Exhibition Games

[CanesCrazy]

How many of you are planning to make the drive out to Taber tonight for the game? Are you also planning on seeing them play next week on the west side?

[Stuck in the Penalty Box]

Guess you will not be the only Canes fan there. News from the Hurricanes is that they have signed both of their first round draft picks from 2011. They have just announced the signing of Pilon and Duke. Pilon is expected to play tonight and Duke on Wednesday. Great to have those two signed as they along with a great group of 95's will be the face of this franchise.

Chow for Now! yeehoo

[Stuck in the Penalty Box]

Slow start for the Canes tonight falling behind 3-0. But they seemed to find their game and got back into it before losing in the much hated shoot out.

Stat....Hitmen 3 20 year olds, 8 19 year olds, 1 16 year old. Canes 2 20 year olds, 3 19 year olds, 4 16 year olds and 1 14 year old played tonight.

I don't know about the rest of you who may have gone to the game, but from where I sat, the 14 year old Pilon played very solid smart defense. While #2 looked like he has not changed one bit. More give-aways and bad decisions make him look like a 14 year old. Might as well get the youngsters into the lineup and deal Ryckman, Kisuik and Oslanski.

Wow what a move by Juraj Bezuch in the shootout! Blomquist is going to become a fan fav....did not hesitate to come to a team-mates rescue!

Chow for now! yeehoo

[2speak4all]

Slow start for the Canes tonight falling behind 3-0. But they seemed to find their game and got back into it before losing in the much hated shoot out.

Stat....Hitmen 3 20 year olds, 8 19 year olds, 1 16 year old. Canes 2 20 year olds, 3 19 year olds, 4 16 year olds and 1 14 year old played tonight.

I don't know about the rest of you who may have gone to the game, but from where I sat, the 14 year old Pilon played very solid smart defense. While #2 looked like he has not changed one bit. More give-aways and bad decisions make him look like a 14 year old. Might as well get the youngsters into the lineup and deal Ryckman, Kisuik and Oslanski.

Wow what a move by Juraj Bezuch in the shootout! Blomquist is going to become a fan fav....did not hesitate to come to a team-mates rescue!

Chow for now! yeehoo

Not sure what game you were at, but the one I saw all of them playing well, after the first period. This team is covering, learning and teaching how to play with each other. Just as you said, there were a lot of 16 and the '14' year old and I think they will work well together. All the d looked a little shaky, but for the first pre season they worked well. A lot of nerves and tension for a first pre season, but in a couple of more games they will learn each other style. The games in Crowsnest Pass should show a more confident and relaxed group.

[LethHnds]

Was at the game....and the first period was shaky as you would expect for a bunch of guys who have never played a game together going against a team that has 3 games under their belt. Young guys have speed and skill which is promising in the future and the giveaways and own zone play will improve. Team played with 4 D for more than half of the game as 2 D were tossed for fighting and Dan Johnston's end to end rush goal to make it 3-2 gave the team momentum. Veterans Fyten, Braes and Johnston looked strong and in mid season form and Bezuch,Merkly and I thought Guil were impressive, Pilon played well on D will be be really good in the years ahead. Lot's of positives for a first tilt.

[Caniac#5]

I was at the game last night. Overall, it was nice to see a team with very little experience playing together do quite well. The Ryckman comments have to stop though. Ryckman's play has been progressively improving from year to year. I do think it will be a tough year to wait for Pilon to get older and be on the roster full time. I do believe two D-men will need to be traded because we do have too many at the same age. Bloomquist will fit in well once he gets used to playing with the team due to his rugged style of play. Our forwards will be well off if the trio of 20 year olds return. Bezuch will be a nice compliment to the team because of his skill and willingness to back check. i can only see this team getting better in the next few years and I believe Rich Preston has done a great job with the draft picks. Remember, last night we played a Hitmen team that played two other games and used only one 16 year old on their roster. I did find it funny that the Hitmen used all returning players in the shootout. Lethbridge used all rookies.

[Gilligans]

I was there and thought basically the same. The first period was a little shaky, which was to be expected. I thought Pilon, Yakubowski, Juraj, and Merkley played very well for rookies. I didn't see Guile mutch, but he definately has speed if he can stay on his feet and not get pushed off the puck. The vets looked good, too bad about Fyten's leg. Hope he's not out for long. I thought Ryckman made some errors he shouldn't have made and Watson looked nervous. They have the skill though. Was Blomqvist -3 for the first three goals? Overall good come back and nice to see rookies get the shoot out's and not vets like Calgary did.

