Embarrassed in P.A.

[dubnut]

No, not even the game...with what the coach inferred in a PRINCE ALBERT pre game interview. Embarrassed for Red Deer that a coach will demean his own player in public in an opposing town, on radio before the game has even begun. Reimer has just come through some of his best hockey this season, plays from what I have heard, injured and shouldn't even dress let alone play. The coach did not take the opportunity when it was given to speak to Reimer's recent successes choosing rather to infer disappointment overall. Apparently the same thing in Swift Current if Jon Keen's article is accurate. Why was he not traded if the club does not have confidence in their starting tender?...:confused: I heard it on PA radio...anyone in PA care to comment? I didn't listen to the whole game, may have missed something.

Atleast one trade is a positive for Red Deer. Troy Ofukany is definitely getting his chances with this team and doing well.

[eye4aneye]

Well the good news for you though is that there were no goals scored on you in the 3rd.

maybe your coach was trying to use the psycology thing and it back fired. There were alot of penalities in the game as well, always seems to be that way when their is 2 refs...not sure why that is :laugh:

We feel your pain, another instance of adapting to the new rules a little late. Next year will be better for everyone!

[RebelsFan]

The game last night did not see a whole lot of penalties that were due to the rule changes. Most were the old fashioned slashing, roughing, tripping and hooking. The hooking penalties called were the obvious kind, not the new fangled " horizontal stick making contact" kind. The new rules have been relaxed to the point were I no longer think the effect the outcome of the game like they did when they first came in a couple of years ago. To say that either of these teams is struggling due to not adapting to the new rules is not entirely correct. I think it is a down cycle for both teams when they don't have the amount of skill that some of the other teams have.
Neither PA nor Red Deer is laden with big, tough, slow moving players (unlike I think the Blades, who I believe are that). PA and Red Deer both have older players on forward who are underachieving. There is no reason, with the players that the Rebels have up front, that they should be losing as much as they are. The problem lies on the back end. With the departure of Jackson, Kot, Stebner, Morin, from the beginning of the year to now. Lots has changed back there but nothing has changed. Egener and Scarborough still eating up a ton of minutes. Louis and Valach, Louis was an awesome pickup but can have bad stretches in a game and Valach is not physically present for his size. Weller is very young and I think Archer works very hard but just does not have the skills. PA's defence is very young and our forwards are about equal, yet we lose 6-2. And don't say it was goal tending. The goals that were scored on Reimer were not "easy shots that he should have had". There was a ton of traffic in front of the Rebel net all night. Yes, our size on D has increased greatly but our use of that size hasn't!

[hky4life]

As to Reimers injury...he is still suffering from that high ankle sprain before christmas. The same kind of injury that Fluery (from the pens) has and he is still not back and he sustained his injury before Reimer did. Doc said this kind of injury would take about 3 months to heal without playing during that time. Apparently the Rebels are feeding him pain killers and telling him to get in net. None the less we just got pillaged by a team pretty much equal to us. I am speechless. Maybe we should start a fund to send the sutters back to coaching/managing clinics.

[WHL Rules]

As to Reimers injury...he is still suffering from that high ankle sprain before christmas. The same kind of injury that Fluery (from the pens) has and he is still not back and he sustained his injury before Reimer did. Doc said this kind of injury would take about 3 months to heal without playing during that time. Apparently the Rebels are feeding him pain killers and telling him to get in net. None the less we just got pillaged by a team pretty much equal to us. I am speechless. Maybe we should start a fund to send the sutters back to coaching/managing clinics.

Since you have so much inside knowledge maybe you can clear some things up for me.
First, why are the Rebels forcing Reimer to play when, according to yourself, he shouldn't play. I mean there is no way that the Rebels will make it to the POs. Funny thing is, I didn't hear you complain just a week ago when he won POW or does he only feel the pain when he plays bad?
Second, James Reimer isn't a little kid anymore. He is a 19 years old, drafted prospect, so maybe, if he is not fit to play, he should stand up for himself. I'm pretty sure the Maple Leafs don't want their goods getting damaged by the reckless behavior of a junior hockey team (forcing him to play with an injury) either.

[rebelfan]

Since you have so much inside knowledge maybe you can clear some things up for me.
First, why are the Rebels forcing Reimer to play when, according to yourself, he shouldn't play. I mean there is no way that the Rebels will make it to the POs. Funny thing is, I didn't hear you complain just a week ago when he won POW or does he only feel the pain when he plays bad?
Second, James Reimer isn't a little kid anymore. He is a 19 years old, drafted prospect, so maybe, if he is not fit to play, he should stand up for himself. I'm pretty sure the Maple Leafs don't want their goods getting damaged by the reckless behavior of a junior hockey team (forcing him to play with an injury) either.

Unfortunately, WHL Rules, life tends to be just a bit more complicated than that. He missed a ton of games in early December due to the injury(& the team didn't do too well in that stretch)..had a long Christmas break that was supposed to heal it up. It didn't and he was told to play through the pain and keep stopping pucks as if he was Superman with a magic rock. Just freeze the ankle, pop the pills, hold up that glove and blocker and the pucks will be smoking as they melt the ice in reverse!? The one legged Goaltender tried and still won Player of the week before his game (and leg) collapsed. You have to wonder about coaches who play their kids hurt just to squeeze the last bit of usefulness all the while degrading their effort to the press, not only at home but on the road as well. No credit given to the kid who swallowed his dream of contending for a Memorial Cup, who said he was glad to stay and help the worst team in the conference get back on their feet. A little support from the coaching staff would certainly be in order I think.

