Rebels / Ice

[hockey4]

Nice to see we can win games when were not on our game. Special teams were better, but we didnt seem on the ball like we were saturday. The shots defiently werent indicative of the game however, 80% of there shots were from the outside. what a pass though by mappin on that first goal. they will be exciting to watch (polak, mappin, ferraro)

What a change though, what we see out there is actually reflective on what we read in the paper the next day. half the time last year i would watch us play like crap, and then read that we were a good team.

thoughts on last night?

[sbtatter]

So there is life after Brandon Sutter!!!! Good for you guys, hope you don't have to again sit through the poor play that you did last year...

[Rebel66]

That was the type of game that the Rebels would have lost big time last season. It's nice to see them on the other side of the ledger. The Ice came to play and played a great road game. They deserved better but, hey, after last season we'll take it. We're due ten or so game like this.

I guess bottom line, they were lucky to win. Clark bailed them out and the Ice fluffed on probably 4 or 5 open nets. With that said, Ferraro scored a perfectly good goal that was missed by the official so the loss could have been worse for the Ice. Positives were a much improved special teams. I like the look of the PP and the PK were starting to be much more aggressive instead of that passive play that kills them.

First time for me seeing the scoreboard (I was away for the home opener). I was really impressed. It seems better than the NHL scoreboards I've seen. It's a great addition to the game night experience.

Good start to the season. I think that this team will continue to get better too.

[SectionNDeserter]

Doing some of the little things right this season is turning those close games we lost last season into wins. One thing I have noticed is that a number of our forwards, in particular Cass Mappin, are consistently beating the other team's defensemen to the dump-ins/icings. On top of that, they are winning a lot more faceoffs cleanly than their opponents thus far. Also a strong game from Tommi "Killer" Kivisto last night, he got an assist, and managed to keep his gloves on all night! :D

The shot clock belied the true flow of the game, as the Ice got a ton of very low percentage shots, from dump-ins etc, and missed the net a lot on wide open chances, and good scoring chances. I am going to have to start talking smack about some more of the shortcomings of certain Rebels on here, as not 2 days after I said that Polak could be backchecking a lot harder than he is, he was backchecking hard last night, and pretty much broke up a sure thing on an excellent backcheck.

Unless they changed the guidelines on how Penalty shots have been awarded this season without announcing it, Ryan Agar is the first incompetent official that I have seen so far this season. The Defenseman's stick was easily 6-8 inches away from any part of Sylvester's body when it tapped the puck off his stick, and the puck was probably probably already 2-3 feet away from him when he tripped and went into the goalie. Not even close to being a penalty, or a penalty shot. In my opinion, Clark had a shutout in that game--he can't be held responsible for the incompetence of the officials. I think Cowley felt bad for the Rebels after Agar's mind-boggling call, handing the Ice a slashing penalty that was ridiculous just after it.