THE PLAY WHEN YOU HAVE THE BLOODY CHANCE!
ARE YOU BLIND?
Let’s just take a peek at the first 4 seconds of that video. After the 4 second mark things go from bad to worse, so watcher beware.
Have we established that Defensemen can drape over and wrap up NHL Stars then punch them in the back to create odd man rushes? Is this a thing now? Because if so then I imagine the League should send a memo to the teams and inform them as such.
At what time in NHL history has that play been allowed to happen? It’s not just the fact that Franson punches Nugent-Hopkins in the numbers, but then he immediately jumps into the play to create a 3 on 1. I know the officiating was horrible last night, for both sides, but good grief.
MAKE A STOP!
Back to Dubnyk for a second. I don’t know what to say except I am going to stop trying to defend him until he actually starts to play better. His save percentage and goals against average are 51st and 52nd in the league, respectively.
Wait! 51st and 52nd? So there is somebody with a worse save percentage than Dubnyk? How embarrassing. Well there HAVE been worse performances in net this year, just not by anybody who has played as many games or faced as many shots as Dubnyk. So I guess this Thanksgiving (Canadian) Devan can at least be thankful that somewhere out there Viktor Fasth is thinking about ways to bring his game up to Dubnykian levels.
Enough with the silly Oilers need defensemen narratives. Edmonton needs a goalie. STAT.
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