dondo
10-28-2012, 10:45 PM
I hope the team knows what they should do now, something they should have done before the season started imhnsho.
Oil Kings Grease Giants
Vancouver 1 Edmonton 5
Liam Liston gets the start and the Giants lose, badly. Not sure what the team is missing in this picture. You have a 19 yr old goalie who has a concussion history; a player fans of other teams (for whom he’s played) have said hasn’t been the same since his concussion. He has not put together even close to a decent outing since the start of the regular season, doesn’t have a win this season and they keep playing him and starting him. Ridiculous. Time for the Giants goalie brain trust to recognize it for what it is; we have a less than skilled goalie who has had question marks from the get-go and seems incapable of keeping his team in the game. We can’t even blame the PK on this one as every single goal tonight came even-strength. I could care less about his saves, what I care about is his inability to stop the puck consistently enough to give his team a chance to get the victory. He should never have been the back-up of record for Lee the past two tilts and truly he should never have had a spot on the team after his spotty camp and less than desirable pre-season. We had a young ‘tender in Whistle who was badly mismanaged last season and who was shipped out when Fuhr impressed at camp and the whole time we have Liston the lame-duck being given the nod due to a blind and obstinate coaching staff who favour older goalies as a matter of course. You have Tucker who is making his way away from the G’s, Whistle is putting together some solid outings and we have the worst GAA and SV% in the entire league and the Giants franchise are not willing to do what needs to be done. Get rid of Liston, trade him, release him, but get rid of him. You have a team that is unwilling to pay the price for him, that in and of itself must be a huge red flag. He may not be our only problem, but he is a major one. Lee should not be playing Junior B, Liston should. Sorry if it sounds like I am being cruel to some people, but we have the worst record in the league and a few obvious problems that can be corrected very easily. It’s time to stop trading away future picks for role players and project players and time to divest ourselves of a few extra passengers and to develop some chemistry in our lines. It’s time to make a freaking decision and recognize the current reality. If we are developing and in a re-build year then that is even more reason to play our young goalies – It’s not like Liston is going to improve their games or be their mentor bringing veteran experience as he has less ability than they currently have and a career back-up player. They can only get better, but Liston is on the downslide of his WHL career.
Edmonton opens the scoring 5:28 into the game. They add another one in the last minute of the opening frame. After breaking their 5-game losing streak with a win over the Royals the G-Men have reverted to their Jekyll and Hyde ways allowing a team to run roughshod over them and giving up premium scoring chances. Marek Tvrdon who has rediscovered his scoring touch got the only marker for the G’s in the second, but he was a –3 and that’s a big problem with the big euro winger. He’s lazy. He rarely back-checks and tends to shy away from traffic and physical play, something in which he is perfectly capable of engaging. He’s also the only player on the Giants who is finding the net as of late. It was the only goal of the middle frame. Popoff and Kulak got the helpers and the goal came on the PP. In the third Edmonton scored three unanswered putting in the coffin nails and adding insult to injury. Liston was in for every goal in the game as the team left him hung out to dry. As has become standard operating procedure this season, he didn’t do himself any favours either. The Giants were facing the Oil Kings back-up goalie, who made our guy look like a pee-wee player.
Team Notes: Lee sent back to the Junior B Richmond Sockeyes, for what reason I know not. It’s time to actually develop our young goalies and stop insulting them by starting them 15 games behind a less than stellar “starter” and versus teams to whom we expect to take a loss as we did to Whistle. Lee and Fuhr should share the load and see how they fare. Liston should have been gone a month ago and to be perfectly blunt – before the season even started. Whistle and Fuhr should have been our opening night starters. Vetterl sits. Not sure if he’s injured or has found his way into Hay’s doghouse never to see the light of day again. Sieben was back in and I don’t know why, he’s small, okay defensively, but is not bringing the kind of offense he was acquired for – but since we got him from Edmonton I guess he was being thrown a bone. Taylor Vickerman out despite some good solid play. Foster still out with shoulder issues. Zalitach out and Coyle in, again not sure why – size maybe, but Edmonton is not a really big team, but they are speedy and offensively skilled and we need Zalitach`s mobility – something Coyle does not have. We also have some line-juggling that is not getting results and not giving the team or players the opportunity to create some line chemistry at the very least due to familiarity with one another. After a big win, why we changed the line-up (or line arrangement) at all makes me shake my head.
Fisticuffs: Scott Cooke v Travis Ewanyk – getting Ewanyk off the ice is a nice bonus for Cooke. Wes Vanniuewenhuizen v Edgars Kulda – a euro that fights and sticks up for his teammates? Can we have him please?
