PA @ Saskatoon

[Raiderfan8]

How was the game in Saskatoon tonight?

[Wildeyes]

maybe ask after the game was played its now 7:48 pm game started at 7pm

[Wildeyes]

lol LOL laff

[Raiderfan8]

McDonald with the game winner! Another win for the boys!

[Five Hole]

Well, the 2 wins against Saskatoon moves the Raiders into 3rd place in the East! nhl
Not bad for a team who many thought would challenge for lowest points in the league this year! :thumb:

[howley]

Pregame - I hope they don't play those Hasslehoff videos tonight.
Blades playing with 3 lines and 5 defense men.


1st pd.
PA had 8 shots. Saskatoon had 7. The most exciting play in this period was an offside that came around the 12 minute mark. A guy went in over the line ahead of the puck. Then touched the puck. That was the play. Amazing...Actually the most exciting thing was watching Rastislav Konecny practice his long jump as he took a giant leap into Gauthier who ducked and Konecny kind of landed on him. Anyways, it was the lamest charging call ever because he basically missed but the leap was so gigantic there is no way you can't call it.

2nd pd.
First goal of the game comes 4 mins into the 2nd. Raiders are on a PP and are cycling around abit. ** their powerplay looked absolutely horrid in the first period. 3 pp's = no shots. ** Logan get's trapped at the side of the net leaving Ottman wide open. Depape throws it to a streaking Ottman at the hash marks. Holtby get's across in time but Ottman roofs it (very nice shot!). 1-0 Raiders.
6 mins later. Menei, Mccrae, Gillies bring it up ice. Ward chips it past ? just over the blue. Gillies turns on the jets and get's to the puck first. He takes a hard hit but makes a beautiful pass to Ryan Menei who is all alone coming in on Deckert. Menei makes a very nice move and the puck ends up in the back of the net. Deckert picks up his jockstrap after the goal. (For those of you confused..."deked out of his jockstrap" is a common hockey saying among broadcasters)

The save of the game came in the 2nd period as the puck as ? made a very nice one timer pass to Ryan Menei (possibly Mccrae). Deckert showed amazing movement as he got across and got a glove on it. That would be the TSN turning point in the game! Very nice save from the BCHL superstar...mehaha.

3rd pd.
Raiders score 6 mins in as Ryan Mcdonald pots his first as a Raider. I am sorry, I don't remember this goal. I remember it happened to my left, it was on the PP. Gillies took a double minor with 13 mins left for checking from behind. That pretty much sealed the win (IMO). Holtby made some real nice saves in the 3rd to keep the Blades in it but goals win games and that's just something the Blades can't seem to find.

3 stars
3 - Deckert
2 - Holtby
1 - Gauthier
Interesting that the winning tender got 3rd and the losing got 2nd. Not right. Whatever.

Game Notes
Raiders
This game was pretty much brutal. Both teams played pretty poorly. Honorable mentions for best Raiders tonight go to Scott Doucett - very strong game at both ends! Jordan Trach - this kid will be unreal good I think. How many 16 year olds do I know that are 6'0 and 215 lbs, built like a friggen ox! Gauthier had a decent game. He and Gillies had something going most of the night. Best player of the game tonight for the Raiders...Andy Smith. I noticed him on more than one occasion. How fast is this kid! Holy crap!
Deckert played solid. Overall the raiders looked like the better sloppy team tonight. Played pretty disciplined hockey...not that they had any reason to get riled up since they didn't take a hit all night. Raiders move into 3rd ahead of Regina. Bah!

Blades
9 game losing streak. 15 goals in 9 games. Avg 1.6 goals in those 9 games. (Stats thanks to Les Lazaruk-Hot 93) Since the Blades rarely win games 1-0. They are having troubles winning at all. Simply there is just no offense. Positive steps are being taken with getting more shots on net. Just need to up the quality of the shots and get some traffic in front and they will go in. Bright spots tonight...the play of Brayden Holtby. Colton Gillies is flying! Put him on a team where he would be surrounded by more talent and I guarantee he is producing some decent numbers. He was flying tonight. Brad Cole had a very solid game on the PK. The Rookie, Gaelan Patterson has appeared to turn up his game. I don't remember seeing Troy Crowley after the first period or Dustin Cameron now that I think about it. Am I right or just not paying attention?

Oh..lastly...both intermissions were David Hasslehoff music videos. No wonder attendance is low.

[Five Hole]

Colton Gillies is flying! Put him on a team where he would be surrounded by more talent and I guarantee he is producing some decent numbers. He was flying tonight.

Uh, is it just me or is Gillies either a) seriously underproducing, or b) seriously overrated?
I mean I get that he has a huge upside, he's a powerful skater, etc , but when you're ranked to go Top 10, don't you at some point have to produce more than he has, regardless of the talent that surrounds you?
I hope next year is his break out year, because it doesn't seem to be happening this year... his rank in the draft is going to sink like a stone if he doesnt pick it up. It wouldnt be the first time a highly ranked bantam and midget couldn't step up at the higher levels.
To live up to the billing, next year he better be top 10 in scoring, and lead Team Canada to gold at the WJC..
And, if putting up numbers isn't his game, then what is? Surely not being a tough guy.. he hasn't had a fight this year. Is he 'hands off' or is he just not asking the right guys?
Hey, I know he's still 17, and I do hope he does live up to his billing one day, because being able to fly out there without scoring points doesn't cut it in the bigs!
Am I way off base here? Flame on, Gillies fans :D

[howley]

definitley not off base. I am not sure the answer to your question of underproducing or over rated. For a long long time I thought the second one was true. I think it still is to a point. During the season he has shown glimpses of amazing offensive talent. He strikes me as more of a playmaker than a scorer and you can't tell me there isn't room for that in the game. He just has a great sense of where guys are or should be. So to answer your question, I think he maybe over rated a bit but at the same time under producing a bit, much like the entire Blades team. He has the foundation to be a very good player. It's just taking the steps off that foundation to get there. I don't know what those are, but the foundation is definitely there and I think few people would disagree with me on that.