(Still not back to full-time blogging, but I thought I'd pop in today (Dec 27th) to see what's what.)
Hey folks, hope your holidays are bursting with health, happiness and the warmth that comes from spending cherished time with loved ones. Towards that end, I'll be spending as much time as possible between now and January 3rd with young Jacob (Edit: and loving every second of it!), and slightly-less-young Yoda (edit: or not! Long story. Trust me, you don't want to know. Some very un-Jedi stuff). That's my idea of a good time, anyway.
And Santa, if you've got room for a couple of extra stocking stuffers:
1) One more year for Brett Favre
2) A supporting cast for Mats Sundin
3) A defenceman for the Regina Pats
And, of course, another gold medal for the Canadian junior national team. That'd cap things off nicely.
13 comments:
Now and November 3rd? That's almost a year!
Happy Holidays Peter Pee.
-Halstead
Oh sure,
be the one radio newsie concerned with accuracy! Maybe that was a Freudian slip, hard to say.
Happy Ha-Ha to you, Mr. Mangler!
Hey Pete - Hope you had a good holiday.
Greg Harder wrote the best article of the year on the Pats today. Are they pretenders or contenders????
Listened to the game tonight..man you gotta start winning outright on the road. A SO loss is still a loss! They still have to dig deeper to find a way to win those.
Don't look now but the Pats are solidly in 4th, PA in 2nd and only 5 points behind Brandon. When is this big move in the standings supposed to happen?. Saskatoon has now won 3 or 4 in a row. The Pats will be lucky to split this weekend if the fire doesn't get lit. Makes you wonder if they are going to be buyers or sellers this Jan 10th.
This weekend should tell the tale. Anything less than three points against Saskatoon and Brandon will be unacceptable. Or maybe Brent already has a deal or two cooking, ideally for a stud defenceman (or two).
Oops, I meant three points against Saskatoon, and hopefully another two points against Brandon New Year's Day.
I sure hope your right both on the points and bolstering the defense. Perhaps a veteran goalie could also be added. I am still unsure about Rowatt to take you deep into the playoffs. I am becoming less and less of a believer in Tommy T as well. As you say a couple of strong D-men might improve our defence and PK...
Going back to an earlier point - David Reekie isn't about to be confused with Patrick Roy, but he looks great playing behind that Everett team. Having said that, Rowatt has not done enough to help his team this season. Not even close.
Unfortunately I believe the Pats thought the new WHL was going to be some run and gun league where you didn't have to pay serious attention to defense.
Most good coaches have found how to defense this offence. WHL stats are lagging NHL stats. Scoring is down in the NHL and heaven forbid, they have bantered about changing the size of the nets to increase scoring. You can see the Pats problem.
The Pats are always looking for the stretch pass FIRST rather than getting back and playing tough zone defense. AND in order to play the run and gun game you have to have some great offenseive talents, which they don't or at least haven't had for the past half season. POINT - look at the European teams. They play on large ice surfaces, call a lot of penalties yet the scores mostly end up 2-1, 3-2 or something to that effect. They play very strict defensive hockey.
That leeds to your point on Reekie. Constantine plays a structured system based on defense first. His goalies play for the first shot only. Rebounds are cleared and he doesn't let his team give up many scoring chances. Hence goalies have great stats. His teams play defense first and use their speed on turnovers to score. Look at his teams goals for/against. Look at his position in the standings and look at the number of high draft picks on his team. Scouts come to watch the best teams in the league, their players are better scouted and drafted and the cycle of success continues. The Pats philosphy is different and so is their level of success. Had Reekie played there as a 17 yr old he probably would have been drafted fairly high. Had leland Irving played for the Pats, would he have been a first rounder? NO WAY.... Its a tale of two philosophies
......and Pete, here is one of my biggest bugs of coaching and management staffs.
Some team people keep saying "were better than our record" "we played well enough to win". I remember Danny Barrett saying it quite often and now it seems that the Pats are saying it quite a bit.
For the last two losses Perkins has said "we played well enough to win"....does he actually see the lunacy of that statement. If you had played well enough to win, you would have won! Parker attempted to say that the team played better than the results of its last road swing. If it played better then why wasn't the record better? I don't think this type of defensive posture helps. If you tell players they played OK but lost several games, what message is being sent!!
Bill Parcells once came unglued at a writer when he suggested that his team was better than its sub .500 record. He curtly told the guy "if our team had played better, our record would be better. They have played poorly so our record is poor. We are where we should be".
If the Pats have any hope for the 2nd half, they had better understand they are not better than their record and if they want to have a better record, they will have to play much better. From now on in things will be close and tight.
She is one with the dark side - beware.
where is Spencer Fraipont? There was a big deal to get him here, now he doesn't even show up on the Pats posted roster.
Man, I'm looking forward to getting to the rink tonight to get some answers to these questions. Right now, I'd only be speculating - which does none of us any good.
As for the evil one - indeed.
Chris Mantyka gave my son his hockey stick 20 yrs ago in the last game at the Dome before the accident. He remembers him to this day.
Fans are very frustrated and they articulated that all around the rink last night. I read Rod's blog and he should know the fans are not mad at him, they are just frustrated. They are frustrated because they were promised something three years ago and it has not been delivered. Rod remembers calling those 8-2 games but we the fans had to pay good money to watch it and support the team.
Fans at the same time must understand that broadcasters have to feed their families. If you call it the way it is in regards to the team, particularly this year, you might not be welcome on the bus. The critiques can be left to the likes of me and other fans equally ticked off(LOL). There is however a ground swell of anger over this years addition of the Pats. There is also strong belief that it starts from the top and goes downward. A LOT of people think that there are management issues, poor scouting, average coaching and over-rated players.ie this team is no faster than any other team in the WHL yet they seem to think they are. Maybe that stems back to scouting which is controlled by the general manager. Top-down.
Our goaltending has been our biggest downfall. We scored 4 in Saskatoon tonite and still lost cause we gave up 5(on 20 shots). When Reekie left many believe Rowatt didn't feel he had any competition, so he regressed and Tommy T has not been the answer. Rowatt will not carry any team past the first round of any playoff series. The Pats can't blame just Rowatt. If they hoped to be a serious contender this year they should have had a proven quality tender and not forced him to carry the mail, because he has not done it.
Hearing that Nick Ross is afraid to hit someone because he might get jumped sickens me. The team mates should be there like flies on sh-t to help and he may have to duke it out a few times as well. Scott Stevens got jumped a lot of times but he never backed down.
We have a big team but we are playing small right now. We have to punish people and maybe even a little dust-up would be in order. This team has got to come together and start playing a little better and whole lot meaner or they will not even make the playoffs. The product we are currently watching is the product of a three year rebuild.....? This team has lots of problems right now..top-down
Post a Comment