Mark Adams looked like a top 4 defenseman tonight.
1. i do think Adams made case for himself for playing time......what case I am not sure, I am not evaluating practice, but you got to think #7 and #8 are not ranked much below those playing (at least some of them)
2. adams played strong and being paired with Florentino was on the ice when PC looked their best offensively......He was on the ice for AIC'S 4th goal as the defense appeared to back in on Ellis and break down
3. However i didn't see anything really bad about Josh Monk's play. in a much tougher battle. So where do they fall on the depth chart.
4. In spite of noting the positive of depth on defense, I actually think it was a less than stellar performance defensively.....yes they limited the real good chances, but this is AIC, 50 something best team in the country, not BC. It appeared if AIC did really pressure, the defense collapsed on Ellis
5, Worst culprits was our top pairing of Hart and Gilmour who I believe were on the ice for 3 of the 4 goals.
6. Shades of how the defense would play in front of Alex Beaudry. I guess it speaks volume to their confidence in Gillies and his ability to handle the puck.
7. Still I bet Leaman points out this defensive effort as unacceptable in practice this week in preparation for Miami.
8 As a side note I do think as a team seeing the coach put in Adams, Behling, and starting Ellis, does say to an extent he believes they should get by this team easily so I can put some of the reserves in to test them. However that is a necessary evil. You don't want to get in a position late in the season where you are forcing someone on the ice, like with Goss last year in big situations.
9. Very hard to judge Ellis' performance. Few real tough chances game got sloppy defensively by the 3rd period, and as I said I thought the defense did him no favors
10. I'll guess he gets his next shot vs Brown to up the ante a bit as their is something at stake with the Mayor's Cup and bragging rights in the state.
11. Now with the offense you can find few complaints. Goals spread between forwards and defensemen. You have all the lines pitching in. you score by crashing the net and we have scored on nice set ups. We actually look very solid in that area.
12. Best power play we have seen in 10 years and it will get better with Florentino getting experience.
13. Penalty kill has been excellent since he can roll out 8 or 10 guys up front who can aggressively kill. I actually thought it looked like we held back a little last night against AIC
14. We have enough size and our style is very physical and aggressive we have definitely worn out both MSU and AIC, plus we have the speed to execute it.
15. I think Rufo and Florentino are upgrades as freshman over the seniors from last year. MacKenzie looks very solid on defense and has fit right in. MacPhee has surprised me. Far more mobile than I thought and maybe playing with Jankowski and Army helps, but he gets to where he is suppose to.
16. Game flowed much better last night. I actually think not having the TV timeouts helps and not having 3 or 4 reviews is a big time delay. I thought that and not the penalties were the biggest culprit vs MSU last Saturday
