THURSDAY’S LOSS WAS VERY ENCOURAGING

Well I haven’t ventured out into other threads following Thursday’s loss, but I would assume there are some people who are ready to trade somebody, and critisising 10 others. In her we have remained, as expected, level headed and positive. As if we didn’t have enough to be happy about with regards to a three point night for the MN, let me throw in another observation I had with respect to that game, which gave me lots more to be happy about.

Since before the beginning of the season, I have argued that what makes this team better than last year’s team (and better then most hockey analyst predictions) is the fact that we’re a levelled and well balanced team. We don’t have many “super” strengths, and conversely we don’t have and huge weaknesses. The team has depth and works as onhe unified machine.

On our home-and- home series with Washington, I got further confirmation of all this, when certain lines and players stepped up to compensate for other lines getting shut down. On Tuesday Smokes and his crew took it to the Caps. On Thursday the young guns, lead by Kostitsyn making the plays, and The Tenderness crashing the net, compensated for a poor night by some of our veterans.

If I’m facing off against the Canadiens, I’m more than confused about which line to play my defensive line, and which line to put my #1 line against. Each line has the ability to produce and explode, and as long as they ALL stick to the game plan defensively (such was the case on Tuesday), the opposition cannot find a weakness…ever…and gets frustrated to no degree. Frustration leads to a spiral of doom…and we have our selves another win for the HABS.

The team is doing great because everyone is doing their job. When they can’t someone else is always there (or has been) to pick up the slack. As long as we can keep this upbeat tempo (but not draining and injuring tempo a-la Paul Maurice) we’ll keep inching towards the top of the leader board.