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11.04.2011

Road Trip, Follow Up

I apologize for not having a game recap from Tuesday's game against the Giants.  I meant to write on Wednesday morning and I've just been super busy at work and wasn't able to get to it until today.

A few quick thoughts on the game.

It was awful.  Of the games that I have seen this season (which is most), this was the worst I have seen the team play.  Vancouver out-worked and out-hustled them from the opening faceoff and never really looked back.  Fortunately for Seattle, Calvin Pickard was truly up to the task and was able to keep the Tbirds in the game for 59 minutes. They actually had a chance to win after Kyle Verdino converted a Power Play goal with just over 6 minutes to play, cutting the deficit to 3-2 but Vancouver was able to hold them off and added an empty net goal to produce the final 4-2 margin.

  • Penalties killed the Tbirds again as they gave up 2 PP goals in 6 chances.  Holding, USC, Delay of Game (twice!) and finally a Too Many Men penalty with 1:25 to play in the game.  These are penalties of the frustrating variety and these are the kinds of things Coach K has to crack down on.
  • Connor Sanvido must be in the doghouse.  It appeared to me that he didn't play a whole lot on Tuesday night and was picked to serve the Too Many Men penalty at the end of the game.
  • At what point do I start to worry about Luke Lockhart, Burke Gallimore and Marcel Noebels.  Combined they have just 20 points in 35 games with a -27 rating. Yikes.
  • It's pretty tough for me to defend Dave Sutter lately as his play has lacked (to say the least)... however... he is still tied for the team lead at +1. Worth noting.
  • I heard someone say that Doty was hurt and wasn't able to play on Tuesday but he is not listed on the weekly injury report. Breaden Laroque is listed as "day to day", Evan Wardley is listed as 1 week and Colin Jacobs is now listed at 1 month+.
  • Branden Troock was one of the few skaters I thought had a decent game for the Birds. Justin Hickman also had a decent game, getting Seattle's first goal.
  • One thing that has driven me crazy about the Seattle teams of the past couple of years is the inability of the players to keep shots from getting blocked and passes from getting intercepted.  This is actually harder than it would seem to the average fan, but other teams seem to be better than we are at getting pucks through to the net and threading passes through to other players.  I'm not really sure how to fix this, but it is extremely frustrating.
Things are about to get very tough for the Birds on this road trip. We can probably expect to see similar results to the ones we have seen out of Everett.  The Silvertips have lost 4 of their 5 games so far on their trip with their only win coming in Red Deer in the shootout. I wish I could be more optimistic, but I'm just not going to expect anything more than about 3 out of 12 possible points on this trip.

2 comments :

Anonymous said...

I heard the scratches on the radio and Thom said that Doty was out with lower body injury. Agreed that Lockhart,Noebels and Gallimore need to step it up. I little less time on Youtube and Twitter might do them good. Lockhart will have to compete harder to get those gritty goals and Noebels will the the goals eventually. The bigger problem is the no heart play of Gallimore. He refuses to get dirty and seems to only get excited for PP minutes. Well the game is 60 min long and he only chooses to participate for 6-8 of those. If he skated as hard to the net as he does to the bench he would be alot better off.

Anonymous said...

"...little less time on Youtube and Twitter might do them good."

Really, grandpa? Maybe we should keep these teenagers from going to the talkies or listening to their favorite radio programme on the radio, too!

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