dondo
10-21-2012, 03:24 AM
The Giants put together yet another inconsistent effort with the same results. I'm not sure how they expect to win anything, putting themselves into massive holes with unfocused sloppy play that is well within their ability to turn around.
Hitmen Snuff Giants
Vancouver 4 Calgary 5
Once again the boys put themselves in a big hole and then just miss coming back all the way. If they had kept the kind of intensity they had in the last 10 minutes of the third throughout the game they might have fared better, but having the shots even at 18 apiece after two periods and the score a lopsided 5-1 for the visitors is not how you want to play the game. Credit them for the comeback and the battle, but also fault them for what Hay calls their lulls where they allow premium scoring chances not due to lack of skill but rather lack of focus, effort and team unity. The second goal against was an awful, lazy neutral zone turnover exacerbated by a lacklustre back check too slow to get to a wide open puck left loose in the slot. Tyler Fuhr had no chance and the team gave up a goal that would have embarrassed a pee-wee squad.
This team is frustrating me greatly with their disappearing act. Their ability to turn it up in the latter stages of games, only to fail to come back all way (often from a three goal or more deficit) means they have it in themselves and choose to use it sporadically. The appearance of effort only to let a loss of focus have them fishing the puck out of their net has led the team to have the kind of losing streak they currently have. There are inherent problems with systems, special teams and question marks with our goaltending, but those moments of coordinated teamwork give us hope that they can find a way out of their current slump. I just wish they were willing to use them more consistently and for a larger part of each game.
The boys opened the scoring off of some hard work going to the net. The fourth line showed them how it was done with Thomas Foster coming away with his first goal of the season, shuffling it five-hole on the Calgary netminder. Riley Kieser got the lone helper. The Hitmen tied it up on the PP mid-way through the first. It came after the Giants weathered a 4 on 3, then 5 on 3, PP onslaught from the Hitmen. Another PP led to a hard-fought goal against. Sadly that goal killed the strides the Giants took getting their PK to finally work (for a time) and then giving up a painfully easy go-ahead goal, off of a listless lazy play and lack of hunger, killed the energy in the building. The Hitmen scored again late in the period, a solo effort off of clean wind-up and an unchallenged blast from the top of the right face-off circle. Cody Sylvester continued to feast on the Giants - scoring three on the night and getting his hat-trick marker on a PP early in the second. Yet another turnover later in the middle frame found the Giants down 5-1. The home town boys phoned in their effort in the second period and seemed disinterested in even trying for a come-back. They out-shot the Hitmen in the period, but didn’t look terribly dangerous doing so.
Too little too late once again. Fuhr was pressed to make some great stops, turning away some breakaways and semi-breakaways until the Giants woke up in the third and even after they woke up as the boys were pressuring hard down the ice. Blake Orban found the back of the net in the final frame. It appeared the puck was tipped as his point shot blasted its way through traffic. Dalton Sward and Trevor Cheek got the assists. Sward capitalized on a PP, scoring the Giants only goal with the man-advantage. Marek Tvrdon and Jackson Houck with the extra points on the play. Trevor Cheek made it interesting stuffing a puck past Mack Shields off of a beauty blind seeing-eye pass from Tvrdon. The kind of pass that has been their bugaboo and the cause of many a turnover so far this season, but worked this time. David Musil got the other helper. Late pressure came for naught as the Giants yet again failed to erase a deficit into which they mired themselves.
Team Notes: Carter Popoff, Austin Vetterl and Taylor Vickerman were healthy scratches. Anthony Ast was back in the line-up. David Musil got the only star for the Giants and I don’t know why. In my observation his effort continues to be sub-par (considering his professed talent) and work in his own end at times suspect and tonight was not much different. This is someone who should be a dominant leader and instead he is often a passenger and that disappoints me. The team remains at the bottom of the WHL, with 4 pts – 2-8-0-0.
