dondo
11-09-2014, 01:25 PM
As we pass the quarter pole I am frustrated. Not the loss to Kelowna particularly as they really are the real deal (mostly their top line) and are getting some out this world golatending from nobodies - weird. Anyway the team continues to play small, Ward's offensive focus leaves huge holes in the boys own end if they aren't willing to hustle back hard on the back-check which lately they have been.
Our drafting system and scouting arrangement needs to be imploded. Ripplinger should have been gone three years ago not re-signed. I am looking at you Toigo - your misplaced "loyalties" have marginalised a team which should be a destination that players are hungry to be a part of not a place to be avoided. You no longer have the "it's all Don Hay's fault we can't draft the players we really want bullsh*te". Time to step up and dump a couple of our eight under-sized forwards, get a true shutdown D-man on the back-end and shuffle out the under-performing OAs like Bellerive. We need hungry, tenacious, vicious, bottom six players like McEvoy, size - hunger and intensity. I mean who hell is Holterhus? He's huge and plays smaller than Ronning. Jesse Roach ditto, bigger guy who pretends to play big, but never really puts the hunger and intensity into the game so far.
We have a handle on the team we have now and it is unable to compete, completely useless on the road (yeah yeah 1 goals games blah blah blah - only adds up to not being able to hold onto or battle for a win). We are getting back two skilled players who duplicate what we already have. Time for a serious quarter pole season assessment and dump the chaff. I also suspect that some players are not so good in the room, despite protestations other-wise. I would even be happy picking up disgruntled players on top teams who feel they can produice with more ice-time with the focus being hungry and team players. Time for a few small trades for depth and intensity and maybe a few bigger ones for impact. Time to shake up the room. We don't sell the farm of course, but we have multiples which are not adding up.
I understand that the prices currently being asked are high, but there are always some players to get for picks who just need a place to play where they can be hungry and ascend the roster. Obviously Benson and McKinstry are two to keep and there are some untouchables, but really we have duplications and under-performers which are expendable. Some I might even be sad to see go, but we are not progressing and if the fans are getting frustrated then the boys are too.
We also lack an indentity. What are we? Are we a skilled team? Are we a hungry team? We are not tough to play against, we don't frighten other teams with our skill. If we are rebuidling and developing where is the marked progress? What kind of team do we want to be? What is our focus? If we are developing youngs players why do we play marginal OAs in the top six?
Rockets Smoke Giants
Vancouver 0 Kelowna 5
The Giants are having a tough time lately against good teams and need a few softball opponents to get some momentum going in the other direction. It’s odd to say, but the Gs have been really missing young Tyler Benson who adds dimension to this team when he is in the line-up. They are still really struggling on the road, usually managing one good period before the wheels fall off. Their goaltending has been solid and usually gives the team a chance to win most nights. The Rockets who lead the West, possibly the league and are high up on the CHL rankings continue to roll. For the second game the Giants are shut down by the (AP) Kelowna goaltender Michael Herringer, whose only other Dub outing was a win versus this hapless Vancouver squad. The Gs had their best chances in the first period and looked to be ready to compete for more than one frame, but they imploded early in the second and could not recover. Kelowna’s top line feasted in this game, combining for 9 points in the tilt.
The Giants had some great chances around Herringer in the first period, going to the net and making it tough for the rookie goalie, but were unable to find twine. Both teams played to a scoreless first. The Rockets scored goals at 16 seconds and 36 seconds of the middle frame, putting the Giants back on their heels early. The visitors left their goalie hanging out high and dry and were being beat by better and more focused skill, mainly from a single line. The Rockets continued to roll - scoring at 5:09, 7:17 and finally at 16:07. All of the goals in the game came in the second period. In the third the Giants just held on and the Rockets didn’t pile it on. Payton Lee allowed 5 goals on 18 shots and that my friends is just not good enough. He was great turning aside 7 tough shots in the first, but let in 5 goals on 9 shots in the second. Part of that was the team leaving him hanging, but he also really needs to bear down and help his team in games like this. Once again the Giants allow a disaster period to dictate the outcome of the game.
Team Notes: Benson and McKinstry still not back. Defenseman Brendan Menell played up as a forward in the game.
Fight Night: Jackson Houck versus Joe Gatenby less than a minute after the Rockets fourth goal.
Zebra Cage: Mike Campbell and Nick Swaine. Listened to this one, so I don’t really know what happened with the stripe-shirted boys. It never really sounded like they were making knee jerk calls though. The Rockets were given the majority of penalties in the game so I suspect the local fans were not too happy with the zebras.
