T-birds 0 @ Giants 3 Oct 13th

[Beaner]

A much better effort tonight in the last few games as the Giants dominated the flow of the play tonight for the majority of the game. Giants managed to keep Seattle hemmed into their own zone, for the most part, and when pressed int heir own zone were able to limit he T-birds to a few shots but mostly kept them pinned to the outside. A good effort fromt op to bottom tonight from the G-men in another convincing win.

NOTES
Sexsmith and DeSerres got the starts
Dulle (Knee), Machacek (head), and Toigo were the Giants scratches.
Shots 40-12 Giants
PP's Seattle 0/6 Vancouver 2/11

GOALS
1. VAN Lucic, (2) (Kraus, Blum), 4:56 (PP) 5-4, Kraus with a shot and DeSerres tries to gather in the rebound but misplays and it Lucic bangs away at the loose puck getting the goal.
2. VAN Franson, (3) (Flatters, Bliznak), 18:11 (PP) 5-4, Giants pass it around and Franson comes to the top of the circles and just blasts one past DeSerres top shelf.
3. VAN Kraus, (5) (Bouma), 15:47 After a long sustained forecheck from Vancouver, Bouma feeds Kraus from behind the net and Kraus buries it.

FISTICUFFS
None

OFFICIATING
Just Kirk tonight, and I thought he did an allright job. A couple calls I was left scratching my head, but for the most part a pretty well called game. The one call that stuck out was when Watt was thrown into the Giants bench, he somehow managed to take a roughing penalty. A strange call for sure.

OVERALL
Very good game from the Giants. Lots of pressure and lots of chances on the net to score. DeSerres played very well, stopped a lot of good chances and the loss is hardly his fault.

I liked the team speed of Seattle they were very quick on the counterattack, but the rarely generated a scoring chance from it. I think if they just shoot the puck more they may get rewarded for it.

Flatters was very good tonight after a few rough games. NO bad penalties and was very solid on the backend tonight. Really liked the "all-rookie" or "16 year old" line of Wright Bouma and Cunningham. They played very well, made few mistakes and were full of energy tonight. Is this a glimpse of the futre #1 line for the Giants?

3 Stars
1. VAN - 29 Tyson Sexsmith
2. SEA - 29 Jacob DeSerres
3. VAN - 21 Brett Festerling

Festerling was a rock, and stopped at least 2 partial breakaways tonight. Nice job on Sexsmith getting the shut-out not sure if that was his first, but a good job. !st star for Sexsmith a bit of a homer pick though.

[rinkrat]

Really liked the "all-rookie" or "16 year old" line of Wright Bouma and Cunningham. They played very well, made few mistakes and were full of energy tonight. Is this a glimpse of the futre #1 line for the Giants?


I'll second that,nice line and great coaching to show the lads some confidence.Hay mentioned he was also sending a bit of a message when he sent out the rooks.
Any bets on which rookie will score the first goal this season?

[Beaner]

I think any one of them is a good guess to get the first goal.

I'll take Cunningham.

[old_time_hockey]

Well earned 1st star by Sexsmith. While only facing 17 shots, most of those shots were quality chances. Solid positional game. A few reflex saves. Like that nice toe save in the 2nd on a second chance the T-Birds got.

To expand on the reffing, in the second period a Seattle player had Bouma basically in a standing headlock right in sight of Kirk and no call. Shortly after Czibere gets a slashing call that I thought was fairly weak. He more got his stick going for the puck. But good on Kirk for calling that unsportsman like diving call to Richard. He barely got bumped and dropped like a sack of bricks.

Even though the score board might indicate otherwise, DeSerres was excellent. And is only 16.

Lance Buoma stood out for me tonight. Nice dish to Kraus for the 3rd goal, made some nice moves in the cycle and just played a solid game. The other thing that left me saying "Wow...haven't noticed this before" was Blums backwards skating speed. T-Birds started a transition the other way from their blue line. Most d-men would turn around and take a few strides forward then turned backwards. Blum kept up with the rush skating backwards.