Fisticuffs: Tanner Moar v Peter Kosterman - Moar had the upper-hand early, but lost it later in the battle with both players going down together. Scott Cooke v Josh Thrower – Cooke laid a clean hard body-check on the end boards. Thrower took offense and challenged him. A decent back and forth bout, with both players tiring early and being separated by the linesmen.
Zebra Cage: Sean Raphael v Nick Swaine - Lop-sided early a bit invisible later, but ending up mostly balanced. There were some good situational calls that recognized contributing factors. Not the best, but decent enough once the early whistles had passed by.
The Giants out-shot the Hitmen 34-24, with most of their shots seeming to come in the latter stages of the third. The home town boys went 1 for 5 on the PP, with most of their man-advantage chances looking more traffic accident than advantage. They gave up two solid short-handed breakaways. Their puck control was brutal, passes soft and predictable and putting Tvrdon on the point is in my mind a recipe for disaster. They squandered their opportunities including a long 5 on 3. The Hitmen went 2 for 5. The G`s did a great job very early in the game shutting them down and battling hard down low for the puck, but their PK struggled later.
Special teams remain a concern as does the Vancouver squad`s goaltending. Inconsistent effort is a problem and has been for the season so far. It might be time to change up who runs the PP and PK coach-wise and possibly reassess the goaltending coach as the team has failed developing young goalies. Part of that is not giving them enough real game-time to play and learn. Another is over-playing the starter (usually the older goalie) no matter what happens. An issue is that over past few seasons we haven`t had a young tender who has made themselves valuable to play. Inconsistent starts are one thing, but the strong fundamentals being suspect are something else entirely. There is no easy solution and for those us on the periphery it is more exercise than reality to fix what`s wrong. As fans we can discuss and ponder, but it can be frustrating to watch a team you love disintegrate start by start. The boys have tomorrow off and then will try to get their third win on Wednesday versus the Brandon Wheatkings. One more game on Friday and then they leave town for an extended road trip. Maybe on the road they will develop some chemistry.
Three Stars
1. Cody Sylvester
2. David Musil
3. Brooks Macek
Dondo`s Hardhat: goes to – Thomas Foster – opened the scoring, was a +1 with limited ice-time. Had productive shifts and looked good out there.
Hitmen Snuff Giants
Vancouver 4 Calgary 5
Once again the boys put themselves in a big hole and then just miss coming back all the way. If they had kept the kind of intensity they had in the last 10 minutes of the third throughout the game they might have fared better, but having the shots even at 18 apiece after two periods and the score a lopsided 5-1 for the visitors is not how you want to play the game. Credit them for the comeback and the battle, but also fault them for what Hay calls their lulls where they allow premium scoring chances not due to lack of skill but rather lack of focus, effort and team unity. The second goal against was an awful, lazy neutral zone turnover exacerbated by a lacklustre back check too slow to get to a wide open puck left loose in the slot. Tyler Fuhr had no chance and the team gave up a goal that would have embarrassed a pee-wee squad.
This team is frustrating me greatly with their disappearing act. Their ability to turn it up in the latter stages of games, only to fail to come back all way (often from a three goal or more deficit) means they have it in themselves and choose to use it sporadically. The appearance of effort only to let a loss of focus have them fishing the puck out of their net has led the team to have the kind of losing streak they currently have. There are inherent problems with systems, special teams and question marks with our goaltending, but those moments of coordinated teamwork give us hope that they can find a way out of their current slump. I just wish they were willing to use them more consistently and for a larger part of each game.
The boys opened the scoring off of some hard work going to the net. The fourth line showed them how it was done with Thomas Foster coming away with his first goal of the season, shuffling it five-hole on the Calgary netminder. Riley Kieser got the lone helper. The Hitmen tied it up on the PP mid-way through the first. It came after the Giants weathered a 4 on 3, then 5 on 3, PP onslaught from the Hitmen. Another PP led to a hard-fought goal against. Sadly that goal killed the strides the Giants took getting their PK to finally work (for a time) and then giving up a painfully easy go-ahead goal, off of a listless lazy play and lack of hunger, killed the energy in the building. The Hitmen scored again late in the period, a solo effort off of clean wind-up and an unchallenged blast from the top of the right face-off circle. Cody Sylvester continued to feast on the Giants - scoring three on the night and getting his hat-trick marker on a PP early in the second. Yet another turnover later in the middle frame found the Giants down 5-1. The home town boys phoned in their effort in the second period and seemed disinterested in even trying for a come-back. They out-shot the Hitmen in the period, but didn’t look terribly dangerous doing so.
