Sunday 2 December 2012

Hitmen Beat Ice. Bears Everywhere

  The Saddle Dome was packed this afternoon. Sadly the majority of people there weren't real hockey fans. Just people there to throw teddy bears on the ice. These two fat women behind me were arguing about where the Ice played. One kept saying Cranbrook the other was giving her shit saying no they play in Kootenay. I know times can be tough but I am pretty sure even on welfare a person would be able to afford to buy a teddy bear for a child at Christmas. You want to make a kids Christmas next season have the Xbox throw. Could you imagine 19,000 fans hucking Xbox's and Play Station 3's onto the ice.
  The Hitmen came on strong right out of the gate.Every player looked hungry to be the one to score that first goal. They should almost have Teddy Bear night every game. They had a ton of chances. Mackenzie Skapski made some terrific saves his defencmen were nice enough to allow him to have so many shots. Why go to goalie school when your defence can just be lazy and give you all the practise you need in the game right? Then with just over 6 minutes remaining in the first Padakin scored on a beautiful pass from Macek. Then down came the bears, thousands of them. Then I assumed that they would of put a bulldozer on the front of the trucks and pushed them all out of the rink. But they brought bags out and the Hitmen and volunteers bagged them. Then after that they cleaned the ice, then finished the period, then had a 2 minute break, and started the second period.
   In the second period exactly 2 minutes in Alex Roach scored his 7th of the year from Macek and Jones. 8 Seconds later Rissling and Mike Simpson dropped the gloves. Rissling got the upper hand in that one. Laterin the second period Brock Montgomery put the ice up on the board with a goal assisted from Sam Reinhart. Montgomery scored a hat trick against the Hitmen last time the Ice were here in their 4-0 win.
  Then in the third period Greg Chase got a pair of almost identical goals from the left side of Skapski at the hashmarks to make it 4-1.

  Then with just under a minute left in the game Hurley added insult to injury to his old team by dropping the gloves with Jagger Dirk. The Hitmen played well very well. The Ice played as they look on paper and not like a great team the last time they were at the Dome. They are young and its going to be  a long season. Skapski had a solid game in net for the Ice.
  Next up is in Cranbrook on Tuesday..

Saturday 1 December 2012

Blades Beat Hitmen

 

   I have read so much stuff on the internet about how the Blades suck shit and are a horrible team. But look at the roster. There are a lot of great players or appear to be on paper. The Blades had really high expectations coming into the season being a Memorial Cup host team. There has even been talk about not letting the Blades participate in the Memorial Cup if their record continues to be as horrible as it has been. After watching them beat Calgary last night 4-0 there is a whack load of great things to say about this team and only one visible downfall that I along with the people sitting around me noticed.
  Goaltender Andre Makarov was fantastic. Its not like the shut out was just handed to him on a silver platter he made great saves. Forwards Stransky, Nicholls, and McColgan were dominate and very entertaining to watch every shift they were out there. 16 year old forward Matt Revel was amazing and is looking like a potential 1st round pick in 2014. Pretty amazing the kid was passed up in the 2011 bantam draft and acquired by the Blades as a list player. Dietz is also a better defencman than Siemens something I would of never thought which just goes to show never form opinions until you have actually watched teams play. Also never form opinions on from what you just see on paper ie stats. All in all the Blades look like a great team and there record doesn't show it. Rumours have circulated via the interweb and so called gossip which is a shit way to form an opinion.
  Being a Jets fan I was also a little disappointed in the play of Lukas Sutter. He could of had an off night just not something I would of expected from a second round pick but then again when I seen the Broncos Lowry play awhile back I thought the same thing.
   To the one thing that looked so visible to holding the Blades back and almost making the team look like a laughing stock. One minute small thing is captain Brendan Walker. Don't let the garbage goal and 2 assists (one on Revels first goal which almost looked like after the puck went in Walker made a point to go up to the ref to make sure he got the assist) fool you. This kid is horrible. I don't know if it was watching him in warm up take massive pee wee wind up slap shots at his goalie from inside the hash marks or the way the 2 year old shuffles his feet with one hand on the stick when he skates. What the hell is he doing out there? Most over rated over hyped player I have ever seen in sports period. He got a bunch of ice time he didn't deserve and I can not believe any sane person would pencil him into a WHL roster let alone let him wear a letter on his jersey. I have seen numerous players play where I shake my head at but this kid gave me neck cramps. Trade him a way for a few water bottles and the Blades will have no issues being memorial cup contenders.
  The Blades better do something this year because with a roster chalked full of 19 year olds the next few seasons may be a little rough minus the presence of Revel.
  The stars were Revel, Makarov, and McColgan and that was bang on in the order they should of been.