10-0....gotta love it! :clap:

[Knuckles Muldoon]

Very workmanlike, solid game by the boys last night. Seattle wasn't going to beat the Giants in that one.
I thought Sexsmith looked very sharp, his best game yet. I thought the best player out there was Lucic. He was a terror with his skating and hitting and the TBirds were in a world of hurt in trying to handle him. I liked the 16 line, too. When you can throw those boys out there and they don't hurt the team's momentum at all, you know they're doing okay. Blum played a great game and Franson looked a little sharper than in the past few games. Repik was also a standout, especially on the shift where he turned about 5-6 times in the corner with the puck and the Seattle dman looked out of breath trying to keep up with him.
One thing I'm finding thats happening every game is that the Giants win about 80% of the battles in the corners. Even thought we're not the biggest team in the league, the boys sure are taught well how to battle in the corner and shield the puck from checkers. Everyone of the forwards can do it. Its an awful grind for the opposing team to combat.
On the flipside, the PP point combos still aren't looking very smooth. Regardless of who goes out there (Cody/Mikk, Cody/Blum, Blum/Fester) they just aren't moving the puck well from the point positions. They just don't seem to be able to put the puck on the other guy's stick exactly how he wants to receive it. It just isn't improving, IMO. But there's still plenty of time to iron it out.
Overall, a very good game. I'd take another just like it tonight. :thumb:

[Soundy]

I left a message over on the Thunderbirds forum too... gotta give their team credit, they played a good game last night, and DeSerres was outstanding despite the loss - 37 saves is still impressive, and my friend and I both agreed, he fully deserved second star and the solid round of applause that came with it.

I've got a ton of pics from Section 23 that I'm working on cleaning up and getting online, including this one of the second goal...

http://www2.moltenimage.com/photos/giants/IMG_2215.JPG

[Knuckles Muldoon]

:thumb:
Extra cool when you can catch the puck hitting the back of the net like that.

[Soundy]

Thanks :) Too bad the safety netting was in the way... couple seats more the left woulda been perfect. Oh well, can't complain, they were free tickets :clap:

[Swando]

Very workmanlike, solid game by the boys last night. Seattle wasn't going to beat the Giants in that one.
I thought Sexsmith looked very sharp, his best game yet. I thought the best player out there was Lucic. He was a terror with his skating and hitting and the TBirds were in a world of hurt in trying to handle him. I liked the 16 line, too. When you can throw those boys out there and they don't hurt the team's momentum at all, you know they're doing okay. Blum played a great game and Franson looked a little sharper than in the past few games. Repik was also a standout, especially on the shift where he turned about 5-6 times in the corner with the puck and the Seattle dman looked out of breath trying to keep up with him.
One thing I'm finding thats happening every game is that the Giants win about 80% of the battles in the corners. Even thought we're not the biggest team in the league, the boys sure are taught well how to battle in the corner and shield the puck from checkers. Everyone of the forwards can do it. Its an awful grind for the opposing team to combat.
On the flipside, the PP point combos still aren't looking very smooth. Regardless of who goes out there (Cody/Mikk, Cody/Blum, Blum/Fester) they just aren't moving the puck well from the point positions. They just don't seem to be able to put the puck on the other guy's stick exactly how he wants to receive it. It just isn't improving, IMO. But there's still plenty of time to iron it out.
Overall, a very good game. I'd take another just like it tonight. :thumb:

Hey Knuckles --for what its worth I thot Blum was the best player on the ice last night. He does everything right ..doesn't take unnecessary chances and gets a shot towards the net regardless of the strength of shot! He has esculated himself to the # 2 D man in my opinion (very close to Festerling) - the nod going to Blum for his offense.

[Beaner]

Great photo Soundy and welcome to the site.

Failed to mention this but did anyone else notice the amount of snow on the ice last night and the amount of players just tripping over the lines etc.?

Both goaltenders went for a spill int he same spot last night as well. The one corner over by Section Z seemed to be particulary bad.

Was the ice overly crappy or is it just me?

[old_time_hockey]

well in the 1st I thought that perhaps the T-Birds skates weren't sharpened properly. Cause they seemed to be falling in their own end. But then Sexsmith has a bit of a tumble in the 2nd.

I felt that the building was a little more warm tonight. Maybe that was just me.

But when I was watching the pregame warm up at the Giants end, Reese was the last one off and he spun to take one last shot and then fell.

[dondo]

actually I was pretty cold last night at the game, and the game itself didn't really give me a chance to get pumped up or warmed up with un-due activity ;)

Well the Giants proved they could play a game according to the book and they did just that and entertained the crowd just about as much as a fifth grader reading aloud to a gym full of dis-interested parents and students.

anyway sorry its late -- I went out last night after the game :D

enjoy


Giants Egg T-Birds
Vancouver 3 Seattle 0

The Vancouver Giants were carrying a 9 game winning streak into their home tilt versus the T-Birds, with 20 yr old Dustin Slade winning 5 and 17 yr old Tyson Sexsmith notching 4 in their first 9 games . They came in the only team in the CHL to be undefeated and were hoping to continue their streak. Tyson turned away 12 shots for the shut-out win, most them of the scoring chance variety to earn first star honours. Usually a goalie turning away that few of shots would not even get star consideration, but Tyson had to be good and at times great to preserve the goose egg – er.. thunderbird egg.