[Caniac#5]

I think he was -3 but he looked a little timid at first. I was hoping to see a little more of #18 Harper though. Playing with 4 D-men didn't help us but I was dissapointed that players fighting got a game. Is this because of 14 yr olds being on the ice with 20 yr olds?

[LethHnds]

any fight in an ex game is an automatic game misconduct....good rule given some of the size and skill discrepancy in the pre season

[Derek Sutton]

I think he was -3 but he looked a little timid at first. I was hoping to see a little more of #18 Harper though. Playing with 4 D-men didn't help us but I was dissapointed that players fighting got a game. Is this because of 14 yr olds being on the ice with 20 yr olds?

It's because that rule has been in place for pre season games for at least 15 yr's. It's also to discourage excesive fighting/ goonery that was a normalcy during the pre season.

[Caniac#5]

Makes sense for the safety of the younger players. Thanks for the input. Still looking forward to seeing how the boys gel in the upcoming games. It'll be intersting to see how they play once the older players go off to NHL camps. Fav moment last night was watching young Hitmen players yapping off to Fyten and Braes and the strength of Bloomqvist.

[HURRICANE'S ROCK]

Guess you will not be the only Canes fan there. News from the Hurricanes is that they have signed both of their first round draft picks from 2011. They have just announced the signing of Pilon and Duke. Pilon is expected to play tonight and Duke on Wednesday. Great to have those two signed as they along with a great group of 95's will be the face of this franchise.

Chow for Now! yeehoo

I agree with your last statement, but to go even further, let's hope these kids are so good they become THE FACE OF THE LEAGUE, nevermind the face of this franchise.

GO CANES - MEM CUP 2016 IN L.A

[Caniac#5]

5-0 loss to Red Deer tonight. Don't have any info on who played or sat due to the lack of wi-fi in the arena.

[LethHnds]

Was at the game and Canes looked rough outshot 37 -15 .....a good reminder that success this year will be on the backs of the veterans, Fyten Braes Sutter, Johnston Anderson etc who were not in the line up...first year in the WHL is tough for anyone, competition , travel etc....a good wake up call for the rookies that there is a lot of work ahead of them...

[grainbear]

Looking at the line ups for last night I see we had only 3 veterans in the line up Hood, Oslanski, and Kizuik whereas Red Deer had 11 veterans. Not surprised at the result when you look at that . Interesting that one of our smallest players Guieli was not afraid to drop the gloves. The youngsters are getting every opportunity to quickly learn what this level of hockey is all about. I expect somewhat a similar line up tonight in the Hat and then we should see some cuts of 3 or 4 players.As we get ready for the game Thursday at Nicholas Sheran. The crazy thing was that we had nothing on twitter last night during the game and I depended on The Red Deer twitter for updates, could the Canes not have at least made some sort of arrangements just a suggestion perhaps for when game is in smaller arenas with no means to link to web sites

[2speak4all]

And as for the lack of vets on the Red Deer, they have 6 guys off at Pro camp so they were playing without their top guns also. That all said, I wonder how that game played out. By the looks of the game sheet, Lethbridge spent a good portion of the game in the penalty box. A lot of penalties which is nothing short of what happened last year. If they can't learn to stay out of the box, you cant win a game playing most of the game 1 or 2 players short. With a 3-0 score early in the second, it looks like most of the penalties came for Roughing after that, so it appears maybe lots of pushing and shoving after the whistle. Lack of discipline and maybe frustration was setting in. I'm sure it was a valuable learning lesson for any one of the rookies trying to make the team, that it isn't a gravy run playing at this level.

[grainbear]

Sorry guys I missed Ramsay as a vet so that makes 4 but when you look at his playing time last year he is almost a rookie

[Caniac#5]

I also had to depend on the RD twitter for scores. The reason the Canes have no one to relay scores back to the Bridge is due to the season ticket pick up this Saturday. It would be nice to have a player relay the scores but, I'm sure they keep busy keeping stats and trying to learn from watching the game. Tonight will be a different story as I'm sure many will make the trip to the Hat to watch the game.

