Raise your hand if you thought Ben Eager's goal would stand up as the game winner. Good. Now, raise your hand if you thought a line centered by Alexander Burmistrov with Nik Antropov and Eager on the wings was a pretty spectacular idea? Yea. Me, either.
Oh, and then there's this:
Corsi Numbers:
| Player Number | Corsi+/- |
| 39 - D - ENSTROM, TOBIAS | 7 |
| 23 - C - SLATER, JIM | 6 |
| 33 - R - BYFUGLIEN, DUSTIN | 6 |
| 36 - L - BOULTON, ERIC | 5 |
| 3 - D - SOPEL, BRENT | 2 |
| 18 - R - BERGFORS, NICLAS | 2 |
| 27 - R - THORBURN, CHRIS | 2 |
| 16 - L - LADD, ANDREW | 1 |
| 6 - D - HAINSEY, RON | -1 |
| 80 - C - ANTROPOV, NIK | -1 |
| 8 - C - BURMISTROV, ALEXANDER | -2 |
| 47 - C - PEVERLEY, RICH | -2 |
| 9 - L - KANE, EVANDER | -4 |
| 21 - L - EAGER, BEN | -5 |
| 31 - G - PAVELEC, ONDREJ | -5 |
| 10 - R - LITTLE, BRYAN | -6 |
| 22 - R - STEWART, ANTHONY | -9 |
| 29 - D - ODUYA, JOHNNY | -11 |
| 4 - D - BOGOSIAN, ZACH | -13 |
Now, before we hang Zach Bogosian & Johnny Oduya out to dry, let's remember what we've spoken of before: the zone in which you start matters. Let's look at zone start numbers:
| Player Number | Def. - Off. |
| 4 - D - BOGOSIAN, ZACH | 5 |
| 29 - D - ODUYA, JOHNNY | 5 |
| 31 - G - PAVELEC, ONDREJ | 5 |
| 8 - C - BURMISTROV, ALEXANDER | 3 |
| 9 - L - KANE, EVANDER | 3 |
| 10 - R - LITTLE, BRYAN | 3 |
| 16 - L - LADD, ANDREW | 2 |
| 22 - R - STEWART, ANTHONY | 2 |
| 3 - D - SOPEL, BRENT | 1 |
| 6 - D - HAINSEY, RON | 1 |
| 18 - R - BERGFORS, NICLAS | 1 |
| 21 - L - EAGER, BEN | 1 |
| 47 - C - PEVERLEY, RICH | 1 |
| 80 - C - ANTROPOV, NIK | 1 |
| 23 - C - SLATER, JIM | 0 |
| 27 - R - THORBURN, CHRIS | -1 |
| 33 - R - BYFUGLIEN, DUSTIN | -1 |
| 36 - L - BOULTON, ERIC | -1 |
| 39 - D - ENSTROM, TOBIAS | -1 |
Zach & Johnny both took a total of 6 defensive zone face-offs. I'm not contending that all of the Bogosian/Oduya problems are from the fact they start in the D-zone more often, but we might just want to look into that before we go shipping Bogo to a contender for the ole picks & prospects. To my eyes, this pairing played better this evening.
A couple more thoughts:
- Cap'n Ladd is off to a tremendous start.
- Burmistrov & Byfuglien are going to do wonders for this franchise. The personalities are there, the play is coming together; if the the team we saw tonight decides to stick around, there won't be any problem with empty seats filling the TV screens.
- Let's not forget in all of this that Braden Holtby had all of 3 games experience coming in to tonight. He looked practically frozen on Evander Kane's goal. One big save and the momentum shifts. I don't want to take anything away from how the Thrashers played tonight, but as they say in Toronto: let's not plan the parade yet.
But man, it feels good to shut out the Caps.
Loading comments...