Giants 1 @ Blazers 2 Jan 26th (SO)

[Beaner]

Sounded like a good game tonight, but from what I heard the Giants still seemed to have problems in their own zone tonight. Sexsmith seemed to play well, stopping a number of good chances for the Blazers. I'll leave the rest of the commentary for the people who watched the game live and on the net and TV.

NOTES
Sexsmith and butler got the starts
Wright, Cunningham, and Bouma were the Giants scratches
Blazersd had 1 "no goal" during the game.
Shots 25-20 Blazers
PP's Giants 1/4, Blazers 1/3

GOALS
1. KAM Puustinen, (25) (Jorgensen, Ellerby), 7:14 (PP) 5-4, Puustinen gets his own rebound and he pots it far post along the ice.
1. VAN Lucic, (20) (Repik, Franson), 9:12 (PP) 5-4, Lucic gets #20, after he gets the rebound and he puts it high glove side.

SHOOT-OUT
McArdle - Save - Pad save
Puustinen - GOAL - 5-hole
Rabbit - Miss - Shoots- wide
Jorgensen - Save - Glove save
Watt - Save - Pad Save

OFFICIATING
Matsuoka, seemd to let the boys play, but the PP call in the third sounded weak.

3 STARS
1. KAM - 5 Keaton Ellerby
2. VAN - 29 Tyson Sexsmith
3. KAM - 6 Ryan White

[Swando]

Basically Kamloops was the better team tonight. It seems a reverse roll from last year where we'd win the close ones. The Giants looked out of sync and short passes went astray, a few cough ups again (Mikellsen & Kraus) but Sexsmith held the fort. Close checking affair but we had very few scoring chances and I mean very few. Kamloops didn't have that many more but seemed to have more jump and out hit and out chanced us plus out shot us .

Hay changed up the lines in the 3rd to try get things going but to know avail. I will say this we looked pathetic in our shoot out attempts.

[Carebear]

I so totally called it on sexsmith about to start playing much better! :laugh: :) dancing pi

[rinkrat]

Pathetic :(

[Knuckles Muldoon]

It would appear that the Giant style we've come to know and love (great forecheck, keeping it clean in our own end) is gone for good. We are now left with a different team. The former strengths are no longer there.
It's clear what has happened. Bonner looked at what happened in last year's MemCup and came away with one conclusion: the Giants didn't have enough firepower up front. Apart from Brule and some help from Bartley, not enough guys were generating offense. Kraus didn't score, Repik didn't score after the opening minute of game 1, Lamb didn't score, Watt didn't score, Machacek didn't score, Lucic didn't score, Reese didn't score, Bliznak didn't score. To compensate, Bonner clearly decided to load up on proven scoring talent so the situation would not repeat itself in this year's MC. In come McArdle and Rabbit. The makeup has changed and the lunch-bucket ethic is nowhere to be seen. It's been months since the Giants have played more than one or two solid games in a row. This is what happens when they look around the dressing room, see all the talent available, and then figure the talent will win at the expense of work. It's not real surprising. This happens at hockey on all levels, so its no surprise that a bunch of kids would fall into the trap, too. What happened when the 4 players were gone to the WJC? The team worked hard. They won some, they lost some. But they worked hard every game. The 16 yo's contributed, the team played safe and smart in their own end and the fact that a lot of talent was missing was only a minor inconvenience. Now with everybody back, its a country club. Hay has a major rehabilitation project on his hands. Can he do it? Sure. Will he do it? Time will tell. But it's clear to me: the style we've gotten used to is gone. And that really bothers me. It would appear Hay and Bonner at this point in time have out-smarted themselves.
As for the game, it was embarrassing to see how badly the Giants were outskated by the 'Loops. They are getting outskated by everyone these days. Everett and Tri-Cities did them, too. A once-solid defence is now a very shaky unit. The PP sucks. They're getting out-hit, out-shot and out-chanced.
Kamloops should have won that game about 5-1. After a tongue-lashing, Franson played only slightly better and Mikkelson not at all. As for the forwards, we seem to have a lot of guys who are in no hurry to step up. Repik has done zilch since returning from WJC. McArdle isn't doing much. Watt is being Watt. Machacek is back to being Mr. Invisible. Czibere couldn't score off the end of the pier. Rabbit is drying up, too. The only heavy up front doing his job on a regular basis is Lucic, who battles every game.
The team now plays a weak schedule for a while. PA, Portland, Kelowna (x2) and PG are ahead before we play a good team again. That in itself is depressing. While it gives the team a chance to get some things together and win a few, the Giants fate is not going to be measured by these teams. I know we can beat Kelowna and Portland. We need some success against good teams and that won't be coming for two weeks minimum. Depressing indeed.

[N.W. Bruin]

They started terrible but since Jesse Deckert rejoined them from the BC Hockey League they have been on a tear. In fact they were well behind Moose Jaw, Saskatoon and Regina in the east division.

[Beaner]

Im not sure what is going on but we just seem to be finding ways to lose right now.

Get good goaltending can't score, score a bunch of goals get sub-par goaltending, get good goaltending and good offesnse the D lets us down.

The team is in a slump, big time. From top to bottom. Not sure what Hay has to do to get the boys out of it, but something needs to be done.

I guess the only good thing right is we get to play a few of the lower ranked teams now to try and maybe get some kind of confidence back. That and 6 of the next 7 are at a home.

At this point a win is a win, doesn't matter who we beat, the team just needs to start winning again to regain some kind of confidence.

[rinkrat]

One component the team really misses is Mark Fistric.We have no big strong stay at home D man.He was very underrated.
Also make a pass for goodness sake! Its pathetic to watch our D fumble and bumble the puck and not able to make a simple beer league pass.
I tried to put on a positive spin for a long time but enough is enough and its time to park Mikkelson or Franson and send a freakin' message.

[Swando]

With so much media attention early on for a lot of the Giants I wonder if their heads got bigger than their hearts. Definelty miss the Fistric type guy back there but not to many have that type either. Rabbit stepped up and stood up for Kraus to show a little leadership but that was about it. No use Lucic setting the tone as he is our best forward at times. Wacheral definetly should be sat and rotated with the Wright's and Cunninghams as he has shown us nothing. I think that this might play on the others minds as well as he came here for Lamb( sort of). Tough times ahead especially when you're garanteed a ticket to the show!!

[scamperdog]

Watching the Giants in the pregame last night, I thought some of the players looked nervous, the team was going through the motions but it did not look like there was alot of chatter between players, In this game as in the last one here it often looks like they are looking over there shoulders, worried about getting hit, this game as the last one here was mostly played along the boards and it was very seldom the Giants were winning the battles, I have also notice in the four games the teams have played that I have been to, as long as the Blazers use there speed the Giants can't match it, but if the Giants slow the pace down then they are the better team.
As for Sexsmith last night, he was by far your best player, he was the one Giant focused on the game