2014-2015 roster

[calcheyup]

Musil to miss at least the first round.

[Moonergroupie]

Adamson going back in. Tough loss for the Rebels. Musil has been hurt lots in his young career. I guess that is what sometimes happens when you play hard every shift.

[calcheyup]

It hurts, but at the same time the Rebels did not lose the same player that we saw the first two months of the season. Musil had 14 points and was -5 in 38 games after returning from being hurt. I don't feel his absence is going to significantly affect the outcome of the series.

[Moonergroupie]

Looks like one gamble didn't pay off for the Rebels as Mismatch has decided to play hockey in North Dakota next year.

Big win by the Rebels tonight. Toth giving them a chance to win every game so far in the series. Going to have to see some points go up from Sheen, Bleackley and Maxwell for them to make it thru this round though.

Would be happy if Polei could just hit the net half the time. He is sure getting some quality chances.

[hockey4]

^^ IF i'm not mistaken he is only 16, so thus he is still a few years from college, and i believe NCAA cannot offer actualt scholarships until high school is complete, so these are always loose commitments. That was the case with my cousin playing volleyball anyway. She commited at 17, but it really didnt mean much until the next year. A quick twitter search leads me to believe he will be on that us program team next year. Reports online all have him as an elite player, so i'm sure once he's drafted the Rebs would still have a shot at him. Good gamble IMO, mid to late pick. Would be nice to get the other american kid signed!

Big win, need one tmro!

[SectionNDeserter]

^^ IF i'm not mistaken he is only 16, so thus he is still a few years from college, and i believe NCAA cannot offer actualt scholarships until high school is complete, so these are always loose commitments.

Mismash is technically a 15 year old (not eligible to play in the WHL full time this season), so it is actually quite an accomplishment for him to play for UND next season, even before completing high school!

Reports online all have him as an elite player, so i'm sure once he's drafted the Rebs would still have a shot at him. Good gamble IMO, mid to late pick. Would be nice to get the other american kid signed!

In the training camp that they attended here, he seemed to be significantly behind Pratt in a lot of areas. Pratt looked like he could have played here this season, if he were eligible. All along there seems to have been less interest by Mismash in the WHL route, so this news doesn't really surprise me. I would be disappointed if Pratt went NCAA though, as I think they are really counting on him to be their '1st round pick' from that draft year.

[Moonergroupie]

Few things I noticed tonight.
The first half of the game, MH won a pile of face offs. Once a MH d-man took the face off and won it.
MH is unbelievable/borderline cheating on the line change. There was a pile of line changes tonight where they had 10 players on the ice. The guys coming on the ice are going full steam and getting into the play before the guy going to the bench is off. In contrast, there was once tonight where the Rebels had two players on the ice and once where they had three. The time with two, they were lucky they didn't get scored on as there were 5 MH players bearing down on Nogier and he had no one to give an outlet pass to.
Really have to wonder what the coaching staff is thinking having Bleackley and Sheen going against MH's top line when you have Kopeck and Johnson available. Has taken Bleacks and Sheen out of the game offensively and they aren't what I would consider the top defensive guys on the team. Sutter switched things up in the third and Bleacks finally came alive and every time Cox touched the puck in the third, Johnson plastered him into the boards.
I honestly thought the way Bleackley played the first two periods that he was hurt again. Just couldn't see how the captain could possibly come out and play that slow, with such a lack of desire, if he wasn't. But then, he picks it up in the third so who knows.
The line of Polei, Feser and Gay was brutal tonight and Polei lead the charge. Poor decisions with the puck and fanning on just about every shot he had. He had two hits in the game. The first coming 10 minutes into the second period. A guy like him should be hitting someone every second shift. He only got a couple shifts in the third so obviously the coaching staff felt the same way. These guys never play against MH's top line so there is no excuse for them not being able to least dominate the odd shift.
Toth played well again tonight. Basically no chance on the first three and a breakaway on the fourth.
Outside of Fluery and Johnson, I thought the rest of the Rebels players forgot they were playing playoff hockey. Will need a complete change of effort from a lot of guys if we are going to get to see another home game in Red Deer this season.
A first round exit with nothing out of Sheen and Gay is going to make a couple trades sting a little bit harder.

[hockey4]

Outside of Fluery and Johnson, I thought the rest of the Rebels players forgot they were playing playoff hockey. Will need a complete change of effort from a lot of guys if we are going to get to see another home game in Red Deer this season.
A first round exit with nothing out of Sheen and Gay is going to make a couple trades sting a little bit harder.

