Giants 2 @ Tigers 3 Jan 12th

[dondo]

Vancouver vs Medicine Hat (first of three in three nights)

On Shaw
7:30 pm local time (MST), 6:30pm out here on the coast -

our first chance to see the new acquisitions and watch what should be a heel of a game. I expect Sexsmith will get the MH game and the Kootenay one, and Neufeld will be slooted in for the Hurricane tilt.

warm up your VCRs :bounce: :bounce: I can hardly wait nhl

[Swando]

Hey Dondo: Do you expect someone to get booted out of the game tonight being it will be a heel of a game? I noticed you corrected the spelling on Bou"r"ma so I thot I'd rub it in ..!!! lol

[dondo]

lol -- smart ass

yes yes i do .. and just for that I'm a leaving it in

WATT? don't you think it'll be a HEEL of a game -- :thumb: :p

[Beaner]

No Wuchterl tonight. Shoulder injury.

Reported on the radio.

[dondo]

hmm is that recent (like tripping off the bus :D ) or did he have that when we traded for him?

[Beaner]

Played on the 6th, so recent it looks like.

[dondo]

wow nice short-handed rush by Repik and Rabbit -- Rabbit sticks with it and gets the first goal

BUT two horrific give-aways but our D absolutely screwed Sexsmith who was playing a very solid game but was betrayed by his own defense. Both behind the net and both idiot blind back passes to Tigers. Regner with one and Franson with the other.

the team will be okay if its players stop gifting goals. Neither error was a forced error as the result of aggressive fore checking just really poor decision making. Regner lost his stick in the process not sure if it was ripped out of his hands or it got caught in the boards. Franso9n looked like he was trying to get the puck to Thelen and missed behind him but found a Bosh's stick with a perfect tape to tape pass - just the wrong team.

[dondo]

Oh and JD took a sloppy penalty (which was a bit marginal) at the end of the first, so the boys start out the second on the PK -- maybe Rabbit or Repik will get another shorty

[Section_Z]

Zoiks,
those were nasty giveaways....
BTW....Lamb has 2 assists thus far in his first game with the Hurricanes....Flatters with 1 in PA. Reese also with 1 A =)...

[Section_Z]

Now Blum chips in with a bad deflection...The best offence is a good defence???? When they are scoring on themselves???

[Knuckles Muldoon]

Oh and JD took a sloppy penalty (which was a bit marginal) at the end of the first, so the boys start out the second on the PK -- maybe Rabbit or Repik will get another shorty
Watt taking penalties again? Say it isn't so! :rolleyes:

[SixSixOne]

Lucic is gone, stupid kneeing penalty http://whlfans.ca/images/smilies/dead.gif I'm quite suprised their havent been any fisticuffs yet

[dondo]

yeah Sexsmith might be better off without a defense in front of him tonight. :spineyes:

The Hat gets a goal off of a weird bounce, off of Blum's shoulder in the high slot and right over Sexsmith on the short side.. one in a million and it went against us.

not sure if anyone else watching thought that the Hat clutched their way through that period and that there should have been a bunch of interference calls. I saw quite a few Giants players who hadn't touched the puck go down.

OOO bad kneeing by Lucic, very unlike him and he gets a major and a game for his trouble ... it didn't look deliberate at speed but the replay looked pretty bad. G-Men still have 3:30 something left in the major penalty to start the third.

3-1 after two .. Giants behind the eight ball, Sexsmith getting hosed by his own D, other than that he's looked very good tonight- but he really had no chance on any of those goals, maybe the first one, but he didn't expect his team to cough up the puck like that.

Repik and Rabbit are looking really good together -- those two are going to hook up with a lot of goals, esp playing with Lucic. Cunningham having a really good night as well. Team is skating hard, but aren't finding open ice. Tigers doing a good job (and not so good job as I still think they should have been tagged with a few interference penalties), closing the gaps.

