Don Hay A Great Coach

[Swando]

You wonder why Don Hay is so sucessful? Tonight driving home listening to the post game with Joey and the Gang , they were all over the ref and the disallowed goal etc. All negative. When Don Hay arrives he blows me away by saying " Were we watching the same game"? This is play-offs. No one said it would be easy. My Favorite comment..."Frustration is a wasted emotion" You can be sure he'll give his troops no sympathy for the hooking, holding,grabbing and other abuse the Cougars laid on them. I'm sure he is saying "A good play-off team must over come these things and find a way to battle thru it"
By the way I was one of the several 100 fans standing and yelling for McClains head tonight. I only wish a couple of the burgers would have hit him in the head. Don Hay's comments cheered me up and I'm ready for Tuesday.

PS: Were the burger meant for Featherstone ( he could use a few more burgers) or McClain ? lol

[rinkrat]

Ya,Hay is pretty smart,he knows the players will hear his quotes...He says all the right things,but we all know if the refs called the hooking,holding,pick plays,etc.The Giants would be smoking them.Its pretty sad,really.We pay money to watch the skilled players and we get a steady dose of plumbers(with respect to any real plumbers).Real crappy hockey to watch.

[Swando]

Rinkrat--who were the burgers aimed at?
I know you bought a few extra double doubles?

[Beaner]

I liked Dons' comments as well.

Bill can get a little too pro Giant sometimes always good for Don to set him straight.

[Knuckles Muldoon]

PG does get away with murder, but its playoff hockey. There's no sense groaning about it. Hay isn't, and that's good. He'll be reminding the boys that you have to go out there and win it, not merely play and assume things will go your way. But something needs to be addressed.
The PP is abysmal. The Giants throw top-end talent out there, but time after time, they are being kept to the outside. I've seen enough of the current setup. Time to throw a big body (Lucic, Watt etc) in front of the net and fire away. The lateral passing isn't creating any open lanes for shots, and the PG defensemen are getting too many sticks on pucks and deflecting them to the side boards. Something has to change, and Don is going to have to construct something better. I'm sure he will.

[rinkrat]

Rinkrat--who were the burgers aimed at?
I know you bought a few extra double doubles?

Sorry,I don't throw stuff on the ice.My season tix are probably on the line!
I gave McLean an earfull though.I also noticed Hay hung Slade out to dry too..."Old habits die hard" He singled him out,may not be the best plan at this point. :skeptical

[Swando]

I agree about the Power Play. In a side note, once I quit playing competitive hockey I began playing in a non-slapshoot no hitting league. The majority of the poorer teams would send all there players in front of the net so no shots would even get to the goalie. I commented to my STH buddy that played with me back in those days and said " This reminds me of the Old Timer's league we played in" lol But truthfully that is what the Cougars did. Watch the tv on Tuesday the close in the Center to the net and challange the Giants Defensemen to get it thru. In one case a blocked shot turned into an odd man rush and " the 2nd goal"

[Swando]

I noticed that comment about Slade as well. One other thot about Hay and his Brilliant mind. I was ready to walk out of the building with 1 minute left and he calls a time out!! This I think was more for Tuesday than tonight. Wouldn't you agree? He never says never.

[dondo]

I liked Hay's frustration is wasted emotion quote, but I agree with the broacasters and not Hay on this one. I don't think his team played good game at all, and they weren't willing to pay the price to make the play.

what the hell is jason reese doing out on the PP.. come on - there were some dumb line choices tonight and wasting Machacek's drive playing with plumbers does nothing to improve your chances.

I saw too much of Jason Reese and not enough of Garet Hunt, the team needed his energy and enthusiam to wake them up.

[Swando]

Obviously Hay wanted to get Brule out as much as possibe. If only I had a stop watch but I'm sure he played 1/2 the game = 30+ minutes. Nothing was working in the 1st so he deleted Mahachek for Repik who was on fire tonight. Repik can turn on a dime - Mahachek can't. I think Hay's reasoning is that PG was all over them clutching and grabbing and not getting called. We need swivel players ie; Repik, Reese, Brule, Albers. guys that can stop and go against the flow to set up chances. PG did a great job of stopping the outside and basically eliminated the inside. In regards to Mahacheck --he's our best board player and he was killing penalties etc. You only wonder what Hay had going thru his head.. I trust Hay!

[dondo]

don't get me wrong.. cause I like Hay too - I mean he's the reason that this team is where it is, but I find he can also get a bit too much team-first in these kind of games, and I absolutely despise when our team (esp being down) play a neutral zone trap game and send in only one forechecker.

I have been looking forward to seeing Repik, Bartley and Brule play together since Brule was said to be coming back, but as much as I like all those players they just don't gel nearly as well as Machacek does with Brule and Bartley.

