Komisarek's Brutal Night

I’d say that overall, Komisarek had a brutal year… but at the same time, the last month he was playing before his injury, he looked really good and seemed to be having a calming influence on the team overall. I think it’ll take him a couple of months to get his act together again but as usual, I’m optimistic.

nice to say about Komisarek, so I won’t say anything at all.

Props to Ron Wilson, though, for not sending him out there in the 3rd period last night. Good coaching. He was brutal, park him, and play your best d-man the best. That best d-man last night? Tomas Kaberle. OH SHIT.

Further to the FTB discussion re: Komisarek’s surgery and recovery time, the actual date of his operation was February 10th. (warning: link to the Sun). With 4-6 months of recovery time, that puts him at around August 10th to be “recovered” although I have no idea what that means.

I’m Captain of the “Komisarek Worriers Club” but I can’t disagree with a word of this. It’s still early and Wilson is smart for working him back in slowly after a long time off. And his rust last night didn’t hurt us in the standings one little bit.

Considering there are quite a few non-fans here, but even on that second goal, Komisarek didn’t tie up the stick of his man up front and Beauchemin was left helpless because he was on the other side. Komisarek gets overzealous and to me, I think he’s still trying to find his niche on the team. He seems lost in terms of his role. I may not like Komisarek, but I can lay some of the blame on the coaching staff as well for not clearly detailing roles for each player on D.

We will have to give Komi some more time to adjust – but if by Christmas he still isn’t ‘with it’ I have no problem keeping him as the 5th Dman (except for the fact we are paying him like a high level 3rd)

Ah well – if Schenn/Beauch can handle the lion’s share of shut down duties, we will just have to live with that.

was the only leaf to record blocked shots last night, and he recorded 4 of them. I’ll give him a pass on a few mistakes if he keeps doing that every night.

I thought Gunnarsson looked worse than Komisarek did last night. I thought Komi took too much edge off his game last night (too afraid of taking penalties)

I’m still not that worried about Komi. Whenever I would watch him play against us as part of the Habs, he always struck me as a tough-as-shite, positionally sound defenseman that our guys clearly were bothered to play against. The only notable detriment I could find in his game at that point was the number of penalties he would take. Flash forward to last summer and I was thrilled we signed him. Last year he had a terrible start, which I think we all pretty much can unanimously chalk up to nerves now. He really never had a chance to settle in before he got hurt, but was showing sound improvement until he did get put out. I think he’ll probably follow a similar trajectory this year, by showing a marked improvement around the 10-15 game mark. From there it’s just a matter of staying healthy and being consistent.

Gunnar on the other hand is a shadow of his former self right now. To me it looks like a confidence issue….over-thinking and under-trusting his ability. Sophomore thing likely.

Then there’s Kabby, who played last night’s game with a swagger and jump in his step that I’ve never seen before. He was downright cocky at times (which was awesome to see). I was blown away. Completed different player. Looked like bloody Bobby Orr at one point.

Completely different player.

Komisarek looked weak at times, and so did Gunnarsson which worries me a bit. Kaberle was amazing though, and I loved the look on his face when he got the big ovation. I was also impressed by Phaneuf last night. I thought Dion was dangerous offensively, he moved the puck out of his own zone well, he played a solid physical game and seemed very calm and composed. If he keeps playing like that I’ll be very very happy.

It’s a long year, right? It’s one game, it’s a couple shifts, we won the game. You move on. You know you’re going to get better next game and take it from there. Don’t get down on yourself for a mistake.

I’ve not liked the Komisarek contract at all since Day 1, even if he didn’t have the rough season in ‘09-’10 that he did. Whenever voicing this opinion, however, I was always surprised at the amount of people who jumped to his defense. Here’s hoping he turns things around.