After taking a while reflecting on the game last night, reading through some of the unbelievable posts on here and re-watching the highlights, I thought that I would make an account and post my thoughts on the night.
Firstly, a great road game played by the Storm who stuck to their game plan well and caused us trouble all night. They're going to be a tough team to beat again this year and look like they are stacked whilst being built for their own rink where games against them are going to be real wars this year. Clemente played a blinder stopping 37 shots including one that sticks in my mind at the beginning of the third period from Myers from the top of the crease, a well deserved MOM and was excellently supported by his D. Auger took his three goals well, the first one with a great read of the rebound off of the boards, the second coming from a great pass by Stanisz moving the puck well on the powerplay and of course Auger's third being the empty netter. The Storm used big bodies to screen (Byers/Rosehill) leading to two of their goals which lead Bowns to be unsighted, especially so for Ehrhardt's slapshot where Rosehill and Hotham were battling in front effectively creating a double screen. Again, Storm looked excellent and thoroughly deserved the points.
For the Devils, the players that stood out for me more than others were Moore (excellent), Fournier, Louis, Haddad, Bentivoglio, Batch and Murdy who once again showed us he's more than capable of coming into games and doing a good job. Bowns would obviously like a couple of goals back especially Auger's second (3-0) when he fanned on his initial shot but got enough of it to get a second chance. I thought that the shift at the end of the first period by Moore's line with Batch and Myers was excellent throwing their bodies around and like what has been previously mentioned, got the crowd back engaged with the game and could have been the start of a shift of momentum. Louis did a great job of sticking up for Richie after that hit and I applaud him for doing so. After his goal tonight, Haddad proved to me why he could potentially be a good candidate to wear the C, where just before the face off at centre ice he got all of the players who were on the ice together, was doing all of the talking which looked like he was taking a leadership role and just trying to make things happen.
There were a few long shifts tonight where we looked to struggle breaking out of our zone and were being caught by Manchester. I can imagine the turnover rate being high. Lord talked about the need to block shots in his post game interview and lead by example tonight by getting in the way of a couple, unfortunately after one massive block from him the puck fell straight back to Stanisz who took the same shot again and capitalised. It was interesting to see Todd go straight around to the locker room immediately after the post game lap from the team, I wouldn't bet against him speaking exactly how he saw it tonight as he did last year when the owners were over for a game.
It's not all doom and gloom as people are seeming to suggest and looking positively at our league record (as that's the big trophy that requires 9 months of madness and not just 9 days) we're still 2-1-0 in 3 games. I know there have been 3 disappointing domestic defeats so far this season but there's no need to panic at all. I don't see the logic in calling out players at this point of the year and overlooking simple things such as Crowder's and Ulmer's face off win percentage. For CHL games alone they are at 56% and 65% respectively and I have no doubt that these are higher in the regular season so far. Also to the point made about Reddick being on the ice for a few goals tonight is correct, however, he was on the ice for two special team goals and one in open play which makes him a -1 for the night. Team toughness is a funny thing this year, we have players that are more than capable of dropping the gloves and are spread out on the roster as opposed to having a tough fourth liner who plays limited minutes per game and is a policing presence. As another poster has used the Ryan Reeves example with the Penguins to protect Crosby, Kessel and Malkin etc, The Calgary Flames have also signed a tough guy in Luke Gazdic to a contract this year which possibly suggests that role is still very much needed though.
Anyway, onto Dundee on Wednesday night where I hope that we can pick up a more than valuable two points on the road and build on that rather than go the opposite direction with Braehead in town on Saturday. I hope Pope is fit to go soon as he's been a great find so far this year and I hope Moore and Faryna take the game to their old team. One final thought is that I hope that the Linesman Sam Motton who left the game after the first period yesterday due to injury is okay and is back on the ice soon!
Sorry about the long read, especially for a first post but I hope this is valued!