I'm looking forward to getting Timmy Kraus back so that Repik can have a great set-up guy and we can get some more of the offensive prowess back into our game.

Machacek is only concerned with going into the corners and making things happen, which gives Brule the liberty to play to his strengths and find the open ice. With Repik on their line, it seems that its Brule (who's puck hunger is the most on this team shift in and shift out), who takes on the machacek role and that's not where he's the most effective.

And as far as Reese is concerned he looked like crap out there, never finished one check and Hay kept rolling him out? Why? We need energy, we need emotion, put out JD, Hunt, and Bliznak or Lucic ... now that's grinding hockey.

Anyway I respect and admire Don hay as a coach, but I don't think all of his choices are the best all the time and I get frustrated watching our team play the kind of game they played last night.

[TheBrass]

Lucic over Reese?? C'mon Dondo, there's no way that you can deny that Milan is just a wee bit tentative since coming back from injury. Don't get me wrong, all things equal I would agree totally, but the guys you want to see have not been any more impressive than Jason Reese has, with the exception of Garet Hunt. Reese may not be one of your favorites, but I think he has been just as steady as any guy out there, and on Friday night stood out as someone who was really giving it.

[dondo]

I don't know - he vanishes for stretches and doesn't finish his checks. Its odd cause sometimes I'm complaining about Reese and then he'll make a great play or give a decent hit (and I'll have to give him props), but after watching the first two games I don't think he played up to the Cougs level - I'd much rather see Garet with that ice-time.

totally agreed Milan isn't nearly as aggressive as he was before breaking the hand (he's still wearing a cast apparently), but he still has the big body I would put in front of Bowles on the PP rather than having a player like Jason out there - and lord knows our PP needs something else and we nned to get the play down the centre of the ice and stop the east/west play as of late.

frighteningly enough the GMen are looking supiciously like the Canucks out there and that ain't good. :skeptical

[KBF]

Come on guys, you aren't going to get any sympathy from anyone in regards to the reffing. We all know Toigo is the leagues golden boy and the fact that the ref is actually calling it even I guess shocks and bothers you. The Giants get away with alot of **** of their own.

[Swando]

Toigo --Golden Boy??? If anything it works against the Giants. I watched many games that the Giants were not involved with and there were alot few penalties called. I think Giants get the short end more offen that not! Try watching a game in Vancouver when Savage or Kirk are calling it!

[HAF]

Toigo --Golden Boy??? If anything it works against the Giants. I watched many games that the Giants were not involved with and there were alot few penalties called. I think Giants get the short end more offen that not! Try watching a game in Vancouver when Savage or Kirk are calling it!
Try watching a game in ANY town when Kirk is calling it!!! That guy is absolutely brutal.

[dondo]

Try watching a game in ANY town when Kirk is calling it!!! That guy is absolutely brutal.

hey don't forget Rehman or Zalaski.. those two have raised my blood pressure more than a few times this season... *grrrrrrr*

and KBF you are trying to tell me that the Cougars game plan of clutching and tackling have eluded you? - you've watched them the whole season? more pick plays than a kindergarten classroom..imo..

not that we didn't deserve the penalties at the end of game two cause we did although the dive by Sagert irritated me.. Watt barely touched him and he falls into his goalie, and the puck was there.

But Dustin's slash and Brule's mugging of Zimmer were both penalties, however Zimmer isn't and wasn't a choir boy that night either.

[KBF]

You're right, I know how the Cougars play, but I also know how the Giants play and they aren't the little angels you pretend them to be.


Brule is a great player but lets face it, he's a goof on the ice. He's got little man syndrome, tries to overcompensate for his lack of size by running guys and yappin much like Slade. Giants do not get the short end, you wanna talk abotu that why don't you look at the Blazers who even though it was deserved, Delorande got a 3 game suspension by the league for running that skinny little mouth piece Slade.

[dondo]

oh no I know KBF and I wouldn't want them to be angels either, but I don't like cheapshot hockey either and to be honest I have seen a bunch of interference from PG, but their checks have usually been clean and hard.

Zimmer was mixing it up in the corner when Brule pulled him down, but that was stupid frustration move. I don't agree that Burle has little man syndrome as I rraely see him back down from a battle, that "turtling" he did vs Zimmer (although being at ice level I didn't see it that way, but w/e), is fairly unlike him.

I know Slade is feisty, but I haven't personally witnessed him mouthing off too much, but with the mask I probably wouldn't know either way even though I am like twenty feet from the net.

I'd like to see more fights in this series, but if they keep the elbows down and stay away from checks from behind I'll be happier.