Holy Dumba55, Batman! I saw the Matt Dumba that I had hoped would be on the ice for the Wild when he made the final roster out of camp. (Perspective side note: Stops and remembers that (by my math) only 12% of the season has passed; and proceeds to thoroughly chide myself for lack of patience.) Dumba was solid with no glaring errors defensively. Moved the puck excellently out of our zone – both on his stick and with good passes. Rocketed a point shot to the back of the net past a fabulous Parise screen; and was a catalyst on the PP with his excellent movement without the puck – providing good options and forcing the D to adjust. It was only one game, but it came against a good team with a lot of speed that was looking to pressure hard on the forecheck. I am [perhaps deliriously] hopeful right now that Dumba has turned a confidence corner with the ice time he has seen the last few games. While on the subject of rookie D men: Folin had some rookie moments last night. He got beat badly to the outside on two occasions. He was late reacting to a clearing attempt at the Stars blueline that he chose to feebly jump for when Chara with LeBron’s vertical probably couldn’t have touched the puck. And, he let another puck at the blueline sneak past him unhindered into the center circle, leading to a two-on-one the other way. On the other hand, he recovered well from those last two mistakes. On the puck over his head, he hustled and effectively backchecked the puck retriever such that the Stars did not get any kind of scoring opportunity out of it. And, he played the 2-on-1 resulting from is blown hold-in about as well as a 2-on-1 can be played. He didn’t offer the puck carrier a lane to pass to his teammate; and, then, when the puck carrier committed to shooting, he quickly closed and left the shooter with no shot. Folin also continued to be a force patrolling the front of our net. But, what I was really most impressed with last night was his poise with the puck in our end. (Keep in perspective the limitation in the following: ) His this is my puck; you can’t have it; and, you don’t get to deter me from doing what I want with it attitude reminded me of Suter. Despite the mistakes, I moved a lot more towards confidence that Folin can handle 15 – 16 minutes a night last night. It continued to be an amazing revelation what a difference Zucker has brought to the Koivu – Coyle line. Zucker’s speed and tenacity just seems to compliment those two so well. He’s forcing players to make quicker decisions which Coyle and – especially – Mikko are able to read and anticipate very well. Its a bit of a different scheme, but their forecheck the past two games has rivaled the best of the Parise-Granlund-Pommer line. I thought Vanek was a different, much more engaged player all over the ice after he scored. While that is the type of thing that can certainly drive fans – and coaches – crazy. At 30 years old and in his 10th season, he’s probably not changing much. So, it’s up to Yeo to find a way to use him to the best of what he can bring. Starting from the premise that the top line doesn’t get touched, then, I think that Yeo has to put Vanek with Haula. Vanek with Brodz has had one good period; other than that, it really hasn’t looked good at even strength. That’s it for my observations from the game last night. Now get the Pens!
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 20:01:19 +0000
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