Worst Shift Ever

Second period, 1-0 Canes, Mowers, Primeau, Donovan, Jurcina, M.Stuart.
First off, why would a coach put his 5th & 6th Dmen out with that line?
Carolina appeared to be on a power play until Mowers loses his stick
and
now it looks like a 5 on 3. After what seems an eternity with the puck,
the
Canes finally cough it up. Primeau & Donovan (bad & worse) break out of
the zone on a possible 2 on 1. Now the fun begins. They forget the
puck,
perhaps realizing they can do no good with it. Mowers is on the boards
on
the bench side of the ice, yet does not get off, sees the bozos have
overskated
the puck, and goes back into the zone WITH NO STICK. Carolina tosses it
around for awhile again before finally putting the hapless B's out of
their misery
by scoring. Not to be outdone, the next 5 guys on the ice show the
previous
bunch how to do it, giving up a goal 9 seconds later. (There appeared
to be a
chance that Mara may have knocked it in, but the replay is
inconclusive, so
he holds at 3 own goals for now).

Further observations:

In the tradition of Ray Bourque, we find out Chara is not a good
afternoon player.
His performance yesterday could only be described as pitiful.

Boyes has managed to play his way to the 4th line (or 3rd line,
whatever). Very deserving.

If Marco Sturm hits the net from 5 feet out on his forehand in the
first period, it could
have been a completely different game.

Murray had a rough game also. Two great chances in first, one bounces
off his skate
too far out of reach and on a Chistov setup, he fails to step up into
the open spot for
a tap in at the right post.

Donovan & Primeau have hands like Roberto Duran (or Mike Milbury).

Great to see Tanabe (who's been a healthy stratch recently) get power
play time and
on his first play fall down backwards as a pass is coming to him.

Whould like to see more of Chistov, but for a little finesse guy, he
sure takes some dumb
penalties.

If this was a gauge game, against defending champs, there's trouble in
River City. (Sports?)

Anyone still think goaltending is our biggest problem?

> I saw a replay angle where Mara definitely tipped it up over Thomas. Call it
> four. I agree, that was one of the stupidest shifts ever. When they got
> possesion, instead of trying to break out 2 on 1 with no energy left (and
> even less talent) they should have just iced it. No change but at least
> Mowers could get a stick. We knew Primeau was a cinder-blockhead but Donovan
> has been an unbelievable disappointment. He's horrible.

Thanks. Don't want to short change Mara on his quest to break Sweeney's
record.