[jkanes]

Ouch. Why must we suck so much. 9-0 med hat after 2. Etem with 5 points. Hopefully he stays up in anaheim this year. Good thing it's the preseason..... :confused: :dead: :burningmad:

[grainbear]

Once again we are not ready to play, very similar to last year. Yes it is preseason and we are down 6-0 . We then try to fight our way and end up missing players for the game. We are told we are building on speed and skill but we are not seeing that on the ice. Other teams seem to be able to goat us into not playing our game and then we try the rough stuff and guys like Etam simply leaving us standing looking at them beating our young goal tenders and flying by our d-men both young and old. Please Mr. Preston not the same we need to start building confidence and you must get these guys ready before the game. Whether you like it or not they are not pros and it falls back even in exhibition to have them ready even if it is 3 games in 3 nights . I think the fact that the Canes are not starting until a week after most teams is extremely bad . Spend the money and give us a winner and we will once again fill the rink as in the past. However, I will still be there but not the majority of our town.

[Caniac#5]

Once again we are not ready to play, very similar to last year. Yes it is preseason and we are down 6-0 . We then try to fight our way and end up missing players for the game. We are told we are building on speed and skill but we are not seeing that on the ice. Other teams seem to be able to goat us into not playing our game and then we try the rough stuff and guys like Etam simply leaving us standing looking at them beating our young goal tenders and flying by our d-men both young and old. Please Mr. Preston not the same we need to start building confidence and you must get these guys ready before the game. Whether you like it or not they are not pros and it falls back even in exhibition to have them ready even if it is 3 games in 3 nights . I think the fact that the Canes are not starting until a week after most teams is extremely bad . Spend the money and give us a winner and we will once again fill the rink as in the past. However, I will still be there but not the majority of our town.




I think the lackluster start may have had something to do with the boys being out in the sun at the season ticket pick up. Maybe it wasn't the best idea in the world but, I believe it was a good idea to have some of the players on hand. We're still looking at a very young team here that hasn't played much hockey together. I don't think this trend will continue however, I do think we need the leadership of our 20 year olds. I'm not giving up on our goalies yet but, I think we might need to Trade two 19 year old D-men and get a proven goalie.

[Trav]

I think the lackluster start may have had something to do with the boys being out in the sun at the season ticket pick up. Maybe it wasn't the best idea in the world but, I believe it was a good idea to have some of the players on hand. We're still looking at a very young team here that hasn't played much hockey together. I don't think this trend will continue however, I do think we need the leadership of our 20 year olds. I'm not giving up on our goalies yet but, I think we might need to Trade two 19 year old D-men and get a proven goalie.

You guys have Anderson, he's a pretty decent goaltender.

[Caniac#5]

Anderson will be the starter for sure. Some of the games he's played in he's left us in a bad spot after letting in some bad goals.

[ZAMBONI-PHONEY]

The Hurricanes have traded a conditional 5th round draft pick (2012) to Regina for overage goaltender Damien Kleto. Apparently the Canes are looking for depth at that position (Kovacs not ready?). This will give the Canes 4 overages including Sutter, Braes, Fyten and Kleto. Maybe the Canes brass is worried about losing Sutter or Fyten to the pro ranks. It will be interesting to see who is dropped before Wednesday's game and who dresses for that game. Preston might be forced to play as many veterans as possible in order bring up the confidence level. Mind you, with Sutter, Fyten, Anderson and Jackson at pro camps, Tot and Soffilas out with concussions (Tot closer to coming back than Soffilas (who could be out a long time) it limits the number of veterans in the lineup.

Let's hope Wednesday's rematch with the Tigers is better.

Hit the road Jack! :bowdown:

[canes77]

I think the lackluster start may have had something to do with the boys being out in the sun at the season ticket pick up. Maybe it wasn't the best idea in the world but, I believe it was a good idea to have some of the players on hand.

Good point - it was great for public relations, but not the best idea in terms of game preparation, especially before the 90 min bus ride. The only positive was that the Canes one rookie line wasn't in the minus column like the rest of the players were. And keep in mind that NHL'er Etem was on the ice for 6 of the 10 goals for them.

[2speak4all]

Game looked good by all players. Med Hat dressed 9 vets and 7 rookies and Leth dressed 12 rookies and 6 vets. In a game with the score 3-2, I think the team played very well. Should we get a few more vets into the line up on a permanent basis, IMO the team should do decent enough. It also allows for the younger rookies to get into games and build up speed, knowledge and confidence to play more regularly.

Friday's game likely wont be a good result in Cane's favor as they have a more mature roster. Hopefully Saturday's game with Calgary will be more comparable.

[Caniac#5]

Glad to see the boys got together in the pass for the first game. In the second game received the wrong score from the teams twitter account and I thought the team was doing well. Not enough info was sent from the game anyway but I'll be glad when the games get broadcast on the radio. At least Pat doesn't screw up the score.