NO KO? but M-A Fleury steps up his game.

Fleury is now becoming what everyone hoped. And the Devil?s game has more to do about the veteran Sykora losing his poise than anything else? however we could put a bit of Satan?s uninspired play into last night?s game also. How many times did Satan look totally undecided as to what to do when the puck came to him? Even simple dump-ins seemed challenging. And, I?m not going to rip on Satan because the ?this guy sucks? and doesn?t even belong in the NHL? simply is getting old. Not that those opinions aren?t either right or wrong it?s just that those are only opinions and for all the Satan bashing once a person gets enough hockey depth they?ll realize just like here it?s really just opinion. No one is right and no one is really wrong about him.

Sorry about that little tangent there! ;o)

Sykora in my humble opinion got jobbed by the ref but at other portions of the game (such as Minard making a good play) stealing a puck and dumping it back to our defense and the two defensemen looking like deer in the headlights fumbled the puck around.

All of this highlights puck moving defensemen and how scarce they are and how critical they are to bringing the puck up ice against the trap as they are just getting the puck out of their own zone with speed. Yet nowhere do you see anything written about yesterday?s game about Eaton and Scuderi and Orpik looking like the Keystone cops attempting to get it out of their own end.

Some things not found in the TRIB or the PG:
The defense:
The defense really couldn?t get the puck out of their own end and the best defenseman was Eaton so that should wrap up how bad they played. Why is Goligoski sitting again? Hopefully it?s not the coach and someone is really being showcased. And hopefully that player is Ryan Whitney as game by game he?s looking more the disaster.

The offense:
They were out to lunch. Pretty much there was no offense. You might say Hmmm, they scored three goals but really 14 friggin shots in 63 minutes of even strength play? I don?t think that?s an offense.

The special teams:
They didn?t fair too well either but that was mostly due to losing face-offs. Maybe Zigomanis really is that important to the team. The PP almost always started by chasing down a puck in their own end. The PK (Shanahan?s goal) was off a clean face-off loss.

The goaltending:
This is the only part of the game that looked good. Without Fleury the score could have easily been 6/7/8 ? 3. You might fault him a bit on Holik?s goal but in review you also have to understand why Sykora would get pissed-off at the call on him after Big Head Todd Holik had two real penalties overlooked on that play alone.

The Whitney-meter:
Once again the 6?-4, 220 pound Whitney played like he is just learning the game. Possibly Shero should pull the trigger for a winger before the rest of the NHL discovers what is developing before our eyes, eh. Just an opinion, mind you.

Whitney and Satan to Florida for Nathan Horton and Anthony Stewart. Then Florida can finally make that move of Bouwmeester. Just thinking out loud once again. Or, the Whitney and Satan for Penner? I still like that one too.

This is DR Hook?. Carry on