Last year, whenever the puck went into the defensive zone it would be a lot of hand wringing on my behalf knowing there’d be a good chance Lilja/Mebdeech/Ericsson would be there to screw it up. Now if I know Salei’s on the ice there’s absolutely no worry. He shows a lot of poise and he’s rarely, if ever, flashy – that being a good thing.

Horrible bias aside, I think Salei was not only one of the smartest signings of ANY team in the offseason, but his cost to effectiveness ratio is through the roof.

Also, whoever spiked E’s water bottle with defense juice can bunk with me tonight. It’s the Renaissance of Jonathan Ericsson. And I approve, wholeheartedly.

Sorry for the lack of Loss Candy this time around. We’ve been working on something big, but that’s no excuse to neglect our responsibilities. If you bear with us, we’ll make it worth the wait…

I think it started last year after Howard had enough starts in a row to feel as though the weight of the team wasn’t on his back every time he was in net. It also helped that I’ve never seen Osgood really direct rebounds to safer areas, and Hasek was as wacky as a fractal in net, but a lot of younger goaltenders seem to be less like sponges and more directing hard shots to particular areas for their defensemen to keep away from any opponents scavenging around for loose pucks.

Once Howard played enough to get comfortable himself, and the team had a much better idea of what he was going to do, they worked together much better and I think everyone kind of relaxed.

The defense was oustanding in Anaheim and they were pretty good in Los Angeles. They’ve actually been pretty good all year. If I had to give them a grade at this point, I’m thinking B+, and that’s only because Jug Danik had to play so much earlier in the season.

It’s so weird, but there were times last year when the defense was playing like poopsicles and I looked at the shot counts after the game and were surprised the numbers were so low, because it seemed like the team wall giving up 80 shots a game. This year it’s the opposite. Sometimes I look at the numbers and it doesn’t seem the team gave up that many shots during the game at all because none of them looked all that dangerous and the rebounds were cleared away before secondary and tertiary opportunities could manifest themselves.

I like it because it shows that the skaters have figured out how Tiberius plays and so when he kicks out a rebound they expect it, know where it is going, and get there to take care of the puck. When he first started playing you could tell they weren’t nearly as comfortable with his style and habits, but now he’s a known quantity.

Osgood was quite good, and I was glad to see that. I had visions of a goal on the first shot and then plugging my ears to avoid the wailing and gnashing of teeth and rending of garments that would ensue. #whew 🙂