dondo
01-05-2012, 05:05 PM
Hitmen Hunt Giants
Vancouver 4 Calgary 6 EN
I couldn’t write this last night as I was so livid I would have done nothing but swear uncontrollably. Suffice to say this was not acceptable by any of the Giants in my mind and a game they could and should have won was squandered with lazy poor play, dumb choices and a complete lack of emotion. Goals came easy (very), goalies were weak and defensive coverage was beyond porous. Even Martinook who had two goals, played hard shifts for five minutes of the first and five minutes of the third, for the rest he was invisible. Even if the boys had pulled out a win I would still have slammed them for simply not showing up.
Opportunities were squandered, reffing was soft, inconsistent and mind-bending at times. The G’s opened the scoring 40 seconds into the first and added another one. They then proceeded to sit back and send in one forechecker. They were burned by a 15 year old on a break-away and a bad defensive read on the PP. They coughed up another defensive breakdown goal early in the second, which was about 9 shots in on Adam Morrison. Brodyn Nielsen got that back using his speed and cutting into the slot. It stayed that way until past the mid-way point of the third, when yet another bad defensive breakdown had the puck in the back of the Giants net. Henry made a nice feed from the behind the net to find Martinook to tie the game back up at 4’s. Another really easy goal just over a minute later put the visitors up by 1. A very late EN goal sealed the deal. The goal was scored from behind the Calgary goal-line and flipped down the ice, finding the net – a low percentage play that often results in an icing call, but the player was wide-open with no pressure at all so he took the shot and won the gamble. Dumb game, dumb hockey and even a couple of fights didn’t raise the temperature in the building above tepid. Add-in the Giants bad habit of sending in one forechecker and then sitting back and getting beat through the neutral zone and you have a snoozer’s snoozer despite what the box score says.
The Giants opened the scoring 39 seconds in. Jordan Martinook ripped one far-side on Chris Driedger. Alex Kuvaev got the lone assist. Neil Manning added one on the PP, ripping a puck from the top of the left face-off circle and finding twine. Matt Bellerive and James Henry with the helpers. Calgary added two before the end of the period, one even strength and one on the PP, to tie the game going into the first intermission. Calgary added another early in the middle frame, taking the momentum of a bogus carry-over PP to get the goal. Nielsen scored a few minutes later, creating a turnover and then going to the slot. Levi Bews and Taylor Makin got the assists. The Hitmen added one at 13:47 of the third to take back the lead. Martinook got that back just over a minute later, when he decided to make a reappearance on the ice. Some good work down low by Alex Kuvaev, who had some damage to his teeth/jaw on a roughing call earlier and was now sporting a full cage, and Henry garnered the assists. Calgary matched that just after another minute and added a late empty netter to salt away the game.
Rookie Watch: Reid Zalitach (15) – defenseman, full cage, played a pretty solid game, noticed in a good way and one of the few bright spots, not huge, but played big. Kulak (17) had a rough night, his plus/minus was okay, but he got beat to the puck constantly and lost more than a few races down the ice. Probably one of his worst games imo, seemed completely out of step. Bellerive (17) should be more effective than he is, looks really good out there at times, but doesn’t seem to have that finish and instinct yet. Sward (17) ditto Bellerive, some good hits, but he’s another player that needs to be better more often. Nielsen (17), not sure why this guy wasn’t on the team from the start. He’s got better speed than most of the young Giants and can find the net. Scored only his first goal of his WHL career tonight (game #6 - 1 last season and this was his 5th this year), but has looked dangerous since being called up. He’s smaller , 5’ 9” so maybe that explains why he’s just been a call up. Bews (17) had some decent shifts and the third and fourth line players looked the most consistent in the game, but appearances can be deceiving as they also carried the biggest minuses.. Vetterl (17) had some good shifts in this one, but also saw himself on the wrong side of the puck far too often. Orban (17) had a few okay shifts.
Fight Night: Eric Walker v Rob Trzonkowski –a toe to toe bout, both players hanging in there and getting in shots. Standing draw. Taylor Makin v Calder Brooks, Brooks fell down early, Makin kept a hand on him and helped him up to continue the fight before the linesmen could step in. What followed was a decent tilt with Makin getting in better shots and the second take-down.