You are certainly right on about the reckless behaviour, WHL Rules.

[WestLEAFfan]

I too found Sutter's comments regarding his goaltender somewhat harsh. There are better ways to motivate. Other than that, Sutter is sure good for a chuckle in his interviews.

[WHL Rules]

Unfortunately, WHL Rules, life tends to be just a bit more complicated than that. He missed a ton of games in early December due to the injury(& the team didn't do too well in that stretch)..had a long Christmas break that was supposed to heal it up. It didn't and he was told to play through the pain and keep stopping pucks as if he was Superman with a magic rock. Just freeze the ankle, pop the pills, hold up that glove and blocker and the pucks will be smoking as they melt the ice in reverse!? The one legged Goaltender tried and still won Player of the week before his game (and leg) collapsed. You have to wonder about coaches who play their kids hurt just to squeeze the last bit of usefulness all the while degrading their effort to the press, not only at home but on the road as well. No credit given to the kid who swallowed his dream of contending for a Memorial Cup, who said he was glad to stay and help the worst team in the conference get back on their feet. A little support from the coaching staff would certainly be in order I think.

You are certainly right on about the reckless behaviour, WHL Rules.

No offense, but I know that life is a little bit more complicated. :p
But seriously I find yours and hky4life's comments about Reimer a little bit amusing. A week ago Reimer was fantastic and now you tell me he was injured back then too? Why didn't anyone post about it back then? All the talk was about how he, now that he is over his injury, can after all play up to his potential and now that he had some bad games again it is all the coaches and the teams fault because he is injured? Sorry, but I don't buy this. Oh and there are enough examples of players opting for treatment against the wishes of their teams (Fiala of the Silvertips comes to my mind) and I'm sure if he is really injured and shouldn't play the Leafs would support his decision.

[Rebel66]

I didn't hear the pre-game interview so cannot comment on that. I have heard some previous Sutter comments about Reimer that made me raise my eyebrows however. I'm not sure what his problem with the player is.

I do, however, find it incredible to believe that the Rebels would force a badly injured player to play irregardless of that injury. If they were in a tight race for the playoffs then maybe, just maybe, a team does that. Perhaps I'm naive but given that the Rebels are light years, and then some, off the pace that's a tough pill to swallow. There does seem to be lot's of informed insiders around here only too willing to diss the Rebels management and owner though so, who knows, perhaps these people are as bad as portrayed. Reimer, if injured as you say, should refuse to play, call his agent, call the Leafs, walk out on the team, any of those if it is jeopardizing his health/career in any way.

[Dwight Schrute]

what did sutter say

[rebelfan]

A week ago Reimer was fantastic and now you tell me he was injured back then too? Why didn't anyone post about it back then? All the talk was about how he, now that he is over his injury, can after all play up to his potential and now that he had some bad games again it is all the coaches and the teams fault because he is injured? Sorry, but I don't buy this. Oh and there are enough examples of players opting for treatment against the wishes of their teams (Fiala of the Silvertips comes to my mind) and I'm sure if he is really injured and shouldn't play the Leafs would support his decision.

What did Fjiala do? Why not post about the injury? Maybe everyone was just hoping he could play through it..also you don't see a lot of teams advertising their players injuries when they play them inspite of it, especially in hostile rinks. Besides if a Sutter says you are okay to play, you play unless you want a free trip home. I'm guessing for Reimer to go directly against team directives and go for help outside of the team's medical advise would sooner incur Toronto's wrath than support. Hockey is pretty much an old boy's club. You made the comment "Reimer is 19 years old." May I inject the word 'only' in that sentence. These boys have huge dreams and sometimes you have to act on their behalf to keep them from doing stupid things...like playing hurt. Something the team doesn't seem to want to do in this case. I don't have all the information, just made my observations as the season has unfolded. Maybe the team wasn't aware of the severity of the injury. Reimer may have downplayed it. Maybe his play of late is also related to something else. I don't know. It just seems unfair to see his coach on his case like that when all these things are in the mix. And contradictory when they just refused to trade what they considered a high commodity. I agree with another poster who said there are other ways to motivate.

[Billy's Got A Gun!]

I find it hard to believe that the Rebels would force a player to play in a situation where the injury is so serious that the player may risk injuring himself even worse. Or else being forced to play in a situation where he is virtually unable to play without a lot of pain and is hurting his team, not helping them. Reimer is in the lineup and playing because the injury is not severe enough that he cannot play through it. I don't think that this bad stretch of games can be blamed on any injury!

[rebelfan]

I find it hard to believe that the Rebels would force a player to play in a situation where the injury is so serious that the player may risk injuring himself even worse. Or else being forced to play in a situation where he is virtually unable to play without a lot of pain and is hurting his team, not helping them. Reimer is in the lineup and playing because the injury is not severe enough that he cannot play through it. I don't think that this bad stretch of games can be blamed on any injury!

You are probably more right than wrong. He looked good tonight although if you watch him closely he seems to have changed his style somewhat lately, probably to compensate for the injury. A little slower getting up as well. Noticed he was run over oftener today and wonder if MH was trying to take advantage of his injury.