Bouma had probably the best chance to score went inside out and tried to slip it through Keetley's legs but Keetley was down early. But some nice passing coming right down the slot to get him that opportunity from Watt and I think it was Cunningham again.

period three coming up

[dondo]

oh btw for you scorecard types

Rabbit is wearing Dulle's #16
and Thelen is in Flatters #23

don't know what jersey # Wuchterl will be -- who says he's ready to play versus Kyle Lamb and the rest of the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

[SixSixOne]

I'm preparing myself for a Dorsett - Hunt match *crosses fingers*

[SixSixOne]

oh btw for you scorecard types

Rabbit is wearing Dulle's #16
and Thelen is in Flatters #23

don't know what jersey # Wuchterl will be -- who says he's ready to play versus Kyle Lamb and the rest of the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

On the whl.ca site, and on the roster page for the Giants it says Wutcherl has #38, not sure if its official or not though

[grainbear]

Played full 60 minutes last game in Lethbridge , and saw him in the interview just before leaving nothing showed as well. Anything in your practice, hope he is okay looking forward to see him play in Lethbridge on Saturday. Thanks for Lamb he fits right in and got 2 assists played with Hogg and Boychuk for most of the night and after Banchs left with I hope only a bruised ankle he did good job on penalty kill. Stasiuk continous to amaze me with his abilty to mold this team.

[dondo]

Well the Giants pushed back but not until mid-way through the third and in the end it was too little too late. I saw some nice things though. Even though JD had a couple of bad penalties he was working hard tonight.

Also the first goal was from a really nice forecheck by Helm where he cut the angle off and got to the puck before Regner, and out front before Regner could react. Still don't think there was any chance for Sexsmith though.

Some positives for the G-Men but I would liked to see a bit more fight to get to the front of the net, not that there wasn't any. I'm not sure if Franson and Thelen (pronounced Thee-len) are good line-mates as they seem to be very similar players in terms of style, but this was one game. Unfortunately the team isn't going to be able to get any practices in before the weekend.

McArdle got a late one with just under a minute left, to make it close. Rabbit gets 1G and 1A.

Its too bad we got the loss, but the boys weren't dogging it -- however I don't believe they emptied the tank either and that's what they might have to do versus a team like the Tigers. Some sloppy play and bad luck got us in the end.

Hurricanes win 7-3 tonight with Lamber getting two assists.

[Beaner]

Pretty much how it sounded on the radio tonight, couldnt watch as I had some work stuff to get done before tomorrow.

Couple bad plays in our own zone and an unlucky bounce.

We will see how they bounce back tomorrow.

Was the Lucic knee worth the 5? Joey was working by himself tonight so, he didnt go into it much. Got to think he will get at least 1 game for the major.

[Knuckles Muldoon]

I didn't like this game at all. The Giants looked fat and lazy. For two periods they all looked like they were waiting for the next guy to do it. The team didn't work hard enough, IMO. Sexy looked good and couldn't be faulted on the goals, but his defence were fairly sloppy in front of him. The game was a downer. It had none of the action that game in MH earlier in the season had. This one was putting me to sleep. Dumb hit by Lucic. Dumb, irresponsible, and certainly worth a major. Good to see Helm come back and play after that. Apart from Sexy, not many guys played up to par. Rabbit looked pretty good, as did Machacek. But there were a lot of guys who didn't look very interested in this one. It indicates to me that it is going to take a while for this team to gel and for roles to be redefined. Disappointing.

