[EagleFan]

After a night to soak in the lousy game a few thoughts...

First the positives (not many):
- Number one draft pick Kevin Crowley with 3 goals and 5 assists in his first game. That it is a good sign.
- Drew Westervelt added 3 goals and 1 assist but still shows no willingness to go inside unless it is a quick slash into free space so he can dive across the crease. So this is a mixed review.
- Dan Dawson had 1 goal and 6 assists. He showed moments of returning to his dominant form but seems like it will take a few games for him to get truly in sync with the team. If they can gel quickly Crowley/Dawson/Westervelt could become one of the most dominant trios in the league.
- They ended the game with enough heart to give the remaining fans a little something to cheer about. Sadly though I wonder what that spirit could have done if they came out with it earlier in the game. Hopefully that will be one of those moments later in the season that we can look back and say "that is when then became a 'team'".


Now for the negatives:
- Defense, they looked so unprepared defensively that it was a joke. Too many open players and too many open shots.
- Goaltending, Miller had a LOUSY game. Granted the defense didn't help but he also allowed a few extremely soft goals.
- Goaltending part 2, overshadowed by Miller's lousy play was the pure ineptness of the backup. He allowed some of the worst goals I have seen.
- Coaching, it seems like it has been a long time since the Wings have been coached well. They started out the game wanting to play like an outdoor team, all passing around the perimeter until the shot clock was almost run down and then a late desperation shot to beat the clock (we have seen that for the past 9 years).
- Fans, another low attendance number and fans that were jumping on the team early in the game. Plus I hate that I may be sitting behind one of the most annoying a-holes in the stadium. His wife and her friend were yapping about who cares what the entire game, he was complaining about everything and getting louder as the game went on. Add to that the fact that he looks like an arogant prick in general and it pretty much cements my opinion of the guy.
- Referees, this is easily the least important of the list but they did a lousy job of handling this game for both teams. The new rules were not being inforced with regularity (example: the new delay of game rule which was put in place to keep players from rolling the ball away from the play after a whistle to keep the other team from restarting the play; there was a player called for it after he accidentally tripped over the ball, he was looking elsewhere and stepped on it, or another who stopped the ball that the other team had rolled towards the corner just before a shot clock violation, he stopped it as it was near the ref so the ref wouldn't have to chase it to the corner and got a penalty for his trouble).


Now for the negatives that have nothing to do with the team or the actual game but the atmosphere:
- Opening intro song; usually there has been a good pump up song but this was some guitar only instrumental that really did nothing for the crowd. The video being played has always shownaction clips but now they added clips of the mascot... really that is supposed to pump us up?
- Pregame; what on earth was the mascot doing in the team huddle prior to the game starting? That looked extremely bush league.
- Music during the game; the positive is that they have lowered the volume so it is background music only and not something that you notice. What I did notice is that now it feels like they are playing freaking dance music, WTF?