11/17/09 - San Jose at Nashville: W 3-4

THE GOOD:

Jordin Tootoo has gotten a lot better at drawing penalties rather than taking them. I can't fault the boy for that.

I totally called a Scott Nichol or Jed Ortmeyer goal as the first of the night for the Sharks. As beloved former Predators, I just can not bring myself to be mad at them and so, this remains in the "good" section.

Kevin Klein...that check towards the end of the first period was hardcore. Even the casual hockey fan knew that was freaking awesome.

Two power play goals in ONE game?! I can't quite believe it.

David Legwand, Jerred Smithson and Joel Ward were all respectively and equally awesome last night. Who (besides Trotz) in a million years would have put the three of them on the same line and for a moment believed they would be able to make plays like they have been? Not me, that's for sure. Have we finally seen the end of the Legwand-Erat era?

We are continuing to stay disciplined against the Sharks. I love that.

We shouldn't have had to kill off that dumb penalty called on Ryan Suter. Fortunately for us, we KILLED it...in every sense of the word. One of the best PKs I've seen from us all season.

THE BAD:

I miss Jed Ortmeyer. So so much.

I yelled at Jerred Smithson early in the first period for a stupid play at the front of the San Jose net. I NEVER yell at Smithson but he really could have had a goal if he had been paying more attention to his linemates at the time.

Jason Arnott has quietly dominated the faceoff dot so far this season. Too bad he hasn't dominated much else.

The Sharks finally got pissed with about two minutes left in the second. Unfortunately, whatever they were doing was able to get to us thus resulting in their second goal of the night. I don't know what they did exactly to turn the tide a bit in their favor but we need to figure out a way to stop it in the future.

Patric Hornqvist was relatively non-existent in this game and Saturday's. What has happened to the Swede? Bad line pairings? Not enough ice time?


So you'll probably notice I don't have a "THE UGLY" section this time. Well, for the first time all season, there wasn't anything about our game that I felt was ugly enough to point out. We are finally playing like a team. Yes, there are still mistakes being made and the occasional off shift here or there but the mistakes and the off shifts aren't nearly as noteworthy as they have been. I will remain cautious however, knowing that we had an ebb and flow much like this last season. What I need to see is consistency and it is going to take longer than a week or two of well played games to convince me that we are definitely on the right track this time around.