dondo
12-31-2009, 01:27 AM
Last game of 2009 and we can only hope that this is the kind of game they have made a resolution of which to rid themselves. The boys were crap throughout the line-up. What brief bright spots they had in the game, were quickly eclipsed by poor turnovers, bad face-offs and sub-par effort. It disappoints me to see the guys bring this kind of game to the rink, especially against the worst team in the dub this season.
I have to feel for Craig losing what I heard was four teeth. I'm not even sure how it happened, just saw a couple of gloves and and an abandoned stick laying on the ice, then didn't see Cunner on the ice for over a period. Good to see Svendsen finally driving the net with the puck, if he can bring that to his game with more consistency he might break himself out of his point slump and begin to produce regularly.
Cougars Smash Giants
Vancouver 1 Prince George 4
Don Robinson
They are the worst team in the dub this season by a large margin. They are missing top sniper Brett Connolly with yet another injury. They struggle versus most teams and were crushed but tonight they looked like a top contender because the Giants made them look that way. I have never seen a game where one of the Giants showed up to play and apart from isolated moments here and there to a man they all crapped the bed. Lance Bouma was out of the line-up with the flu. Craig Cunningham lost some chiclets early in the first and wasn’t seen again until late in the second sporting a birdcage. The Giants lost the majority of face-offs, could not complete even the simplest of passes, allowing themselves to be worked off the puck easily as melting butter skimming across a sizzling skillet. The Cougars used their speed and size and they played a simple game. The hockey itself was horrific and no blame can be laid on the refs or any one player, because they lost as a team a game they should have lost. Oddly the game was tied 1-1 heading into the third, but the home squad continued to bobble the puck and stand around. The Cougars scored three unanswered off of bad turnovers and extremely poor defensive coverage by the Giants in their end of the ice.
The Cougars scored on their first shift of the game. Brook Hirsche found the twine, when the Giants turned over the puck and allowed a shot where Mark Segal must have thought he had it as he did not cross the net to cover where the puck had gone. When he realized the puck was loose he threw himself across the net only to have the puck squirt into the open for Hirsche. It was the kind of goal that makes you shake your head and was indicative of the kind of effort the Giants would put forth for the rest of the game. The only bright spot of the entire game for the home team was when Sebastian Svendsen finally decided to go to the net with the puck. His individual effort from behind the goal-line allowed him to muscle the puck past Hudson Stremmel, who did not have to be good tonight, but was solid between the pipes keeping his rebounds to a minimum. Brandon Scholten and Garret Thiessen dropped the mitts for a brief bout after Scholten had taken a poor penalty. Even normally rock solid James Henry had some seriously poor give-aways in the first. Combine the fact that the Giants could not win a face-off and things just got worse.
Neither team were ready to play in the second, sitting back and failing to bring their game to other guy’s zone. Each team had five shots on net in the middle frame, with the Giants getting a gift count as the buzzer went when Stremmel made a blocker save on a puck that was going a good three feet wide of the net. Scholten took three dumb penalties in the game, but the Giants didn’t play hard enough to either draw nor take penalties. The Giants only two PP opportunities came in the second where they failed to get shots and were too busy looking for that perfect play even though the puck was bouncing around like a superball whenever they tried to make a pass. Lots of extra meaningless passing, no point shots and a complete failure to take advantage of the seams left for them. The Cougars were aggressive on the puck and challenged the Giants points, but the G’s seemed to be passing through molasses for the majority of the evening. They were soft like marshmallows and could not cycle the puck intelligently at all, passing back either into traffic or to a covered man. The Cats brought a fairly physical game and although the Giants didn’t get completely man-handled they didn’t give it back much either.