Too little too late once again. Fuhr was pressed to make some great stops, turning away some breakaways and semi-breakaways until the Giants woke up in the third and even after they woke up as the boys were pressuring hard down the ice. Blake Orban found the back of the net in the final frame. It appeared the puck was tipped as his point shot blasted its way through traffic. Dalton Sward and Trevor Cheek got the assists. Sward capitalized on a PP, scoring the Giants only goal with the man-advantage. Marek Tvrdon and Jackson Houck with the extra points on the play. Trevor Cheek made it interesting stuffing a puck past Mack Shields off of a beauty blind seeing-eye pass from Tvrdon. The kind of pass that has been their bugaboo and the cause of many a turnover so far this season, but worked this time. David Musil got the other helper. Late pressure came for naught as the Giants yet again failed to erase a deficit into which they mired themselves.
Team Notes: Carter Popoff, Austin Vetterl and Taylor Vickerman were healthy scratches. Anthony Ast was back in the line-up. David Musil got the only star for the Giants and I don’t know why. In my observation his effort continues to be sub-par (considering his professed talent) and work in his own end at times suspect and tonight was not much different. This is someone who should be a dominant leader and instead he is often a passenger and that disappoints me. The team remains at the bottom of the WHL, with 4 pts – 2-8-0-0.
Fisticuffs: Tanner Moar v Peter Kosterman - Moar had the upper-hand early, but lost it later in the battle with both players going down together. Scott Cooke v Josh Thrower – Cooke laid a clean hard body-check on the end boards. Thrower took offense and challenged him. A decent back and forth bout, with both players tiring early and being separated by the linesmen.
Zebra Cage: Sean Raphael v Nick Swaine - Lop-sided early a bit invisible later, but ending up mostly balanced. There were some good situational calls that recognized contributing factors. Not the best, but decent enough once the early whistles had passed by.
The Giants out-shot the Hitmen 34-24, with most of their shots seeming to come in the latter stages of the third. The home town boys went 1 for 5 on the PP, with most of their man-advantage chances looking more traffic accident than advantage. They gave up two solid short-handed breakaways. Their puck control was brutal, passes soft and predictable and putting Tvrdon on the point is in my mind a recipe for disaster. They squandered their opportunities including a long 5 on 3. The Hitmen went 2 for 5. The G`s did a great job very early in the game shutting them down and battling hard down low for the puck, but their PK struggled later.
Special teams remain a concern as does the Vancouver squad`s goaltending. Inconsistent effort is a problem and has been for the season so far. It might be time to change up who runs the PP and PK coach-wise and possibly reassess the goaltending coach as the team has failed developing young goalies. Part of that is not giving them enough real game-time to play and learn. Another is over-playing the starter (usually the older goalie) no matter what happens. An issue is that over past few seasons we haven`t had a young tender who has made themselves valuable to play. Inconsistent starts are one thing, but the strong fundamentals being suspect are something else entirely. There is no easy solution and for those us on the periphery it is more exercise than reality to fix what`s wrong. As fans we can discuss and ponder, but it can be frustrating to watch a team you love disintegrate start by start. The boys have tomorrow off and then will try to get their third win on Wednesday versus the Brandon Wheatkings. One more game on Friday and then they leave town for an extended road trip. Maybe on the road they will develop some chemistry.
Three Stars
1. Cody Sylvester
2. David Musil
3. Brooks Macek
Dondo`s Hardhat: goes to – Thomas Foster – opened the scoring, was a +1 with limited ice-time. Had productive shifts and looked good out there.