I went to the game last night, and saw one other preseason game. I have a few thoughts about this team so far...
1) Hasek looks bad. He made mistakes he has always made (misplaying the puck behind the net and not recovering). The problem is that when he was out of position he couldn't get back fast. He nearly cost himself more than the 2 goals he did. Maybe it's just rust, we'll see. I was good last year before getting hurt, so it will depend on which Hasek we get I guess.
2) The defense is very solid. Best in the NHL I think. Cheli doesn't look any older and plays good positional D. He was also directing traffic a ton (something you wouldn't see on TV unless the camera was pointed on him). The young guys should benifit a lot from this. Nick is Nick. Kronwell and Lebda were both solid but also jumped into the play well too. Guys like Hank and Pavel did a good job of covering when they jumped up (something Larionov used to always do when he was here). Lilja also played pretty physical. Not Scott Stevens or Konstantinov physical, but at least Fischer like.
3) The offense was pretty good, especially for not playing all the regulars. Williams looks to have a good year getting Shanny's minutes beside Zetterberg. Hank and Pavel looked good too. They had a lot of attempted plays that could have panned out and didn't because of good defense and solid goaltending by Minnesota. The checking line was good too. Norton looked slow though, I doubt he contributes much. the younger guys looked a little lost (Fitipula and can't remember the other one). They showed skills but were not in good position a lot. That will probably come around.
All in all, I was impressed with the caliber of hockey with Stevie, Shanny and a couple other guys gone. I think the young guys will probably be just as good as the vets, and with higher cielings too.
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