Pats sprinting down the home stretch....

[chopper]

Harders blog suggests Wapple right leg is injured. The extent wasn't available but he was under some distress. Hopefully he isn't out too long. Regardless where we end up they need him for the playoffs.

If they don't get 2nd seed they need to try to at least get 5th place. That would mean facing Medicine Hat. That's better than Edmonton or Calgary.

The "cuteness and excuses" surrounding Sinitsyn's mistakes is starting to wear thin. Williams was back to old habits when I thought he had changed. Now a -3 d-man. All in all our defence is our real achilles heel, and it has been so most of the year. There is much wrong with our defence but that's a discussion for another time.

Cameron was quite uncomplimentary about his teams heart and effort (Harders blog) This is twice in a week and he is quite right. Unfortunately that's a bad turn to take considering the situation they are in and what they're supposed to be fighting for.

[sbtatter]

Was Steel playing last night?

[chopper]

Steel didn't play last night and may not play too much if the Pats think they have a shot at 2nd seed. They got Hunt back (2 goals) and Leier (2 assists) so Steel was one of the guys squeezed out.

[sbtatter]

Steel didn't play last night and may not play too much if the Pats think they have a shot at 2nd seed. They got Hunt back (2 goals) and Leier (2 assists) so Steel was one of the guys squeezed out.

Nolan Patrick and Tanner Kaspicks teams are 1 loss away from elimination so Bdn may have them to call on soon. Clagues team is onto the next round.

[patsdude114]

I personally don't think Williams had a bad game at all, was 1 of our better Dmen behind Burroughs. Zgraggen was very bad last night well but no 1 was as bad as Sinitsyn was, Williams +/- was a direct fall back on how brutal Sinitsyn was, I told my buddy in the afternoon after reading the article on Sinitsyn in the LP told him 'watch after his head has swelled from media attention he will crap the bed tonight' which is exactly what happened.

That collision in the crease looked pretty bad for Wapple but the OK player was driven into the ned it was a good non call by the refs, can't recall who the Dman was I want to say Mumby but could be wrong.

EDM makes you skate you arse off in the D zone, half the time they don't even care about setting up a play they just ring the puck around the wall for the Dman to pinch down to maintain pressure, their such a good skating team & they know where to puck the puck where the defensive coverage has no chance at getting it.

[chopper]

Yup it was Mumby who caused that collision, although the Edmonton player made no attempt to get out of the road. Although it doesn't matter I've seen guys called for the same thing.

Sinitsyn's head was completely up his behind. He always wants to over handle or beat a couple guys before making a play. All he had to do on Baddocks goal was make one simple pass and we're out of our end. These gaffes were acceptable early in the year. However one would have thought by now he would have figured it out. Either one quick lead pass or chip it out.

Edmonton's forecheck game is based on it's team speed. They are clearly a faster better skating team than us. As you say Zagraggen wasn't good, but Schacher and Mumby also struggled. Our D had a tough time with Edmonton's speed. Overall our D was substandard. Our forwards couldn't get back quick enough to help at times.

Our forecheck was slow and compete level almost non-existent. Their D moved it out of their zone effortlessly all night. If your going in deep to forecheck you better have speed to get back if you lose possession. Against these fast teams we may have to employ a little more defence first based strategy. Two years ago when they went to the Memorial Cup we won all four regular season games from them. Conacher took their speed out of them with his system. Maybe time to look at a variation of that.

[Fight Guy]

Harder is reporting that Wapple has suffered a badly sprained ankle (but no breaks or tears) and a possible concussion. Pats are hoping he will be able to return in time for playoffs, but have no clue yet. Fuhr will back up MacAuley this weekend. If the weather prevents him from making it in time for tomorrows game, Kurtis Chapman will be called up.

[patsdude114]

Harder is reporting that Wapple has suffered a badly sprained ankle (but no breaks or tears) and a possible concussion.

If he is out for any length of time our chances of possibly winning a series goes out the door. MacAuley could prob sneak out a win or 2 but I don't think over a 7 game series he has what it takes.

Just curious was Harrison still unable to play last night? Cause wow having Mumby play over Harrison doesn't make a lot of sense especially when you know how good of a skating team the OKs are.....if Sinitsyn doesn't give them 2 goals last night it more then likely a different game. Not saying it would of mattered as maybe the OKs press that much harder to get the lead. I think the biggest problem with Sinitsyn's gives away's last night was the time they happened. I mean we just go up 1-0 & 12secs later its tied, had we made them earn that tieing goal it may of been a different story.

[chopper]

If he is out for any length of time our chances of possibly winning a series goes out the door. MacAuley could prob sneak out a win or 2 but I don't think over a 7 game series he has what it takes.

Just curious was Harrison still unable to play last night? Cause wow having Mumby play over Harrison doesn't make a lot of sense especially when you know how good of a skating team the OKs are.....if Sinitsyn doesn't give them 2 goals last night it more then likely a different game. Not saying it would of mattered as maybe the OKs press that much harder to get the lead. I think the biggest problem with Sinitsyn's gives away's last night was the time they happened. I mean we just go up 1-0 & 12secs later its tied, had we made them earn that tieing goal it may of been a different story.

There are a lot of good points in this post PD114.

- I prefer Harrison over Mumby any day. Harrison is a bit bigger and a lot stronger plus he competes harder and is defensively much better. He is usually in good position and is also a puck mover. Maybe he handles Bertolucci better than Mumby did, with a better outcome.

- MacAuley doesn't battle as hard as Wapple, doesn't move laterally as well as Wapple, and isn't near as good on shootouts. MacAuley will have to backstop the Pats if they hope to get 2nd seed, and perhaps further. The next week tells if he does. I'm not feeling too at ease about this happenstance. Now we will see what MacAuley is made of. I think our chances took a big blow.

- When Sinitsyn turned over the puck and they scored you could see the life get sucked out of the team. And instead of knuckling down he fell apart and was useless all game. Those easy goals probably meant the difference of at least getting a loser point or not. Instead of a 3.5 magic number it could have been reduced to 3. Sometimes little things mean a lot.

[Fight Guy]

I really don't like that Harrison hasn't been playing. I hope there is a good reason he isn't playing and not just sitting out in place of Mumby. Harrison is the better, more effective d-man. Mumby has shown in the past couple games why he hasn't been playing all that much the past month. Harrison isn't listed as injured or sick, so this makes me wonder.