The home squad were lucky to be tied going into the third, but then brought an even worse effort to the fore. They lacked any kind of puck support and when they had some they were bunched together and easily extinguished. Normally solid players were making dumb plays. Other players were coughing up the puck badly. The Cougars looked like elite players out there, skating easily through the Giants defenders and passing around players who were mostly standing around, occasionally waving their sticks now and again. Alex Rodgers got a measure of revenge versus his old team, tallying two nice assists, setting up Nick Buonassisi and then making a nice cross crease pass on the PP (with David Musil merely swinging his stick at Rodgers shin opening the low pass) to find a wide-open pinching James Dobrowolski. Dobrowlski made it 4-1 a couple of minutes after that off of Buonassisi. That line garnered all three stars and were the best players on the ice on either team.
The Giants spent the final 6 minutes scrambling purposelessly, failing to seriously go to the net or get a pass to connect. To be blunt they sucked, bringing a completely unacceptable level of play to the rink. It could have been one of those games and the Cougars were probably pretty hungry after dropping a 6-1 decision to the Bruins last night, but none of the Giants showed up to play in a game that should have been an easy two points. Probably the most solid player for the G’s was Nolan Toigo, one of the few Giants players to not commit a turnover.
The Giants barely out shot their opponents 31-28 padding their shot totals late in the first and third periods. The Cougars went 1 for 4 on the PP, while the Giants went 0 for 2 and could possibly have failed to get even a single shot on either of those chances. Segal was okay, but was hung out to dry a few times. He never made a great stop and Stremmel at the other end made only one really nice save, robbing JT Barnett with a quick glove as it appeared Barnett had a wide-open cage to shoot at. Gotta credit Cunningham for coming back in this one after losing some teeth, strapping on the full cage and getting back out onto the ice. His game was a bit tentative, which is understandable as he was probably in a hell of a lot of pain. Really, the only heart and soul positive to come out of this game.
The Giants have a day off, hopefully ridding their dressing room of the flu bug, before taking on the, slightly slumping but always dangerous, Spokane Chiefs on Saturday and the hungry for pay-back Kelowna Rockets on Sunday. They cannot fail to show up in either of those contests or they will be fishing the puck out of their net with great frequency. Its rare that the boys to a man all have such a bad game, so I expect the compete level to be back up for the weekend. The puck on Saturday drops at 7pm PST and will be the first tilt of the New Year. Let’s hope they’ve left their soft game back in 2009.
Three Stars
1. Nick Buonassisi
2. James Dobrowolski
3. Alex Rodgers
I have to feel for Craig losing what I heard was four teeth. I'm not even sure how it happened, just saw a couple of gloves and and an abandoned stick laying on the ice, then didn't see Cunner on the ice for over a period. Good to see Svendsen finally driving the net with the puck, if he can bring that to his game with more consistency he might break himself out of his point slump and begin to produce regularly.
Cougars Smash Giants
Vancouver 1 Prince George 4
Don Robinson
They are the worst team in the dub this season by a large margin. They are missing top sniper Brett Connolly with yet another injury. They struggle versus most teams and were crushed but tonight they looked like a top contender because the Giants made them look that way. I have never seen a game where one of the Giants showed up to play and apart from isolated moments here and there to a man they all crapped the bed. Lance Bouma was out of the line-up with the flu. Craig Cunningham lost some chiclets early in the first and wasn’t seen again until late in the second sporting a birdcage. The Giants lost the majority of face-offs, could not complete even the simplest of passes, allowing themselves to be worked off the puck easily as melting butter skimming across a sizzling skillet. The Cougars used their speed and size and they played a simple game. The hockey itself was horrific and no blame can be laid on the refs or any one player, because they lost as a team a game they should have lost. Oddly the game was tied 1-1 heading into the third, but the home squad continued to bobble the puck and stand around. The Cougars scored three unanswered off of bad turnovers and extremely poor defensive coverage by the Giants in their end of the ice.
