"We were in a hole, no doubt," Hiller said. "We didn't sag, we pushed. We aren't going to give up, not at home." (Herald)
The first half of the game it seemed like the Ams were chasing the Royals. Like Spokant said, "Victoria has an aggressive forecheck. Jerks." Pretty much. Thankfully the boys were able to keep battling and firing away to come back from the deficit and score 6 in a row. Full marks to the Royals, they battled hard.
Short, short bench. It seemed like Shinny and Holly were on the ice the whole night. I really wish the WHL would keep track of ice time. Or if they do, that they'd post that stat somewhere. I thought with the big lead that Dallman, Nickles, even Walter would get some more ice time, but they didn't get a ton.
With the win, the Americans did clinch a playoff spot. Hiller got his 200th WHL win. Oh my gosh, did you see how happy Sam was with his goal?? How exciting for the kid, he's worked hard and deserves it. It was a hell of a shot too, I hope he keeps that up.
I'm still totally impressed with Jesse Mychan. Also impressive? The penalty kill, even without Mason don't get me wrong, I'd would rather have Mason killing penalties than most anyone, but they did pretty well without him. Nate MacMaster has stepped up and at least partly filled the role left open by Mason's absence.
I miss Mason. And Lil' Mess and Malte too. All these guys chew up some significant minutes, especially Mason. I guess the bright side is the injuries are now and not right before or during playoffs. I'd rather see no injuries though, obviously.
Ok, this writing thing is feeling forced today so I'll just stop now.OOooo, but I will share this, I saw this a while ago out by the Boise Cascade plant in Wallula, finally I had enough time to pull over and snap a pic of it.
In the words of Craig West (I don't know if he said it last night, but it's a famous Westy-ism)--it won't hang in the Lourve, but it'll work. That was last night's game against Seattle.
Seattle is not a very good team, but they skate hard and they caused a lot of chaos in the neutral zone last night. Things were sloppy all over the place so in that sense they had a pretty good game plan.
At one point I remember thinking, "I really like the hustle of Jesse Mychan." He had another outstanding game. The lines were being shuffled with Lil Mess, Malte Milkballs, and Captain Mason out. Dallman got several shifts, Nickles a few, and I think I saw Lukas Walter take one or two. So definitely a short bench. I can't imagine tonight will be much different.
With his second empty net goal tonight, Justin Feser reached the 100-goal mark for his WHL career. He is now the 15th player to ever record 100 goals with Tri-City...By playing tonight, Adam Hughesman moved past Kruise Reddick (315) into 6th on Tri-City’s all-time games played list...With the win tonight, Tri-City has recorded 20+ home wins in six consecutive seasons...Tonight, Americans fans raised $21,260.77 during the annual fundraiser for the Tri-Cities Cancer Center Foundation. In the seven-year history of the pink ice event, Tri-City fans have now raised over $114,074. (Tri-City Americans)
"I thought Seattle played very well," Tri-City coach Jim Hiller said, "the best they have played here recently. Sometimes you get used to winning and scoring a lot of goals, but in the second half (of the season) there aren't as many goals and the games are tighter."
"I thought our penalty kill did a good job again," Hiller said. "We needed them."
"It feels good to get home and regroup," Mychan said of the Americans' first home game since going 1-1-1-0 on their last road trip. "We didn't get the wins we wanted. Tonight, we felt good. A long week of practice paid off. You enjoy it when you know you did it right." (Herald)
The Victoria Royals are in the building tonight, coming off a 6-5 loss to Spokane last night. Should be a good one. The boys are fighting injury, fatigue, last week they were battling the flue so I'm sure there's some left-over bits of that, just gotta come out and battle hard.
"Low socioeconomic status, lack of medical coverage, barriers to early detection and screening, and unequal access to improvements in cancer treatment are factors that contribute to the difference in survival rates."
After each screening, Cancer Center staff will follow-up with you
regarding your results. You are encouraged to share these results with
your healthcare provider.
Screenings are offered at no-cost. On occasion there may be restrictions or limitations.
To learn more about upcoming dates of our screenings, please contact Connie, our Resource Coordinator, by email or at (509) 737-3420. (TCCC)
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Seattle is in town for the annual Breast Cancer Awareness night. Hopefully the pink ice and the cause will bring in a big rowdy crowd to get the boys pumped up. They've also had a few days off for some rest and recuperation. The T-Birds are never exactly easy to play against. They may not be very good, but they'll make you work. And shots on goal, shots on goal, shots on goal. That is always the game plan against Calvin Pickard.
A really awesome piece by Dylan Wagner over at Backhand Shelf about ethics and writing about hockey. Maybe I found it more interesting than most since I am a blogger and many of you aren't (that I know of).