Zebra Cage: Derek Zalaski and Ian Croft – oh Zalaski thou dost suckest greatly.
The Oil Kings barely out shot the Giants 31-30, but their goalie allowed 1 goal and our boy allowed 5 – does no-one else detect a consistent discrepancy here? The Giants only real positive of the night was their PK, which was surprisingly, perfect - 0 for 5. Maybe the boys are working smarter on the PK. The G’s were 1 for 5 with the man-advantage. Collapses like these, from usually reliable defensive players are inexcusable. Kulak and Orban both carrying –4’s, really? You can take the loss, but getting hammered like this helps no-one. The team learns nothing and loses even more confidence. The goaltender learns nothing, except that it doesn’t matter if you let in a ton of goals, you get to stay in the net and suck some more. I am not saying it is all the goaltender’s fault as the team is guilty of allowing some great scoring chances against. Where is the team that showed up on Friday? It couldn’t be all Lee could it? A bad loss, with no excuses, the PK the only bright spot in an embarrassing defeat. As a fan I fully understand you are not going to win every game and as a fan I am willing to accept some hard losses, but games like these are just players not stepping up, being careless and at times stupid. They are young players for sure, but we are not making them better players by hampering them between the pipes and consenting to that kind of play, by saying “I saw a lot of positives tonight”. Except that there were no plusses tonight and three at even. Everyone else was a minus. Where are the positives? Time to read the riot act and shake things up.
Next up: Lethbridge on Tuesday night. The puck drops at 6pm PST and I expect Fuhr will get the nod. No personal animosity meant just recognizing reality, but the Giants should get rid of Liston and pull Lee out of Richmond and install him in to the line-up by the time the boys take to the ice in Lethbridge. After that the boys head to Medicine Hat to take on the Tigers (one of the only teams the G’s have beat this season, but the Tigers just trashed Calgary to the tune of 10-1 a few games back so they can’t expect the same result) on Thursday. We should have a chance versus Kootenay on Saturday as they are struggling almost as much as we are this season and then finishing up on Sunday in Kennewick, taking on Tri-Cities.
Three Stars
1. Travis Ewanyk
2. Tristan Jarry
3. Klarc Wilson
No hardhats earned.
Oil Kings Grease Giants
Vancouver 1 Edmonton 5
Liam Liston gets the start and the Giants lose, badly. Not sure what the team is missing in this picture. You have a 19 yr old goalie who has a concussion history; a player fans of other teams (for whom he’s played) have said hasn’t been the same since his concussion. He has not put together even close to a decent outing since the start of the regular season, doesn’t have a win this season and they keep playing him and starting him. Ridiculous. Time for the Giants goalie brain trust to recognize it for what it is; we have a less than skilled goalie who has had question marks from the get-go and seems incapable of keeping his team in the game. We can’t even blame the PK on this one as every single goal tonight came even-strength. I could care less about his saves, what I care about is his inability to stop the puck consistently enough to give his team a chance to get the victory. He should never have been the back-up of record for Lee the past two tilts and truly he should never have had a spot on the team after his spotty camp and less than desirable pre-season. We had a young ‘tender in Whistle who was badly mismanaged last season and who was shipped out when Fuhr impressed at camp and the whole time we have Liston the lame-duck being given the nod due to a blind and obstinate coaching staff who favour older goalies as a matter of course. You have Tucker who is making his way away from the G’s, Whistle is putting together some solid outings and we have the worst GAA and SV% in the entire league and the Giants franchise are not willing to do what needs to be done. Get rid of Liston, trade him, release him, but get rid of him. You have a team that is unwilling to pay the price for him, that in and of itself must be a huge red flag. He may not be our only problem, but he is a major one. Lee should not be playing Junior B, Liston should. Sorry if it sounds like I am being cruel to some people, but we have the worst record in the league and a few obvious problems that can be corrected very easily. It’s time to stop trading away future picks for role players and project players and time to divest ourselves of a few extra passengers and to develop some chemistry in our lines. It’s time to make a freaking decision and recognize the current reality. If we are developing and in a re-build year then that is even more reason to play our young goalies – It’s not like Liston is going to improve their games or be their mentor bringing veteran experience as he has less ability than they currently have and a career back-up player. They can only get better, but Liston is on the downslide of his WHL career.