[Swando]

Watched the whole game and put up with the awful Shaw broadcast as there was hissing all night. Thought it might be the Giants coaches!! There were some good moments in the first period but then a few give aways and Tigers played very similar to their 2005 team we saw beat us 3 times. Tough defense which reminded me of the Barker days. MH beat us to the puck on most occasions ---even when we won the draw the offside winger would jump through and beat our D to the puck.
In my opinion it looked like the boys were lost tonight. They didn't have the drive the team that missed 4 WJ's had the passed games. There was little forcheck. It's too bad that we play 3 in a row cause it looks like we need a week of solid practising to let these players get to know one another.
I personally feel that it's a start over process for the coaches. We have never gone through this many changes while being a contending team.
A guy like Wutchurl will have no problem adapting, but it's the McCardle, Rabbit, Thelan, and the loss of Lamb that will will require most getting used to. A much different dressing room to say the least. Franson said it best in his interview...."we lost a lot of "friends" but I think we are a better team".
Hopefully Don will be able to mold these guys into the type he knows is a winner!!

[dondo]

I watched the game and listened to the radio -- thank gawd there was no delay -- as between the hissing and Dan Russell it would have made a frustrating game more so.

I've tried not to be a bad loser in my recap and tried to focus on the positives -- so unlike me.

enjoy and discuss


Tigers Nip Giants
Vancouver 2 Medicine Hat 3

The Vancouver Giants started a five game road trip playing their first game against the Eastern Conference leading Tigers. Tonight’s game was the first of three in a row versus the Central Division, and the first of three in three nights. Two of the three newly acquired Giants made their debuts tonight and showed some great promise. The third one, Michael Wuchterl, had a minor shoulder injury which kept him from playing. Wacey Rabbit tallied a goal and an assist in the loss, and AJ Thelen looked to be fairly solid on the back-end playing with Franson. I shall call them FranLen (thanks H24 for that).

Michal Repik and Rabbit playing together on the PK, and most of the night, looked to have some early chemistry scoring a shorthanded goal in the first. The Tigers got two goals before the end of the first, off of a good forecheck and a defensive gaffe. Medicine Hat added another one in the third off of a point shot which glanced off of Jonathon Blum’s shoulder and in behind Tyson Sexsmith. Sexsmith was rather snake-bit tonight and despite that played a very solid game. The Giants got one back at the very end of the third, but it was too little, too late. Matt Keetley was no slouch himself between the pipes stopping a few point blank shots and keeping the Vancouver squad from adding to the score sheet when it counted.

The Giants opened the scoring 13:22 into the first while killing a penalty. It was the first penalty called in the game and it came off of a turnover at the blue-line. Speedsters Repik and Rabbit came hard into the zone. Repik drifted right and snapped a hard shot low on Keetley’s pads. Rabbit gathered the rebound and managed to stuff it past Keetley with a tenacious effort, finding the net after a couple of jabs at the puck.

The Tigers got one back about two and a half minutes later. Darren Helm cut diagonally across the net and found the puck along the boards before Brent Regner could react. Helm threw it out front to Chris Stevens who made no mistake putting it past Sexsmith. The Medicine Hat team took a lead which they would never relinquish with less than a minute in the period. A bad blind back pass by Cody Franson put the puck on Brennan Bosch’s stick and from virtually the same area where Helm had his assist, found a wide open Tyler Ennis alone in the slot. No chance for Sexsmith. In a close checking period the teams managed to each get 11 shots on the other guy’s net.

Mid-way through the second the Tigers got a weird one. Jordan Bendfeld garnered his fifth of the season throwing the puck toward the net. The high shot hit Giants d-man Jonny Blum in the high slot and picked the top corner stick-side. The Tigers then proceeded to play shut-down hockey only venturing into the offensive zone when they had a clean chance but not really taking any unnecessary chances. They did however send in a couple of fore checkers on each line to keep the Giants pinned in their own zone. The Giants started to come back late in the period though, but were hampered as Milan Lucic took a very unLucic-like penalty. Lucic was caught for kneeing with a couple of minutes to go in the middle stanza. The victim - Darren Helm, spun around like he was competing for gold in Olympic figure skating and went down drawing a major penalty and a game misconduct from Milan. Not that Helm was faking, although he didn’t miss a shift after laying on the ice for a couple of minutes, but I would say he did embellish the hit to garner the bonus infraction time. At speed it did not look that bad but on the replay it did appear as if Lucic had time to step inside and not hang his knee out. The penalty carried through the end of the second, killing the momentum of the Vancouver squad, and into the third.

