Thursday, November 09, 2006

Ultimate sports weekend!

This is gonna be fun! Here's what Jacob and I have going this weekend:

  1. Friday night - Regina Pats vs Medicine Hat Tigers. It's time for the Pats to start imposing their will on visitors to the Brandt Centre. Actually, it's overdue. Let's hope it starts with this game. It'll be nice to catch up with Rod Pedersen during breaks in the action. You may not have noticed, but he's a little busy these days :)
  2. Saturday - Jacob has an indoor soccer game, then we return to the Brandt Centre for the Pats vs. Moose Jaw. Drew Haubrich will be filling in for Rod, so I'll get a chance to catch up with the "Droopy One".
  3. Sunday - another scintillating 1st Communion class over the noon-hour, then the munchkin and I fire up the big screen for the Riders and B.C. Lions in the CFL West final. Geez, if the Riders win Jacob will think a trip to the Grey Cup is a regular occurence for the Green Machine. Ah, so much to learn...

Talk about a swinging bachelor's weekend! Hell, maybe we'll round up some hot chicks and really..................uh, never mind.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just got back from the Dome, and what a waste of $ 15.00. When you pay money to watch that it hurts a lot more than getting in on a press pass.

If you are going to have a tough guy around, make sure he is more than 5"10" and can actually beat someone up. Brownlee is no tough to be sure. They walked all over us after that.

They keep talking about all the talent here. I am saying WHERE? Both our speed and talent has been overrated again this year. No impact euros, no impact 20 yr olds, marginal 18 and 19 yr old and you have a sub .500 team AND it may get worse before they go on the west coast trip. They may be fighting for a playoff spot by the time they get home.

It seems we hear it every game they lose and there has been plenty of them. Guys aren't going to the net, not paying the price, vetern guys not leading well enough, losing battles. It is a re-occurring theme. All Perkins and Hunt have to do is press rewinde and play for the post game comments. Stop already coach, your gagging me. Don't talk about it, DO SOMETHING about it.

Outside of the little push early in the season, the Pats have done nothing. The have lost 7 of their last 8 and only got 4 points out of a possible 16 during that stretch. That equates to 25% efficiency. The time has come to get rid of 4 or 5 players who are simply not helping this team. We need help in just about every area, speed, toughness, skill. Something better start happening soon or this season will get away from them.

Here is a sacred cow for you..The coaches keep harping on the ongoing flaws in their game, yet can't correct it. They don't have the two great euros from last year to lean on. Without them where would they have been last year AND you can see where they are headed this year......Is this the right coaching staff?? I know Hunt has had some international experience with Hockey Canada but look at his team here and what has he ever really won in this league. Bob Lowes and others who were coach of the year, are not in the game right now....what have you done for me lately hey.

There was booing in the Dome tonite and plenty in the section I was in. We were told we were a real contender this year but right now we look like pretenders. This is NOT a team that is going to challenge for the WHL title. It is below .500 on the road and appears to be soon heading for that level at home. I mentioned about keeping the hand close to the button before, the time has clearly come to push it.

Pac58 said...

After last night, I'm more inclined to agree with you. There's a reason I picked Jared Jagow for the post-game interview on CKRM. It's my little way of sending a message to the vets who obviously aren't pulling their weight.

Up until now, I was hoping the loss of Kalus, Tolpeko and Robinson would be offset by improved production from Bernhardt, Festerling, Ross, and more offense from the back end. For the most part, it isn't happening. Not sure why, but it isn't. Your leading goal scorer is a 16 year old. Your goaltending is average, and your blueline isn't playing anywhere near the level that was expected.

The coaches have correctly identified the problems (too many passengers), but the solution continues to evade them. Having said that, I do have confidence in this coaching staff. Not much they can do if the players don't buy in to the system.

Anonymous said...

Well Pete he only thing to do is to make the necessary moves and bring in the players who will buy in.

Since the Moose Jaw game they have tumbled badly. Beating a road weary Lethbridge team and an OT win in PA. The thing is I don't really see any substantive change to the pattern. If you recall the last time the Hat was here we played the same way and the coaches called it awful. A dozen games later and we are still playing the same way. No improvement at all.

I think you know as well as numerous others that there are about 4 or 5 guys who are not giving it all ( maybe because the can't or won't). We are not as fast a team as we think we are and it showed up clearly in the past two home games againt MH. There is at least one D-man and 3 forwrds who are just not good enough to be here. They also have to find a couple of skill guys to replace Kalus and Tolpeko.

Here is thought I'd like you to comment on. The Pats thought they were going to have this great RUN & Gun team this year (NOT) and they were hoping for journeymen to become committee scorers. We have a few guys who are clearly to slow of skaters to be effective. NOW the question: do you think that we should start looking at perhaps playing a much more defensive gane(as opposed to run&gun). We could them maybe look at scoring from turnover chances. We would just be tighter all over. You can se the Hat plays a very tough defensive game and think we got to do the same. Our goals against have steadily incrcreasd and we have to get that down a lot before we start winning much. Last year we had a couple of horses to play run&gun. We don't have the guns this year so maybe we have to change how we play the game. What do you think??

Pac58 said...

Here's the problem, though: To play a grinding, defensive style you need:

1) Forwards committed to back-checking (good luck with this crew!)
2) Physical defencemen (okay, Nick Ross and Craig Schira - maybe Colten Tuebert - then who?)

They just don't have the players to make such a substantial shift in playing styles. The best-case scenario is to try to play an up-tempo style, and start weeding out the players who are either too lazy or too timid to venture into the scary parts of the rink.

Anonymous said...

interesting observations Pete..probably correct. The thing is you build for 3 years to have a team that might be there in April. Then you find out that you are about one bad road trip away from fighting for a playoff spot in a weak division. The lowly Hurricanes have more points than us and they are in last place. If the management of this team don't realize that they are in trouble, the results will speak for themselves in March.

Pac58 said...

Justin Bernhardt gets benched, Levi Lind is a healthy scratch, and the Pats beat Moose Jaw 5-2. Coincidence? I think not.

Anonymous said...

Right on you are !