Edmonton opens the scoring 5:28 into the game. They add another one in the last minute of the opening frame. After breaking their 5-game losing streak with a win over the Royals the G-Men have reverted to their Jekyll and Hyde ways allowing a team to run roughshod over them and giving up premium scoring chances. Marek Tvrdon who has rediscovered his scoring touch got the only marker for the G’s in the second, but he was a –3 and that’s a big problem with the big euro winger. He’s lazy. He rarely back-checks and tends to shy away from traffic and physical play, something in which he is perfectly capable of engaging. He’s also the only player on the Giants who is finding the net as of late. It was the only goal of the middle frame. Popoff and Kulak got the helpers and the goal came on the PP. In the third Edmonton scored three unanswered putting in the coffin nails and adding insult to injury. Liston was in for every goal in the game as the team left him hung out to dry. As has become standard operating procedure this season, he didn’t do himself any favours either. The Giants were facing the Oil Kings back-up goalie, who made our guy look like a pee-wee player.
Team Notes: Lee sent back to the Junior B Richmond Sockeyes, for what reason I know not. It’s time to actually develop our young goalies and stop insulting them by starting them 15 games behind a less than stellar “starter” and versus teams to whom we expect to take a loss as we did to Whistle. Lee and Fuhr should share the load and see how they fare. Liston should have been gone a month ago and to be perfectly blunt – before the season even started. Whistle and Fuhr should have been our opening night starters. Vetterl sits. Not sure if he’s injured or has found his way into Hay’s doghouse never to see the light of day again. Sieben was back in and I don’t know why, he’s small, okay defensively, but is not bringing the kind of offense he was acquired for – but since we got him from Edmonton I guess he was being thrown a bone. Taylor Vickerman out despite some good solid play. Foster still out with shoulder issues. Zalitach out and Coyle in, again not sure why – size maybe, but Edmonton is not a really big team, but they are speedy and offensively skilled and we need Zalitach`s mobility – something Coyle does not have. We also have some line-juggling that is not getting results and not giving the team or players the opportunity to create some line chemistry at the very least due to familiarity with one another. After a big win, why we changed the line-up (or line arrangement) at all makes me shake my head.
Fisticuffs: Scott Cooke v Travis Ewanyk – getting Ewanyk off the ice is a nice bonus for Cooke. Wes Vanniuewenhuizen v Edgars Kulda – a euro that fights and sticks up for his teammates? Can we have him please?
Zebra Cage: Derek Zalaski and Ian Croft – oh Zalaski thou dost suckest greatly.
The Oil Kings barely out shot the Giants 31-30, but their goalie allowed 1 goal and our boy allowed 5 – does no-one else detect a consistent discrepancy here? The Giants only real positive of the night was their PK, which was surprisingly, perfect - 0 for 5. Maybe the boys are working smarter on the PK. The G’s were 1 for 5 with the man-advantage. Collapses like these, from usually reliable defensive players are inexcusable. Kulak and Orban both carrying –4’s, really? You can take the loss, but getting hammered like this helps no-one. The team learns nothing and loses even more confidence. The goaltender learns nothing, except that it doesn’t matter if you let in a ton of goals, you get to stay in the net and suck some more. I am not saying it is all the goaltender’s fault as the team is guilty of allowing some great scoring chances against. Where is the team that showed up on Friday? It couldn’t be all Lee could it? A bad loss, with no excuses, the PK the only bright spot in an embarrassing defeat. As a fan I fully understand you are not going to win every game and as a fan I am willing to accept some hard losses, but games like these are just players not stepping up, being careless and at times stupid. They are young players for sure, but we are not making them better players by hampering them between the pipes and consenting to that kind of play, by saying “I saw a lot of positives tonight”. Except that there were no plusses tonight and three at even. Everyone else was a minus. Where are the positives? Time to read the riot act and shake things up.
Next up: Lethbridge on Tuesday night. The puck drops at 6pm PST and I expect Fuhr will get the nod. No personal animosity meant just recognizing reality, but the Giants should get rid of Liston and pull Lee out of Richmond and install him in to the line-up by the time the boys take to the ice in Lethbridge. After that the boys head to Medicine Hat to take on the Tigers (one of the only teams the G’s have beat this season, but the Tigers just trashed Calgary to the tune of 10-1 a few games back so they can’t expect the same result) on Thursday. We should have a chance versus Kootenay on Saturday as they are struggling almost as much as we are this season and then finishing up on Sunday in Kennewick, taking on Tri-Cities.
Three Stars
1. Travis Ewanyk
2. Tristan Jarry
3. Klarc Wilson
No hardhats earned.