Zebra Cage: Matt Kirk and Nick Swaine - what do you expect? Soft and bad reffing, lots of picks and interference by Hitmen blithely ignored – the most glaring happening at centre ice when a Giants player chipped the puck past and then was held up as he tried to move around the defending player – in every hockey rule book that is interference. Lots of soft calls, with bigger ones slipping through the cracks. Kind of ruined the game for me. Little things like a goal off of its moorings not being noticed by the officials, not knowing where to drop the puck, and general lack of awareness made them a couple of inept clowns in orange stripes rather than any sort of officials. F
The Hitmen out shot the Giants 39-24. They went 1 for 3 on the PP, while the Giants went 1 for 5. The G’s had a long 5 on 3 and extra penalty to follow and they could not get a puck on net. They stood still and passed slowly back and forth, they had ZERO traffic in front of the net and would not take the shot. The Giants PP ranking has been plummeting lately and this is why. A more useless, energy sucking exercise there was not. It was awful to watch them trying for that perfect passing play, on a night where goals were easy and their passing was not. It also drove me insane to watch them plod about the offensive zone instead of skating and cycling through and creating chances. They coughed up the puck constantly. For the rest the game they seemed content to send in one fore checker, ineffectually of course and “wait patiently”. It was awful hockey, boring hockey and mostly useless hockey. You can’t win if you don’t try to score.
Taylor Makin was noticed out there, but he ended up a –3. Alex Kuvaev was hitting early, but got a shot to the face by a fist or elbow and had to go in for repairs. Franson’s timing was off and he paid for it with a –4 on the night, when the Hitmen were able to make turnovers count. Manning had a surprisingly solid defensive night. He wasn’t roughing anybody up, but his positioning was good. Martinook scored when he showed up, but he didn’t show up nearly enough in the game. Took way too many shifts off in my mind. Henry was decent on the night, but again should be far more effective in games like this. The Hitmen were not that good in this one and the score is not indicative of the play. As I said before it was one of those nights where the goals came easily. The Calgary squad are laden with talent and veterans, but are still a middling under-performing team that is very beatable and on this night they would have been very beatable had the boys actually deigned to show-up. It saddens me that I was at this game, as it did nothing more than make me angry and frustrated at a team is not only better than this, but should have been playing better than this.
Saturday versus the challenging Portland Winterhawks will see our top three players back in the line-up and our 16 year olds back from the U-17 tourney. The Dec 9th game versus Portland was barn-burner and one of the best games of the season. After last nights debacle I am hoping that Saturday’s game proves to be as challenging and entertaining. I need me some hockey intensity. Saturday is also Guy Lafleur night so the rafters should be packed. Puck drops at 7pm PST.
Three Stars
1. Jordan Martinook
2. Collin Bowman
3. Jake Virtanen
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to .. Taylor Makin. I know he was –3, but he had a good and classy fight, and was noticed every time he took to the ice. He may not have been the best player on the ice, but he battled the hardest and tried, maybe too much, to get some emotion into the game.
Vancouver 4 Calgary 6 EN
I couldn’t write this last night as I was so livid I would have done nothing but swear uncontrollably. Suffice to say this was not acceptable by any of the Giants in my mind and a game they could and should have won was squandered with lazy poor play, dumb choices and a complete lack of emotion. Goals came easy (very), goalies were weak and defensive coverage was beyond porous. Even Martinook who had two goals, played hard shifts for five minutes of the first and five minutes of the third, for the rest he was invisible. Even if the boys had pulled out a win I would still have slammed them for simply not showing up.
Opportunities were squandered, reffing was soft, inconsistent and mind-bending at times. The G’s opened the scoring 40 seconds into the first and added another one. They then proceeded to sit back and send in one forechecker. They were burned by a 15 year old on a break-away and a bad defensive read on the PP. They coughed up another defensive breakdown goal early in the second, which was about 9 shots in on Adam Morrison. Brodyn Nielsen got that back using his speed and cutting into the slot. It stayed that way until past the mid-way point of the third, when yet another bad defensive breakdown had the puck in the back of the Giants net. Henry made a nice feed from the behind the net to find Martinook to tie the game back up at 4’s. Another really easy goal just over a minute later put the visitors up by 1. A very late EN goal sealed the deal. The goal was scored from behind the Calgary goal-line and flipped down the ice, finding the net – a low percentage play that often results in an icing call, but the player was wide-open with no pressure at all so he took the shot and won the gamble. Dumb game, dumb hockey and even a couple of fights didn’t raise the temperature in the building above tepid. Add-in the Giants bad habit of sending in one forechecker and then sitting back and getting beat through the neutral zone and you have a snoozer’s snoozer despite what the box score says.
The Giants opened the scoring 39 seconds in. Jordan Martinook ripped one far-side on Chris Driedger. Alex Kuvaev got the lone assist. Neil Manning added one on the PP, ripping a puck from the top of the left face-off circle and finding twine. Matt Bellerive and James Henry with the helpers. Calgary added two before the end of the period, one even strength and one on the PP, to tie the game going into the first intermission. Calgary added another early in the middle frame, taking the momentum of a bogus carry-over PP to get the goal. Nielsen scored a few minutes later, creating a turnover and then going to the slot. Levi Bews and Taylor Makin got the assists. The Hitmen added one at 13:47 of the third to take back the lead. Martinook got that back just over a minute later, when he decided to make a reappearance on the ice. Some good work down low by Alex Kuvaev, who had some damage to his teeth/jaw on a roughing call earlier and was now sporting a full cage, and Henry garnered the assists. Calgary matched that just after another minute and added a late empty netter to salt away the game.
