More tests To Come

Ok new strategy...retire a jersey every game because it seems to do the trick with respect to the everlasting struggle to motivate the team.

In all seriousness however, part of the motivation, in my humble opinion, cam from the new game play. There was a clearly different transition play, and a new simpler game plan for the offensive zone.

You can never go wrong when you have defensemen skating with the puck instead of trying to make short or long passes through a barrage of white jersey. It also never hurts to have someone in front of the net (finally we're back to that one) and just hooting the puck. The objective is not to score but throw the puck at the net. This leads to rebounds, garbage goals, and in the long run a collapsed defensive core leaving room for our blue liners and Russians do skate I'm to a better position

The new game play yielded results, not in goals (immediately), but rather in scoring chances, momentum and in setting the tone for the game. It took a snowball effect from there leading to our third convincing win in our last four.

We're not close to being out of the woods however. We need a winning stretch, and this weekend with 3 games in 4 nights...errr....afternoons its a good chance to convince the fans and them selves that the ugliness are behind us. After the loss in TO, I would sleep much better at night if we got four or more points out of six.

There ar two player from last night's game who deserve my "homage" for last night's win. Aebeicher looked to be setting us up for another pounding after letting in a goal on the first shot, however came right back without loosing focus and played a stellar game. If that save on Spezza doesn't make it in to the top 10 saves of the year I would be more than surprised.

The second star of the game last night was Kovalev. I don't know what happened to him, but he has been playing with such a fire in his belly. Sure he didn't score and missed a practically empty net right before the Souray goal on the PP, but he was the one responsible for setting the tone. At a time when our captain is less visible on the ice than the forum ghosts them selves, Kovalev is emerging as our leader by example. He had a few moves and a few rushes following the Ottawa goal, it turned things right around it got his line pumped up, and it took off from there.

Samsonov and Johnson who started great in their first shift than, had a few bad ones following the Ottawa goal. They seemed to feed off of the second line and IMO dominated most of the game. Than the 4th line, who also started slow, dominated the ice during their shifts for the large part of the game. In times of desperation and low confidence, a team needs a leader to step up and start this snow ball effect. Other players have done this through out the season, but lately it has been Kovelv’s honour, and that can only be positive.