10/18 - Doing it Again @ Ottawa
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How many times does Reilly get that shot blocked and it goes the other way? Feels like a lot. Grr.
He has some questionable decision making on the blue line. His spin-o-ramas when nobody is back deep to help have been frustrating to watch.
Welp, figured the defense was going to struggle here in the early goings of the season. I'm not gonna panic when three regulars on the back end are out and the team's on the 2nd game of a back-to-back.
Swayman is a bit of a concern though. Gotta hope that he's not a Carter Hart redux.
Swayman is a bit of a concern though. Gotta hope that he's not a Carter Hart redux.
The writing was on the wall that he was outperforming his ability last year though. Hopefully he's not Carter Hart redux, but he's been a concern for a bit, especially up high and when you force him to move side-side (he's slow and over commits) I'm a Swayman Homer (I live in Alaska) and really want him to succeed, but the signs are there that he may basically be a league average goalie unfortunately.
His play is concerning, no doubt, but the defense totally melted down. They gave up 14 high danger chances at even strength last night. In 82 games last season they allowed 14 or more 5x5 high danger chances in 3 games, one of which was the last game of the season when they iced the AHL team. This is some of the draw back to playing a more offensive minded system. Through the first 3 games under Monty they had been as tight defensively as they were with Cassidy but last night that crumbled. Hopefully it's just a blip.
Swayman's body of work is basically making the saves he's supposed to make. His goals saved above expected is around 0.5. That's fine, but not elite.
Goalies are hard to project and performance can go vary dramatically in the early years. IMO it is too early to say Swayman (or Carter Hart for that matter, the Flyers have been a shitshow defensively from the games I've seen) won't develop into elite goalies.
How are you all feeling about the new play style? It certainly makes for fun regular season games. I keep going between thinking it wont translate well to playoff hockey , and talking myself into the idea that the game is evolving and this approach could work in the playoffs.
If they play like they did in the first 3 games all year they will be a monster. They were as defensively stout as they were under Cassidy, but generated way more quality chances on the offensive end.
Last night was a total defensive meltdown. If it's an outlier then we're in business but if it happens more regularly they'll need to dial it back.
Depleted D, 2nd game of a B2B, and Swayman had an off night. All 3 of those happened at once and the B's had 7GA because of it. Games where multiple things go wrong do happen every season. Good teams make games like this an outlier, not a trend.
There was a ton of D watching plays and not moving at all. Even veterans (watch the highlight of the 6th goal and try to come up with a strategic reason Lindholm playing the man near him that way) were doing it.
Hopefully it was just back to back lethargy and still finding their spots in the new style.
Hopefully it was just back to back lethargy and still finding their spots in the new style.
This is kind of my point though. He is basically a league average goalie, which is fine, but hes coming up on his next contract where I doubt he wants to be paid like a league average goalie. The holes that he has are obvious, he is slow side to side and when he does make that move he constantly opens up his 5 hole and gets beat, you saw it last night, in addition when he goes down he ends up getting beat high glove a lot which is another issue. I'm definitely not saying he is Carter Hart redux, or that he can't improve because I really do believe he can and will. But that doesn't change that his performance is extremely concerning right now despite the absolute disaster that was the defense last night hanging him out to dry.
Montgomery has given a lot of O zone freedom to the defensemen, which has been a boon for Reilly, a below-average defenseman. The thought of McAvoy turned loose gives me the good kind of goosebumps. But it’s clear this team hasn’t fully learned Montgomery’s defensive system — not only the defensemen but the forwards, too.
I do think that once the team settles into the new system with a top 4 defensive corps of McAvoy, Lindholm, Carlo and Grzelcyk, the offense could make some noise in the playoffs and the defense will be stout. A lot depends on how much Swayman develops this year.