Wow, what a streak snapper that was.

2-1 shootout win, with our only goal coming courtesy of Jim Slater. Remember when we had almost 4 ppg for a while there? Yeah, good times.

I'm not complaining, just curious where our offensive output's gone. It's interesting that the games where Antropov has been out have been some of our lowest scoring in quite some time. He's proven himself to be the anchor for the line with Kovy and Max, despite the fact that he's still not the strongest at winning face offs (though the game on the 26th did see him crack 66%, which is pretty darn good). Anderson has had to shuffle lines to fill his spot, and neither White (who ran around after Kovy and Max) nor the total switch between the top 2 line personnel have helped.

The third line, with the removal of Peverley (shifted to 2nd and 1st lines the last two games), has been neutered. Peverley and Kane clicked. Reasoner and Kane do not - Marty's a grinder. Kane is a scorer. Armstrong is... um... getting paid a lot. Honestly, the only line playing with chemistry is the 3rd line, which is explaining why Slater's responsible for our past three goals.

Defensively, Bogosian and Hainsey looked scads better than they have in a really long time. Anderson mentioned today that Bogosian has been playing with a hurt wrist for three weeks now, but it's healed. Wait, what? Again - another player playing injured, or being allowed to play hurt? Three weeks ago... isn't that really when we started to get stuck in this mess we've been in? Hainsey and Bogosian have had the worst +/- of any pairing during the past month. Could it be that this oversight cost us a few games? We have a surplus of defensemen, with Valabik and Salmela being rotated in the 6th spot right now. Why could Bogosian not have taken it easy during this time? Our training staff concerns me.

Anyway, positively speaking, Hedberg's outstanding - in the shootout, on the ice... last night was one of his better games this year, and further reinforces why he needs to be our starter for right now until Kari comes back. That should happen later this month.

Of course, it's not like we can rest now, because tomorrow night brings the Caps and a shooting gallery.