The Giants out shot the Rockets 29-23. They went 0 for 6 on the PP, while the Rockets were 0 for 2. It sounded like the G-Men were generating some good chances on the PP, but continue to lack finish around the net. The game really was the tale of being unable to shut down the Rockets top-line who seemingly scored at will and the Rockets goaltender who has the Giants number.
David Brumm seemed to have his best game of the season. He certainly had the most jump and got involved taking a couple of feisty roughing calls of the mutual variety. Lots of minuses littered throughout the line-up as all of the goals against came even-strength.
The game was another indication that the Giants remain in rebuilding mode and have some serious holes and struggling players. Troy Ward has been saying we need to be patient as the younger guys get more ice-time, learn and grow and a good deal of that is true, but the lack of follow-through, skilled players unable to finish around the net and one or two awful periods a game is less about skill and more about systems and motivation. Those things are firmly in Ward and his coach’s wheelhouse and are lacking. We also have larger players who are playing small and that makes our smaller skill guys unable to have the open space to make plays and find the back of the net.
Oddly, other teams seem to have big guys who can play and have not all been drafted in the first rounds, so it is time to truly reassess how we draft and who we draft, cause yet another raft of small skill players means that our team gets man-handled and unable to compete especially come playoff time. Getting free agents like Brumm and Baer who are unable to dominate on the score-sheet does nothing to help our squad. We already had Ty Ronning and Jakob Stukel who fit that profile. Let’s source free agents like Lucic and Franson and Machacek were.
We should not be actively acquiring small skill players who duplicate what we already have. Don’t get me wrong as I like Baer a fair amount, but small players have to produce and we have had marginal success with some of these acquisitions. As the old adage says: small players have to prove they can play and larger players have to prove that they cannot play. We are not addressing our glaring deficiencies and that sits firmly on the plate of Bonner and the scouting crew who should have been turfed years ago, not given contract extensions. We just passed the quarter pole of the season and our mark is a C- and dropping.
The Giants have a few days off before facing the Tri-City Americans at the Coliseum on Wednesday. Puck drops at 7pm.
Three Stars
1. Tyrell Goulbourne
2. Michael Herringer
3. Joe Gatenby
Dondo’s Hardhat: I’ll give it to Brumm who found his best intensity and focus so far this season.
Our drafting system and scouting arrangement needs to be imploded. Ripplinger should have been gone three years ago not re-signed. I am looking at you Toigo - your misplaced "loyalties" have marginalised a team which should be a destination that players are hungry to be a part of not a place to be avoided. You no longer have the "it's all Don Hay's fault we can't draft the players we really want bullsh*te". Time to step up and dump a couple of our eight under-sized forwards, get a true shutdown D-man on the back-end and shuffle out the under-performing OAs like Bellerive. We need hungry, tenacious, vicious, bottom six players like McEvoy, size - hunger and intensity. I mean who hell is Holterhus? He's huge and plays smaller than Ronning. Jesse Roach ditto, bigger guy who pretends to play big, but never really puts the hunger and intensity into the game so far.
We have a handle on the team we have now and it is unable to compete, completely useless on the road (yeah yeah 1 goals games blah blah blah - only adds up to not being able to hold onto or battle for a win). We are getting back two skilled players who duplicate what we already have. Time for a serious quarter pole season assessment and dump the chaff. I also suspect that some players are not so good in the room, despite protestations other-wise. I would even be happy picking up disgruntled players on top teams who feel they can produice with more ice-time with the focus being hungry and team players. Time for a few small trades for depth and intensity and maybe a few bigger ones for impact. Time to shake up the room. We don't sell the farm of course, but we have multiples which are not adding up.
I understand that the prices currently being asked are high, but there are always some players to get for picks who just need a place to play where they can be hungry and ascend the roster. Obviously Benson and McKinstry are two to keep and there are some untouchables, but really we have duplications and under-performers which are expendable. Some I might even be sad to see go, but we are not progressing and if the fans are getting frustrated then the boys are too.
We also lack an indentity. What are we? Are we a skilled team? Are we a hungry team? We are not tough to play against, we don't frighten other teams with our skill. If we are rebuidling and developing where is the marked progress? What kind of team do we want to be? What is our focus? If we are developing youngs players why do we play marginal OAs in the top six?
