You are right, out-worked, out-shot, out -hustled, let’s hope they can turn it around! I am keeping the faith! :)

I expected jitters out of Gleason, Ruutu, Babchuk … the guys without any postseason experience. But what we saw was jitters out of just about everyone. I expected Cole to be a demon, and he was quiet. Staal was outworked several times. The Brind’Amour line (outside of a couple decent moments from Samsonov) was ineffective. Really, Whitney and Cullen were the only two standouts out front. On D, I thought the Pitkanen-Babchuk pairing looked scared out there. Not a good sign. Gleason-Corvo were pedestrian, while Wallin-Seidenberg played maybe a shade better than the others.

If the start of Game 2 is anything like Game 1, I think Patrick Eaves may deserve more ice time, b/c it seemed like he brought the best intensity out there. Conboy was a non-factor (less jam than he brought most regular season games), and Jokinen was just average.

As for Ward, not his fault. He kept them in it early with some great stops, but it was one of those nights where he never really had a chance. The Parise goal was a bit soft, but otherwise he was decent — not spectacular.

Things need to change in Game 2.

This will end in 4 if we dont come with more intensity. The Staal line was almost none existent. The only time that that line stuck out to me was on the second goal when Staal fell to the ice and laid on his stomach while Parise went in and took a 5 foot wrist shot.

I think you might see Conboy out of the line up as well on Friday. As much as I love having the guy on bench, we all know it is for one reason and that is to be the enforcer. If he isnt going to see more than 4 minutes(im not sure what the real number was) and when he is out there he isnt going to throw down then get someone out there that can at least have a chance to score. I look for Bayda to be reinserted into the lineup Friday night.

Over all I think things need to and will change for game 2. We had 4 or 5 guys who were playing last night who had never played in the playoffs. Its a new thing to them and it cant be treated with the same intensity as the regular season.

Oh, also doesn’t help when you take a bench minor less than 40 seconds in .. that’s on the coaching staff.

Our team has got to move their feet if they want to win…. it’s that simple…. if they keep their legs and keep their feet moving they are the best team in the chase…. if not then they will be going home very quickly….

3 bad games in a row… I hope they got that out of their system…..

i kept thinking, its 4-1 in the 3rd, lets send a message.
finish some hits,
let these guys kno wthat this series has only started.

but no, apparently carolina wanted to give nj more energy heading into game 2

on the other hand.
this sets us up to see what our guys are capable of,
because if you dont come out jumpin and giving it everything after that loss,
then you dont have a team.

not to say its a “must win”
but we should get as better look at the possible intensity level of this team.
expescially if they play bayda

While not a “must win” it’s a “better win”. We owned these asshats all year, now when it counts, they are sodomizing us. If Cory was even close in his assessment, this was a dropped game from top to bottom (I missed it, but, Cory is echoing what I am hearing all over). It hopefully just a hairball that needed to get puked up and they will get back to hockey. Lost the last two in the reg. season, one was to these nj boys. So they are 2 up, when it comes to confidene. I wish we would of drew the craps, I like the way we stack up against them. These guys are serious and have a few lines. I think Friday will be a litmus test. If they come out flat and suck again, it’s over in 4, maybe 5 if they get pissed. But it will be short and merciless if we don’t show up and make a go of it. That will be a real let down.

A