The Cougars scored on their first shift of the game. Brook Hirsche found the twine, when the Giants turned over the puck and allowed a shot where Mark Segal must have thought he had it as he did not cross the net to cover where the puck had gone. When he realized the puck was loose he threw himself across the net only to have the puck squirt into the open for Hirsche. It was the kind of goal that makes you shake your head and was indicative of the kind of effort the Giants would put forth for the rest of the game. The only bright spot of the entire game for the home team was when Sebastian Svendsen finally decided to go to the net with the puck. His individual effort from behind the goal-line allowed him to muscle the puck past Hudson Stremmel, who did not have to be good tonight, but was solid between the pipes keeping his rebounds to a minimum. Brandon Scholten and Garret Thiessen dropped the mitts for a brief bout after Scholten had taken a poor penalty. Even normally rock solid James Henry had some seriously poor give-aways in the first. Combine the fact that the Giants could not win a face-off and things just got worse.
Neither team were ready to play in the second, sitting back and failing to bring their game to other guy’s zone. Each team had five shots on net in the middle frame, with the Giants getting a gift count as the buzzer went when Stremmel made a blocker save on a puck that was going a good three feet wide of the net. Scholten took three dumb penalties in the game, but the Giants didn’t play hard enough to either draw nor take penalties. The Giants only two PP opportunities came in the second where they failed to get shots and were too busy looking for that perfect play even though the puck was bouncing around like a superball whenever they tried to make a pass. Lots of extra meaningless passing, no point shots and a complete failure to take advantage of the seams left for them. The Cougars were aggressive on the puck and challenged the Giants points, but the G’s seemed to be passing through molasses for the majority of the evening. They were soft like marshmallows and could not cycle the puck intelligently at all, passing back either into traffic or to a covered man. The Cats brought a fairly physical game and although the Giants didn’t get completely man-handled they didn’t give it back much either.
The home squad were lucky to be tied going into the third, but then brought an even worse effort to the fore. They lacked any kind of puck support and when they had some they were bunched together and easily extinguished. Normally solid players were making dumb plays. Other players were coughing up the puck badly. The Cougars looked like elite players out there, skating easily through the Giants defenders and passing around players who were mostly standing around, occasionally waving their sticks now and again. Alex Rodgers got a measure of revenge versus his old team, tallying two nice assists, setting up Nick Buonassisi and then making a nice cross crease pass on the PP (with David Musil merely swinging his stick at Rodgers shin opening the low pass) to find a wide-open pinching James Dobrowolski. Dobrowlski made it 4-1 a couple of minutes after that off of Buonassisi. That line garnered all three stars and were the best players on the ice on either team.
The Giants spent the final 6 minutes scrambling purposelessly, failing to seriously go to the net or get a pass to connect. To be blunt they sucked, bringing a completely unacceptable level of play to the rink. It could have been one of those games and the Cougars were probably pretty hungry after dropping a 6-1 decision to the Bruins last night, but none of the Giants showed up to play in a game that should have been an easy two points. Probably the most solid player for the G’s was Nolan Toigo, one of the few Giants players to not commit a turnover.
The Giants barely out shot their opponents 31-28 padding their shot totals late in the first and third periods. The Cougars went 1 for 4 on the PP, while the Giants went 0 for 2 and could possibly have failed to get even a single shot on either of those chances. Segal was okay, but was hung out to dry a few times. He never made a great stop and Stremmel at the other end made only one really nice save, robbing JT Barnett with a quick glove as it appeared Barnett had a wide-open cage to shoot at. Gotta credit Cunningham for coming back in this one after losing some teeth, strapping on the full cage and getting back out onto the ice. His game was a bit tentative, which is understandable as he was probably in a hell of a lot of pain. Really, the only heart and soul positive to come out of this game.
The Giants have a day off, hopefully ridding their dressing room of the flu bug, before taking on the, slightly slumping but always dangerous, Spokane Chiefs on Saturday and the hungry for pay-back Kelowna Rockets on Sunday. They cannot fail to show up in either of those contests or they will be fishing the puck out of their net with great frequency. Its rare that the boys to a man all have such a bad game, so I expect the compete level to be back up for the weekend. The puck on Saturday drops at 7pm PST and will be the first tilt of the New Year. Let’s hope they’ve left their soft game back in 2009.
Three Stars
1. Nick Buonassisi
2. James Dobrowolski
3. Alex Rodgers