Rookie Watch: Reid Zalitach (15) – defenseman, full cage, played a pretty solid game, noticed in a good way and one of the few bright spots, not huge, but played big. Kulak (17) had a rough night, his plus/minus was okay, but he got beat to the puck constantly and lost more than a few races down the ice. Probably one of his worst games imo, seemed completely out of step. Bellerive (17) should be more effective than he is, looks really good out there at times, but doesn’t seem to have that finish and instinct yet. Sward (17) ditto Bellerive, some good hits, but he’s another player that needs to be better more often. Nielsen (17), not sure why this guy wasn’t on the team from the start. He’s got better speed than most of the young Giants and can find the net. Scored only his first goal of his WHL career tonight (game #6 - 1 last season and this was his 5th this year), but has looked dangerous since being called up. He’s smaller , 5’ 9” so maybe that explains why he’s just been a call up. Bews (17) had some decent shifts and the third and fourth line players looked the most consistent in the game, but appearances can be deceiving as they also carried the biggest minuses.. Vetterl (17) had some good shifts in this one, but also saw himself on the wrong side of the puck far too often. Orban (17) had a few okay shifts.
Fight Night: Eric Walker v Rob Trzonkowski –a toe to toe bout, both players hanging in there and getting in shots. Standing draw. Taylor Makin v Calder Brooks, Brooks fell down early, Makin kept a hand on him and helped him up to continue the fight before the linesmen could step in. What followed was a decent tilt with Makin getting in better shots and the second take-down.
Zebra Cage: Matt Kirk and Nick Swaine - what do you expect? Soft and bad reffing, lots of picks and interference by Hitmen blithely ignored – the most glaring happening at centre ice when a Giants player chipped the puck past and then was held up as he tried to move around the defending player – in every hockey rule book that is interference. Lots of soft calls, with bigger ones slipping through the cracks. Kind of ruined the game for me. Little things like a goal off of its moorings not being noticed by the officials, not knowing where to drop the puck, and general lack of awareness made them a couple of inept clowns in orange stripes rather than any sort of officials. F
The Hitmen out shot the Giants 39-24. They went 1 for 3 on the PP, while the Giants went 1 for 5. The G’s had a long 5 on 3 and extra penalty to follow and they could not get a puck on net. They stood still and passed slowly back and forth, they had ZERO traffic in front of the net and would not take the shot. The Giants PP ranking has been plummeting lately and this is why. A more useless, energy sucking exercise there was not. It was awful to watch them trying for that perfect passing play, on a night where goals were easy and their passing was not. It also drove me insane to watch them plod about the offensive zone instead of skating and cycling through and creating chances. They coughed up the puck constantly. For the rest the game they seemed content to send in one fore checker, ineffectually of course and “wait patiently”. It was awful hockey, boring hockey and mostly useless hockey. You can’t win if you don’t try to score.
Taylor Makin was noticed out there, but he ended up a –3. Alex Kuvaev was hitting early, but got a shot to the face by a fist or elbow and had to go in for repairs. Franson’s timing was off and he paid for it with a –4 on the night, when the Hitmen were able to make turnovers count. Manning had a surprisingly solid defensive night. He wasn’t roughing anybody up, but his positioning was good. Martinook scored when he showed up, but he didn’t show up nearly enough in the game. Took way too many shifts off in my mind. Henry was decent on the night, but again should be far more effective in games like this. The Hitmen were not that good in this one and the score is not indicative of the play. As I said before it was one of those nights where the goals came easily. The Calgary squad are laden with talent and veterans, but are still a middling under-performing team that is very beatable and on this night they would have been very beatable had the boys actually deigned to show-up. It saddens me that I was at this game, as it did nothing more than make me angry and frustrated at a team is not only better than this, but should have been playing better than this.
Saturday versus the challenging Portland Winterhawks will see our top three players back in the line-up and our 16 year olds back from the U-17 tourney. The Dec 9th game versus Portland was barn-burner and one of the best games of the season. After last nights debacle I am hoping that Saturday’s game proves to be as challenging and entertaining. I need me some hockey intensity. Saturday is also Guy Lafleur night so the rafters should be packed. Puck drops at 7pm PST.
Three Stars
1. Jordan Martinook
2. Collin Bowman
3. Jake Virtanen
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to .. Taylor Makin. I know he was –3, but he had a good and classy fight, and was noticed every time he took to the ice. He may not have been the best player on the ice, but he battled the hardest and tried, maybe too much, to get some emotion into the game.