Just a quick update here as I have some things I have to take care of this morning before heading down to Portland with some other fans.
Good crowd last night at Gators last night saw the Tbirds fall 4-2 in what was essentially a one goal game. Got to meet some very nice Tbird fans and billets and everyone had a pretty fun time going nuts when the Birds scored their two goals. Next viewing party I hope we can double the number of people and it will be next Friday, stay tuned for confirmation on that.
Overall I thought it was a pretty decent game played by the Birds, they just can't quite seem to put together enough scoring chances to get it done. As fans know, this has pretty much been the case the most of the season but especially since the trade deadline.
The effort is there... which is great to see after some of the early season efforts. The passing and decision making just need to get better. Too many times the Birds are just giving the puck away in situations where a 3 on 2 is developing or the puck is just tossed back to the other team with a bit of applied pressure.
This is the main reason why I don't think this team is really that far away from improvement. Much easier said than done, an improvement in the decision making and the skating from this young crew will help maintain more possession and thus more scoring chances.
That was for the positive crew.
For the negative crew?
Am I happy about another loss... no... the lack of scoring is really frustrating and I'm sure it is frustrating to the team and goaltender Calvin Pickard, who really has to fight for each puck.
The 3rd goal by Beach was really a goal scorers goal and there wasn't really anything Pickard could do to make the save. When a scorer goes to the middle, uses the defender as a screen and rips one in off the post... pretty tough.
While I think all this chatter about Calvin being "tired" is a load of crap.... don't be surprised to see Michael Salmon in one of these next two games. I believe 100% Calvin Pickard isn't tired. I've played 4 games in net in one weekend and I'm 28 and Calvin is 17... he isn't tired. But... it would be nice to see what Salmon's got and might change the mentality of the team in front of him enough to pick up a win.
Let me say again though... nothing against Michael Salmon, but a "tired" Pickard is better than a fresh Salmon. That almost sounded like a cooking recipe.
1 comment :
Have fun in Portland! Watch out for those Oakland, I mean, Portland fans.
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