Biggest home & home of the year

[patsdude114]

This home & home against the Broncos starting tonight in SC is a huge series, could be the 1st rd match up as well so these teams better get used to seeing each other lots. The Pats haave yet to beat these guys this year dispite some great games, that will change during this home & home we will win at least 1 of these games.

Ideally as a Pats fan would love to see us win them both & have a 12pt lead on them which would assure us 1st in our division easily but igoing to be realistic here & just hope for a split & stay 8pts up on them with us in the drivers seat for 1st in the East Division.

We have a bad habit of playing down to teams level's who are much lower then us in the standings. Look at the game last night against LETH the 1st 11mins we played even worse then the Canes the media timeout I could hear Cameron crystal clear up where I sit & the Pats took over the game from there scoring on the very next shift & again & again & again....... We tend to play better against the better teams which makes for some great entertaining games for us fans to watch.

Go Pats! 1st place can be all ours by the end of this weekend with 3 more wins added into our 5 in a row already.

[Bighat]

It's going to be tough with 2/3 of our 2nd line out. Any word if hunt or Leier will be ready for the weekend.

[Some_Arrogant_Jerk]

I think we will split the home and home. I don't see us being as motivated after winning a game 8-0 and being on a 5 game tear, than the team that's back at home and on the verge of losing any chance of claiming 2nd place.

Especially without Leier. We have to feel the absence eventually. Hopefully Im wrong.

plus swift's goaltending has killed us all year.

[witness]

Any word if hunt or Leier will be ready for the weekend.

Hunt is no where near ready. I will suspect that they will hold him out until playoffs (if they don't shut him down all together). The fact that he was planning on skating this week is way better that I would have suspected after the hit.

Leier is closer. Listed as day to day. but, if he was only going to start skating this week, then most likely he will not be available for the weekend. the protocol is that the player has to be symptom free for 7 - 10 days. So if he was only starting to skate this week then he is another week away.

[RWAH]

I bought the last five games on web cast so looking forward to watching tonight.

We need to build a lead in the standing. The last week of the schedule Swift plays Stoon , MJ MJ and we have PA, Brn, Brn. Stoon and MJ playing for pride while PA and Brn could be playing for a post season spot or to position themselves away from Cal or EDM in the first round.

From March 1 to 8th Swift plays Leth (2) Edm, Brn, Red D 3 games at home and 2 road. The Pats MJ, Leth, Edm, Koot with 1 home and 3 road games

Swift has a little easier schedule but if we keep playing as we have of late it will not matter.

Will be a great finish to the regular season and a build up to the playoffs.

[Some_Arrogant_Jerk]

...why does phil Andrews always have to say "(player) up on a dare"?

just something you notice after awhile that every single player who gets the puck is apparently up on a dare(?). Someone should tell him that saying that isn't mandatory.

[patsdude114]

I will cut us abit of slack tonight without 3 top 6 forwards and also missing a top 4 Dman as well.... we didn't come out prepared that's forsure it was almost like the players had it in their minds that without so many key pieces to our lineup that we were screwed before the opening faceoff... that may of been the case but at least put in the effort to make it look like you want to make a game of it.

Hopefully come Friday Klimchuk & Sinitsyn are back in the lineup, maybe with abit of luck Leier as well but I doubt that one

[chopper]

I will cut us abit of slack tonight without 3 top 6 forwards and also missing a top 4 Dman as well.... we didn't come out prepared that's forsure it was almost like the players had it in their minds that without so many key pieces to our lineup that we were screwed before the opening faceoff... that may of been the case but at least put in the effort to make it look like you want to make a game of it.

Hopefully come Friday Klimchuk & Sinitsyn are back in the lineup, maybe with abit of luck Leier as well but I doubt that one

I agree that some slack is deserved but no too much. If Swift beats us this Friday, we will be scratching to hold onto our position. Nobody gives a crap that we have injuries or how we're surviving. The definition of sympathy can be found between two other words.

In addition watching like I always do is that a few things came to mind.
1. we weren't ready to go, not moving feet and no effort.
2. goaltending wasn't there
3.refuse to play defence
4.still far too damned many needles penalties - another 7 tonight

Even without some players we did enough things wrong to lose anyways. Tripping, check from behind, holding, hit to the head, unsportsmanlike conduct (talking) are all either lazy or stupid penalties.

A great coach once told me that even if you can't score, anyone can play great defence. It's all about hard work, commitment, determination and discipline. In games like these when your shorthanded you have to win them 2-1. You need a strong commitment to playing defence and we didn't have that.

If we're going to win the pennant we may have to do it without some pieces while they are healing. We can concede defeat like we seemed to tonight, or we can do what we need to do in order to win in another way.

[Fight Guy]

Was only able to catch some of this one on the radio. Didn't sound too great. Heard the pre-game and when they said Klimchuk and Sinitsyn were out, I knew that was going to hurt them. That's almost one entire top line. Sounded like they played better in the third.

Leier and Hunt will be back before regular seasons end, and Steel is expected here within days. I really want to see him get into a game here. Maybe even in time for the game in MJ Saturday, which would be nice as I'll be making the drive for the game.

http://www.leaderpost.com/sports/Pat...218/story.html

[chopper]

I have the webcast package but only watched two periods and a bit of the third. It was easy to see we weren't ready to go. A couple shifts in the first and a bit in the third when Swift called off the dogs. We took seven penalties and four were for hooking, tripping, holding. The obstruction fouls were a clear sign we weren't skating. The other three for checking from behind, head shot, and unsportsmanlike were completely unnecessary. This is a continuing problem the Pats better fix. With or without extra bodies we played very poorly. Cameron was pretty upset from his comments on Harder's blog. He has every right to be and he needs to fix the problem(s) in the teams game.

It would be nice to see Steel and perhaps get to see him on the occasional shift. I think he will help our PP (0-5 last night). They need to condition him and make sure his wrist is properly rehabbed. The pace and intensity is pretty high at this time of the season. He will need to be protected somewhat and I hope they ensure that. He can't be looked on for too much but he may add some depth as well as provide some help in selected situations.