Yep, not their best effort, but full credit to the Tigers in the second period. Thought Bleackley looked lethargic tonight. Perhaps that lengthy injury effected his conditioning??

I fail to see how those trades "hurt" at all, now, or if they lose out. Got multiple high end picks for the Leshysyn (spelling??) kid, and if they dont like Gay, then i'm sure he'll be dealt this summer. I haven't liked Gay much since he got here, but i'll be honest, maybe the team knew what they were getting, given the other picks that came RD's way. Regarding Sheen, Burke did not play himself onto the team, and would probably find himself out of the lineup in the playoffs anyway. Just not a kid that fits in on a top end team at that age IMO. Like the trades now, like them in a week if we get beat out.

At the end of the day, the team finished fourth in the conference, not bad at all for a growing team. Still cant believe we're playing MH in round one haha.

[SectionNDeserter]

In contrast, there was once tonight where the Rebels had two players on the ice and once where they had three.

Not sure if it is something that Sutter doesn't work on at all, but it has always been a weakness with this team as far back as I can remember. In their best seasons, they were average with their line changes.

Bleackley played the first two periods that he was hurt again. Just couldn't see how the captain could possibly come out and play that slow, with such a lack of desire, if he wasn't. But then, he picks it up in the third so who knows.

I didn't think he really picked things up a great deal in the third. He wasn't really hitting at all like he usually does. I think he may be still hurt. However, on the Tiger's second goal, Bleackley was about 40 feet away from his defensive assignment Cox (the goal scorer), doing nothing--that has nothing to do with playing hurt. Playing injured or not, he had a bad game overall.

The line of Polei, Feser and Gay was brutal tonight and Polei lead the charge. Poor decisions with the puck and fanning on just about every shot he had. He had two hits in the game. The first coming 10 minutes into the second period.

I think you may have missed a number of Polei's hits.... It is becoming pretty clear that he doesn't have a real natural goal scoring ability, as you say, he does fan on a LOT of shots. But, he was a monster on the boards again last night.

I would be happy to see Feser and Nell and Gay scratched for game 5, in favor of Reese Johnson, Adamson and Strand. You could almost replace Nell with Trevor Martin at this point and not really notice, as he looks more and more out of place in this league with every game that rolls by.

Toth played well again tonight. Basically no chance on the first three and a breakaway on the fourth.

First goal was unscreened, and not a very hard shot, I think he probably would like that one back. He didn't really have much chance on the rest of them. He did make some nice saves the rest of the game to keep them in it though.

Outside of Fluery and Johnson, I thought the rest of the Rebels players forgot they were playing playoff hockey.

If Fleury played like he did last night, for the rest of the season, the Rebels would have probably won the central division. It was about the 4th or 5th time this season that it looked like he was really trying at all. I thought Johnson, and also Kopeck had a lot of hustle. I thought that Mahura had a decent game as well, just seems to keep getting better every game.

Cote made about a dozen passes of the 'head-scratching' variety, including one where he passed it straight to a Tiger forward while all of his teammates were on a line change on the other side of the ice. On top of that, most of the rest of his passes were way behind, or way ahead of the intended recipient.

A first round exit with nothing out of Sheen and Gay is going to make a couple trades sting a little bit harder.

The trade for Sheen was made to give the Rebels a chance to even make the playoffs. Without him in the lineup, they probably have closer to 200 goals this season, than 240. They gave up an unproven guy that was drafted 145th overall, and a defenseman they were ultimately going to release, and also recieved a 5th round pick back in the deal.

Gay on the other hand, was brought in to make some noise in the playoffs, as well as shore up the overage situation a little for next season. I am not really too worried about this trade either, as they got back a 1st round pick next year, a second round pick this year, and a 7th round pick in two seasons from now. When you add to that, whatever they trade Gay for next season (presumably he isn't going to be back as an overage in Red Deer), they should be able to use him/those picks to acquire whatever big offensive threat that they need to acquire for the Memorial Cup.

[Moonergroupie]

With Regina looking like they are going to have a very solid team next year, that first round pick is looking like it could come late in the first round. If this is the case, Leschyshyn probably would have been much better trade bait for this team than the first round pick might be. We needed Gay to do something for this team to make that trade have value and we have yet to see it. From an experience standpoint, this team needs to go on a decent run in the playoffs this year to prepare themselves for the memorial cup run. Gay and Sheen were brought in to help accomplish this. Barring a huge come back, I can't see how a 5 game, first round loss to MH is going to help this core group gain the experience they need to be Memorial cup competitors next year.

If Reese Johnson is healthy, can't see how his energy alone isn't a huge upgrade to quite a few players that played in last night's game.