The game itself was not as fast as both teams were capable of playing, as it seemed to be more of a chess match kind of tilt than and end-to-end rushing affair. Both squads sacrificed their bodies blocking shots, but also played a patient tight checking game as opposed to rock the body forecheck game, much to the crowd’s disappointment. The Thunderbirds 16 yr old netminder, Jacob DeSerres, was the reason the score wasn’t completely out of reach for the Seattle team by the end of the first period. He kept his eye on the puck and was in position for almost all of the Giants 15 first period shots, save one. The Giants opened the scoring on their first PP of the game, when Milan Lucic pulled the loose puck out from under DeSerres pad and snapped it into the net, for his second of the young season. Tim Kraus and Jonothan Blum got the assists and it was some great puck-handling and tenacious work by Kraus which got the puck to the net in first place. The G-men peppered the net for the rest of the period, out-shooting the Thunderbirds 15 to 4 and trading penalties with the Seattle squad throughout the first stanza.

The second started out the same type of game as the visiting T-Birds seemed to have no interest in playing a speed game, which is a strength of theirs, but rather to slow down the game to a walking pace. Not terrifically entertaining for the home crowd as there was not even heavy physical play to balance out the pace of this snorer of a text book game. The Giants managed to notch another one late in the second though to increase their lead to two. After spending the period being thwarted by shot blockers and stifling collapsing D in front of the T-Bird net the Giants managed to get the puck moving around on yet another man-advantage. John Flatters dug the puck out and drifted it to Mario Bliznak, who fed Cody Franson at the point. Franson finally found some room and threaded a rocket of a rising slapper into the top corner past DeSerres. I don’t think DeSerres saw it until it was in the back of his net as the traffic in front of the net was grid locked.

The third had a bit more flow to it as the Seattle squad opened up their play and got a couple of short-handed chances most of which were thwarted by hustling forwards and defenseman rushing back into their zone to cut off angles and clear the pucks off sticks. Mario Bliznak made one brilliant come-back move as he swept the puck off a T-Bird’s stick in the slot with a diving slide. Jonothan Blum had been caught and was gamely covering the pass but it was Bliznak’s effort which took away the scoring chance. The Giants put the game away with about five minutes to go in the game. Don Hay had been playing some of the younger players when he noticed the effort dropping on some of the regulars, and it helped get the third goal of the game for the G-Men. Michal Repik who had been working hard all night long got the puck down low to 16yr old Lance Bouma. Bouma worked the puck hard along the back-boards maintaining possession until he found a seam out front. Bouma would thread Tim Kraus lurking in the slot just to the right of T-Bird net and Kraus would power the pass past DeSerres, for his second point of the game. The period ended with the ubiquitous “warm up the bus” chant only this time being sung in a ‘row, row, row your boat’ style as the fans couldn’t manage to get their rhythms synchronized, but that didn’t stop Tyson Sexsmith from getting his shut-out or cause un-due grief on the ice.

The Giants went 2 for 11 on the PP, while stoning the T-Birds for all six of their PP chances. The shots were 40 –12 in favour of the Giants by the final buzzer. The game itself was a patient style of play with few fireworks and not too many big hits, except one early on by JD Watt who stapled a player to the boards which though clean had a head of steam which could and should have garnered a charging penalty, but there were so few hits that letting that one go and actually elevate the 6800 in the building was probably more of a small mercy than a game turning event. Both ‘tenders earned starts for their work as they were both pressed upon to make timely stops throughout the game with the bulk of the action tilted toward the Seattle net.

The Giants travel down the road for the second in two night versus their southern neighbour, as the teams will face-off at the Key Arena for their re-match. Seattle, hungry for a win at home, will be putting former Kelowna goaltender Derek Yeomans between the pipes and will be expected to play a more up-tempo style of hockey. The T-Birds have lost both of their home games in a shoot-out and it was Tyson Sexsmith who victimized them last time the G-Men were down the road, in a barn-burner of a tilt. Dustin Slade will most likely get the nod for tonight’s (Oct 14th) game as coach Hay seems to be giving both of his ‘tenders equal playing time early in this season. Puck drops at 7:05pm.

