For those who missed it I covered the previous game here. Last night the BSens exploded, or rather, their top-line did, against the Moose (scoring the first five of six goals). It was an entertaining game, a nice win for Filip Gustavsson (who had some work to do despite the score), and it was simply an entertaining game to watch (other than AHL Live freezing late in the first period). A caution before celebrating too much: as I’ll go over below, the Moose are not a very good team right now, so beating them doesn’t mean the BSens have shrugged off all their problems.
Belleville 6, Manitoba 2
Shots: 34/35
PP: 3-7
PK: 3-4
Goaltender: Filip Gustavsson (33-35)
Balcers (Chlapik, Batherson)
Batherson (Bergman, Chlapik)
Chlapik (Rodewald) (pp)
Balcers (Batherson, Wolanin) (pp)
Batherson (Chlapik)
Murray (Tambellini, Percy) (pp)
Context
Moose backup Ken Appleby was getting his first start of the season. The Moose, other than their win the night before against Belleville, had logged back-to-back losses to Iowa (losing 4-1 and 8-1 respectively). Manitoba has now scored just six goals in four games while giving up nineteen–it’s a team with a lot of issues.
Lines
We only had one change from the previous night, with Ryan Scarfo scratched in favour of Francois Beauchemin (who played slightly more, largely due to the lopsided score).
Special Teams
The powerplay was completely unchanged and both units scored (two from the first, one from the second). The first unit was the effective threat and the second still needs tweaking. With that said, overall the team is now 3-16 (18%)–funny how one good game can bump you up to respectable this early in the season.
As for the penalty kill, Mann still can’t resist using the PK to pump minutes into marginal players, although he is doing it less. Here are the combos:
Forwards: LaBate-Rodewald, Balcers-Chlapik, Balisy-Rodewald, Ciampini-Beauchemin, Tambellini-Balisy, Beauchemin-Rodewald
Defense: Sieloff-Burgdoerfer, Percy-Englund, Englund-Bergman, Percy-Murray, Wolanin-Sieloff
I have no idea why Murray is on the PK rotation–defensively he’s a nightmare–and a guy like Ciampini isn’t doing any favours in that role either. Thus far the team’s PK is Kleinendorstian in its numbers (6-9, 66%), and if Mann is reflective at all he’s got to be less cavalier about his units.
Coaching Decisions
There’s not much to say here since very little changed between games. I hope Mann isn’t putting too much stock in Rodewald‘s game tonight–he’s historically a streaky player and while he was effective taking draws for the first PP unit that’s not where he belongs. Mann deserves credit for removing Leier from the PP, but he still doesn’t want to give Bergman any rope to do the kinds of things he did for San Jose the previous three years.
Corsi is apparently coming on Monday–when it arrives I’ll add it in.
Other Notes
-Despite scoring a very nice goal late in the game, it was an awful game for Murray (the unforced turnovers are a nightmare), and were it not for the thin depth on the BSens I’d rather he sit
–Chlapik got slammed into the boards in the second and missed a couple of shifts–he’s taken a lot of punishment in the first three games and is clearly a target for other teams
-I mentioned the previous game that Wolanin was attempting tough passes through traffic that weren’t working–he’s adjusted to pick his spots more carefully and made a great pass through a defender to give Balisy a partial break in the first
-The team had been getting killed in faceoffs and bizarrely Rodewald has been quite good at them (despite not being a center)
-A couple of fantastic opportunities resulted in shots wide from marginal players–Ciampini had the best with an open side in the second which he missed from five feet out
–Englund still can’t complete simple passes when he has time and no pressure; another guy who ideally sits out
All in all a fun game to watch when the talent was on the ice–great passing from the elite players. Hopefully the Sens can get healthy so more talent will return to Belleville to give the team a real shot of being competitive this season.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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