Dead Weight
Ian Venables has lost this game for his team. After playing less than half the game, Venables managed to kick out 5 dangerous rebounds into the slot. Three of those rebounds got picked up by Detroit fowards and turned into secondary scoring opportunities. This has been a well-documented deficiency in Venables' game for long enough, there's no excuse for his continued poor execution. Anchorage management was right to pull him, and if you ask me, they should have done it much sooner. I wouldn't give Venables another start unless he could prove to me that he has his rebound control issues under control.

Oh Captain My Crap-tain
Another disappointing performance for the Anchorage Armada came from captain and defensive veteran Darnell Johnson. My stat sheet says that Johnson played 17 minutes tonight, but if you ask me I barely saw him out there at all. He was all but invisible. He managed to rack up a -2 on the night, with 2 hits and 1 shot block. If this is what Johnson calls on-ice leadership, I think it's time for the Armada to jump overboard. If Johnson wants to compete in this league at the level Anchorage needs from him, he needs to bend his knees, square his shoulders, and get physical. The few times I noticed him on the ice he was either getting pushed off the puck, or icing the it of out fear. Not what I'd expect from someone of his caliber and reputation.

Power Pray
The Anchorage Armada power play failed to show up for the game again. On five attempts, the unit barely managed to generate any offense, with a combined total of 7 shots that made it to the net across the 5 power play attempts. On the first one, at just 2 minutes into the game, the Armada power play managed to take a single shot, which missed the net. The second attempt, at around halfway in the first period, saw 6 shots taken. 3 of them were on target. The third powerplay attempt had 7 shots taken, 3 of which were on target. The 4th attempt had a single shot, on net, and the 5th had no time in the offensive zone at all. What a disgrace.