Three Stars
1 – Tyson Sexsmith
2 – Jacob DeSerres
3 – Brett Festerling

[SectionNDeserter]

Was the ice overly crappy or is it just me?Looks like the ice surface is lit by a couple of 40 watt light bulbs to me.

[dondo]

no the lights are pretty bright in the arena SnD.. so I guess the internet feed didn't reflect that though.

after the game it looke dlikethe ice-makers were out scraping down that end of the ice with a power scraper Beaner, so it might have been the case.

actually it flet colder than it has in the past close to the ice where I sit.. so the problem could have been a frost layer -- but I'm not sure. there were definitely parts of the ice which were more trecherous though.

[Soundy]

yeah I really hate the netting but free is free -- good to see you found your way here -- now this is Giants talk isn't it.

Oh hell yeah! :)


great photo -- when I wrote that Cody put it top corner I didn't know how top corner it was -- amazing resolution on such an active shot -- what camera are you using soundy?

Canon Digital Rebel, Canon EF 75-300mm lens... not a very sharp lens, unfortunately, I've been rather disappointed with it, but I got it a long time ago for my 35mm Rebel camera. More technical shot details available on request :)


oh and OTH -- Sexsmith turned away 12 shots not 17 but w/e -- I'd say eight of those were good scoring chances, and four of those excellent scoring chances -- he earned his star tonight no doubt.

Who said 17? I didn't say 17. I don't think...?

Anyway... a shutout will almost always earn a goalie a game star... not always #1, but often.

BTW, I put a few more shots up... may be some more as I get around to cleaning them up. Not a lot of fancy tweaking, just some quick adjustments in Picasa and uploaded to Picasa Web Gallery (very nice system, BTW).
http://picasaweb.google.com/soundy106/GiantsVsThunderbirds13Oct06



Looks like the ice surface is lit by a couple of 40 watt light bulbs to me.

The lighting in the Coliseum is pretty old-school... buncha daylight floods all in one huge bank along the west side of the roof, so it can be rather uneven, especially toward the ends of the rink. And of course, I was on the opposite side from the lights, so the players were mostly backlit, particularly around center ice. We were on the other side, section 8, row 19 (about the altitude of K2), for the season opener... lighting was better from there, but of course, we were a lot farther away. I'll get some of those pics online soon too...

[dondo]

very nice soundy - the backlit thing kinda adds to it I think -- I assume if you are not a photographer by trade you are an experienced shutter bug at the very least.

Hopefully you get to go to more games -- so we can see more of your shots. Shots of the Giants are a rarity unless you want to pay due to the photography monopoly by the "official" photographer who does not share it seems.

I was hoping that the Giants brain trust woud have more pictures of the players in action available on their new site, but I haven't realy gone all through the site yet so maybe they do and I haven't discovered it yet. I'm still used to going to other sources than the official VG site because it would make me mad everytime I surfed there.

and btw no you didn't say 17 shots, it was someone else.

[Soundy]

very nice soundy - the backlit thing kinda adds to it I think

It's okay as an "effect" but you really lose a lot of detail in the players' faces that way; without a lot of selective editing you can't easily brighten the faces and jerseys without all the ice around becoming "blown out".


I assume if you are not a photographer by trade you are an experienced shutter bug at the very least.

What you would call a "serious hobbyist" :)


Hopefully you get to go to more games -- so we can see more of your shots.

Buddy and I have a 9-game pack for sec. Q, so I'll be going to at least 8 more :) Next scheduled one is the 21st, but I also have a Lions ticket for that night, so I'll either be swapping my Lions ticket with another buddy for his for the 28th, or my Giants ticket with that buddy for one of his later in the year... haven't figured that one out yet...


Shots of the Giants are a rarity unless you want to pay due to the photography monopoly by the "official" photographer who does not share it seems.

Well if that's the guy I saw between the benches taking pics, I can see why - he's got probably 20+ grand worth of gear there, between at least two bodies (likely pro-level digital) and the massive L-series lenses [drooool]. He's gotta pay for all those toys!


I was hoping that the Giants brain trust woud have more pictures of the players in action available on their new site, but I haven't realy gone all through the site yet so maybe they do and I haven't discovered it yet. I'm still used to going to other sources than the official VG site because it would make me mad everytime I surfed there.

