It's been interesting, some very good things happening, big questions, and downside.
Bottom line the bubble may break, the goaltending may not hold up, but this team has a defensive system, and despite heavy pressure against, does manage to hold on, and wear down their opposition.
And for now the players signed for depth are contributing, goal here, point there, penalty drawn.
We saw it against Carolina, and despite the quantity of shots some games, you can tell often they are not quality. Against Pittsburgh it was quality & game could have been 4/5-2 at end of first with NY trailing.
Around seven minute mark of second, Pens wore down, NY kept coming, scoring on shots no goalie could stop, then came icings by Pens, missed passes, breakdowns trying to do too much, and trying to open up led to even better chances by NYI.
They broke.
And the NYI were the team playing the third game in four days on the road, even Greiss coming in for Lehner did not change how they played, finally they got a bounce for #14 goal but third period was their most even one.
Barry Trotz calls it layering his defense, you can see the players blocking shots, buying in, you can see it in Mayfield, who's done much better than expected. Pulock is being used as a top two & for the most part beyond being due for more goals, has had few mistakes.
In the home game against Florida, ppl who did not watch will see the shots against, anyone who watched saw Panthers throw ton of shots from bad angles that was a game of catch for Lehner on a night the NYI had nothing going but a 2-0 lead based on one bounce, and one great powerplay setup.
What does need work is faceoffs, Lee/Barzal 5/5 scoring are an issue, and at times they looked over-matched in speed game but it was designed that way, bend but don't break, and we are not talking about Halak needed 50 saves every game.
I have been doing coaches full press conferences here with a few comments to settle folks into a routine, but now you know team is showing Trotz/players far more on ITV so everyone knows where to look so I'm going to back off on that.