The Tigers got the majority of the penalties called in the third and although the Giants PP looked anaemic and sloppy, the Vancouver squad found a bit of momentum mid third and began to press back. That was when Matt Keetley stood up and made himself a place in the game by stymieing the Giants forays into the Tiger zone. The G-Men managed to get one by Keetley with less than a minute to go and the goalie pulled. Rabbit got the puck to Mikkelson who cut down the left side and looked about to shoot but instead stutter-stepped and fed to McArdle at the front of the net. McArdle redirected the puck up and over Keetley to give the visitors a bit of life. That was all they would get though as the Tigers continued to dominate in the face-off circle and ran the G-Men out of time.

Usually when these two teams get together there is a lot of emotion, but that was not the case tonight as the Tigers played shut down hockey once they got the lead and the Giants never really seemed to be fired up enough to really take it to the home team. The Giants hitting was not up to its usual standard and although there were some good moments the Giants suffered from a bit of sloppiness. That sloppiness can be attributed to in part by the Tigers excellent gap control, but in the end the Giants did not fight through the clutching enough to get the upper-hand.

Neither team scored on the PP with both squads going 0 for 5 on the man-advantage. The shots were 29-22 in favour of the Giants. Craig Cunningham had a good game and got some decent shots on net due to his effort. Spencer Machacek looked to be rediscovering a bit of that hard skating he had last season and Rabbit skated well with Repik and Lucic until Lucic was ejected from the game. Sexsmith stopped everything he could stop and looked good keeping the score close. The Giants next game is tomorrow night in Lethbridge. Blaine Neufeld will probably get the start. The puck drops at 7pm local time, 6pm Pacific

Three Stars
1 – Chris Stevens
2 – Matt Keetley
3 – Wacey Rabbit

[Kassian]

Was the Lucic knee worth the 5? Joey was working by himself tonight so, he didnt go into it much. Got to think he will get at least 1 game for the major.

It was worth a major, IMO but he shouldn't be suspended for it. Although the two go hand and hand unfortunately. I don't think it was intentional. And based on Lucic's past history (or lack there of) I think it's safe to say it was a fluke incident. Let's put it this way, a player like Derek Dorsett is much more likely to intentionally knee an opposing player.

[rinkrat]

OK I have calmed down now.Pretty choked after watching that lacklustre effort.I have done my best to give Phil(Mikkelson) the benefit of the doubt,but I have had it with him.There are bantam players who can pass better than him,it pisses me off.Time after time missing easy passes,coughing up the puck and making bonehead decisions.
The effort last night was a joke,ya I know they are gonna need time to gel but that has absolutely nothing to do with effort.
When is JD going to hit someone? Are Hunt and Lucic the only players that will sacrifice their bodies?That speaks to the lack of effort.
JD,Tiger Williams used to say and I quote
"You come into the league a crusher,then you start to play like you are a rusher and soon you will be an usher"
FIGURE IT OUT JD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :burningma

[Beaner]

It was worth a major, IMO but he shouldn't be suspended for it. Although the two go hand and hand unfortunately. I don't think it was intentional. And based on Lucic's past history (or lack there of) I think it's safe to say it was a fluke incident. Let's put it this way, a player like Derek Dorsett is much more likely to intentionally knee an opposing player.

They had the hit on the highlights for the news, and it was a clear knee on knee.

Now Lucic didnt throw his knee out, but he also didnt attempt to move to avoid the knee on knee either.

I would say 1 game maybe 2 game suspension for it, based on what the league has handed out for suspensions thus far this year. Any major thus far has been at least 1 game.

[Kassian]

I would say 1 game maybe 2 game suspension for it, based on what the league has handed out for suspensions thus far this year. Any major thus far has been at least 1 game.

Nothing so far. So I guess Lucic has lucked out.