There is a "Photo Gallery" link from the Fan Zone section, but it just goes to the photog's own website, which is kinda cheezy if you ask me... plenty of web-based photo gallery systems are free and easy to set up, it wouldn't kill the webmaster to add a dedicated one. Only thing I can think of is that the photog actually pays them a chunk of change for that link, kind of a "sponsorship" deal...


and btw no you didn't say 17 shots, it was someone else.

Okay... had me worried I was going senile there for a sec :)

[old_time_hockey]

and btw no you didn't say 17 shots, it was someone else.

It was I who said 17.

When I checked out the final shots off the score board the 2 kinda looked like a 7. I never did check the official score sheet online.

That pic is pretty awsome. No matter how hard I try I can never get a shot of a puck making the net ripple. Good job.

[dondo]

wow thanks for the detailed response Soundy -- hey did they give you grief for bringing in that kind of gear - or was it "hidden" if you don't mind me asking.

yeah I thought it was beaucoup lame for the link to go to his website, and I think he and the Giants are shooting themselves in the foot (head?) by making it completely prohibitive to gain access to some "free" pics for the fans.

Adding good pictures to your sig or something generates extra interest for the team imo and the photog would get some of that generated interest for his high-end stuff -- large format -- highly expensive limited editions instead of nickel and diming the little guy -- but that's just how I see it.

The photographers I know, know that their real income comes from selling the big market stuff, and then taking some of the regular shots and making cards or something accessible for the small spender.

Hey I'd even pay five bucks for a set of all the players in action shots in a post card format. Not having any available seems pretty damn petty to me.

But whatever we'll have you as a seasons ticket holder by next year anyway -- and yeah the back-lit is definitely an effect, but it didn't ruin your pictures in the end.

[rinkrat]

yeah I thought it was beaucoup lame for the link to go to his website, and I think he and the Giants are shooting themselves in the foot (head?) by making it completely prohibitive to gain access to some "free" pics for the fans.


I have bought pictures from Chris(the photographer).They are very reasonable in price,in fact he gave me extra at no charge.He is not making a fortune off of this and started the site for parents of the players to get pictures of their kids.He will take custom pictures of you in the stands or your favourite player,whatever.Just ask.
Personally I think he is providing a great service.I got a picture of my kid standing beside the tunnel,while Lucic walks through.C/w autograph.I think it was ten bucks!

Here it is...http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?eventorder?photo=05C5003N000082&start=0&album=0&adjust=-1

[TheBrass]

Rinkrat, I agree, Chris is a fantastic guy. We bought some copies of the photo that was used on the cover of last years Season Ticket booklet and he was awesome about helping us figure out what size would be best for framing and presenting the photo at it's best. Not only that, but we paid him for 2 copies and got 4. Truly an awesome guy!! :thumb:

[Soundy]

wow thanks for the detailed response Soundy -- hey did they give you grief for bringing in that kind of gear - or was it "hidden" if you don't mind me asking.

They never even glanced at my camera bag. Security at the Coliseum is pretty slack ;) I don't have any problem at the Lions games either - they almost always check my camera bag (make sure I'm not sneaking in booze, I guess) but don't seem to care about the camera.

The Canucks are a whole other matter. Had no problem at Superskills, but for the games, they let me bring it in, but warned that it would be confiscated until after the game if I used any lens longer than a 70mm (kinda stupid if you ask me, since my older 35mm Rebel kit lens is a 28-90mm zoom; add couple teleconverters and you can get right up close anyway).

Nobody made a fuss about it for the World Juniors games I hit last year either.


yeah I thought it was beaucoup lame for the link to go to his website, and I think he and the Giants are shooting themselves in the foot (head?) by making it completely prohibitive to gain access to some "free" pics for the fans.

I don't know what the situation is there... the website looks like it's done by someone with very little time to maintain it, probably using some kind of simple template, so they probably welcome the guy taking the load of maintaining a photo gallery.

Stupid thing is, the photo site isn't dedicated to Giants photos either...


Adding good pictures to your sig or something generates extra interest for the team imo and the photog would get some of that generated interest for his high-end stuff -- large format -- highly expensive limited editions instead of nickel and diming the little guy -- but that's just how I see it.

You're welcome to create a sig using any of mine... just stick my name on'em :)


But whatever we'll have you as a seasons ticket holder by next year anyway -- and yeah the back-lit is definitely an effect, but it didn't ruin your pictures in the end.

You'd have me this year, if I could afford it. I'm lucky I talked the wife into letting me get the 9-pack!