Rockets Smoke Giants
Vancouver 0 Kelowna 5
The Giants are having a tough time lately against good teams and need a few softball opponents to get some momentum going in the other direction. It’s odd to say, but the Gs have been really missing young Tyler Benson who adds dimension to this team when he is in the line-up. They are still really struggling on the road, usually managing one good period before the wheels fall off. Their goaltending has been solid and usually gives the team a chance to win most nights. The Rockets who lead the West, possibly the league and are high up on the CHL rankings continue to roll. For the second game the Giants are shut down by the (AP) Kelowna goaltender Michael Herringer, whose only other Dub outing was a win versus this hapless Vancouver squad. The Gs had their best chances in the first period and looked to be ready to compete for more than one frame, but they imploded early in the second and could not recover. Kelowna’s top line feasted in this game, combining for 9 points in the tilt.
The Giants had some great chances around Herringer in the first period, going to the net and making it tough for the rookie goalie, but were unable to find twine. Both teams played to a scoreless first. The Rockets scored goals at 16 seconds and 36 seconds of the middle frame, putting the Giants back on their heels early. The visitors left their goalie hanging out high and dry and were being beat by better and more focused skill, mainly from a single line. The Rockets continued to roll - scoring at 5:09, 7:17 and finally at 16:07. All of the goals in the game came in the second period. In the third the Giants just held on and the Rockets didn’t pile it on. Payton Lee allowed 5 goals on 18 shots and that my friends is just not good enough. He was great turning aside 7 tough shots in the first, but let in 5 goals on 9 shots in the second. Part of that was the team leaving him hanging, but he also really needs to bear down and help his team in games like this. Once again the Giants allow a disaster period to dictate the outcome of the game.
Team Notes: Benson and McKinstry still not back. Defenseman Brendan Menell played up as a forward in the game.
Fight Night: Jackson Houck versus Joe Gatenby less than a minute after the Rockets fourth goal.
Zebra Cage: Mike Campbell and Nick Swaine. Listened to this one, so I don’t really know what happened with the stripe-shirted boys. It never really sounded like they were making knee jerk calls though. The Rockets were given the majority of penalties in the game so I suspect the local fans were not too happy with the zebras.
The Giants out shot the Rockets 29-23. They went 0 for 6 on the PP, while the Rockets were 0 for 2. It sounded like the G-Men were generating some good chances on the PP, but continue to lack finish around the net. The game really was the tale of being unable to shut down the Rockets top-line who seemingly scored at will and the Rockets goaltender who has the Giants number.
David Brumm seemed to have his best game of the season. He certainly had the most jump and got involved taking a couple of feisty roughing calls of the mutual variety. Lots of minuses littered throughout the line-up as all of the goals against came even-strength.
The game was another indication that the Giants remain in rebuilding mode and have some serious holes and struggling players. Troy Ward has been saying we need to be patient as the younger guys get more ice-time, learn and grow and a good deal of that is true, but the lack of follow-through, skilled players unable to finish around the net and one or two awful periods a game is less about skill and more about systems and motivation. Those things are firmly in Ward and his coach’s wheelhouse and are lacking. We also have larger players who are playing small and that makes our smaller skill guys unable to have the open space to make plays and find the back of the net.
Oddly, other teams seem to have big guys who can play and have not all been drafted in the first rounds, so it is time to truly reassess how we draft and who we draft, cause yet another raft of small skill players means that our team gets man-handled and unable to compete especially come playoff time. Getting free agents like Brumm and Baer who are unable to dominate on the score-sheet does nothing to help our squad. We already had Ty Ronning and Jakob Stukel who fit that profile. Let’s source free agents like Lucic and Franson and Machacek were.
We should not be actively acquiring small skill players who duplicate what we already have. Don’t get me wrong as I like Baer a fair amount, but small players have to produce and we have had marginal success with some of these acquisitions. As the old adage says: small players have to prove they can play and larger players have to prove that they cannot play. We are not addressing our glaring deficiencies and that sits firmly on the plate of Bonner and the scouting crew who should have been turfed years ago, not given contract extensions. We just passed the quarter pole of the season and our mark is a C- and dropping.
The Giants have a few days off before facing the Tri-City Americans at the Coliseum on Wednesday. Puck drops at 7pm.
Three Stars
1. Tyrell Goulbourne
2. Michael Herringer
3. Joe Gatenby
Dondo’s Hardhat: I’ll give it to Brumm who found his best intensity and focus so far this season.