Blogs are, however, slowly infringing on the hallowed ground of journalism. The advent of the internet is gradually squeezing out print media and forcing it to adapt or die. As time goes by, more and more bloggers will be setting foot into press boxes and locker rooms in arenas around the NHL.
The issue is, journalists have a code of ethics and standards. They also tend to have editors. The blogosphere generally has neither.
To what extent should bloggers be expected to follow those same standards? Without the same editorial oversight of a newspaper, how are bloggers to know when a line has been crossed or more research is needed? It’s an important question to ask: how many of you get your hockey news and opinions from a newspaper and how many get it from hockey blogs? It’s a bit of a biased question, given where you’re reading this, but it’s worth asking nonetheless.
[...]
I think that’s one of the fears of many teams in the NHL: where is the accountability? Who is responsible for content on a blog? If a newspaper reporter says something false about an NHL team, the general manager can call up the newspaper and hold them accountable. After all, more than one person is responsible for an article in a newspaper: there is a team of people involved in most cases, even if it’s a small team.
On a blog, responsibility falls squarely on the blogger, and that’s not a situation that is very comfortable for the NHL. To their credit, the NHL has been remarkably open to bloggers, but has left it up to the individual teams when it comes to giving out media credentials. Some teams have welcomed bloggers into the press box, while others have resisted, but it’s just a matter of time before bloggers with media credentials are more and more common.
As that happens, those bloggers will need to behave ethically and exercise due diligence when researching articles. It is, however, a two-way street to a certain extent. If NHL teams, coaches, GMs, and – yes – agents want bloggers to follow such standards, they need to be open to bloggers contacting them to answer questions as it is necessary in order to act in good faith. (Backhand Shelf)
There's a couple of things I want to address with this.
1. I do not want access to the press box or locker room. This is something I do for fun as a fan, and want to keep it that way. I do not see myself as a journalist and I don't need immediate post-game quotes and all that.
2. I believe bloggers (such as myself) do have a duty and an obligation to do research and to know what I'm talking about. Granted, there certainly are times I don't know what I'm talking about and there's a whole lot of my random opinion. But I fully understand that if I want to be taken seriously (though not too seriously, the sub-title is Hilariously Inappropriate), I have to know what I'm talking about.
3. As for accountability, I'm fortunate to follow a nice small-market WHL team. Wagner's example of a GM calling a newspaper reporter and holding them accountable applies--I've had several talks with Bob about things that have been or will potentially be written. He wants, as do I, to get the story right. If I have questions the front office has been more than helpful, as they have also granted me interviewing permission. I understand that things might be a bit different in the NHL where there is SO much coverage by mainstream media and blogs.
4. If I make mistakes they are quickly pointed out (by the team or my awesome readers!) and I try to correct as best I can, because that is the right thing to do.
5. Again, I'm not a reporter, but I do try to hold myself accountable for what I write and publish.
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Speaking of due diligence and accountability, Annie has corrected herself:
In working on the Jordan and Marcus Messier story, I thought I'd done my due diligence in finding other brother pairs who had played together for the Americans. I said there weren't any, but a couple of longtime and loyal fans have told me different.
Jill Williams and Nancy Wogman both let me know that Mike and Mark Hurley, and Dan and Steve O'Rourke also suited up at the same time.
I ran across these guys in my Americans record book that Dan Mulhausen works hard on every year to bring us everything you could want to know. I could have assumed, but then again ...
I went to my favorite hockey site: hockeydb.com to look them up. This site is a gold mine of information on players. In trying to determine brothers, I looked for hometowns, then googled the players to see if I could find a connection. I didn't. This is what I found.
Mark Hurley: Where and when he played, but no personal information.
Matt Hurley: RW, born Nov. 17, 1977. hometown of Sherwood Park, Alberta. 6-1, 180. List of teams where and when he played.
Dan O'Rourke: LW, born Aug. 31, 1972, hometown of Calgary, Alberta. 6-3, 195. Shoots L. List of teams where and when he played.
Steve O'Rourke: Defense, born Sept. 11, 1974, hometown of Summerland, BC. 6-1, 195. Shoots L. List of teams where and when he played. (Red Light District)
The Calgary Hitmen are easily one of the hottest teams right now in the Western Hockey League.
Which means Sunday’s home date with the Tri-City Americans (4 p.m., Scotiabank Saddledome) will be a litmus test.
The Americans (35-11-1-1) have spent the last 15 of 18 weeks as one of the top-ranked junior clubs in the CHL. Heading into Saturday’s action, they were fighting with the Kamloops Blazers for the Western Conference lead and had three of their players in the league’s top-10 scoring.
Patrick Holland, who was drafted by the Calgary Flames but had his rights traded to the Montreal Canadiens, enters today’s game with 20 goals and 47 assists while Adam Hughesman and Brendan Shinnimin have 29 goals apiece.
However, Tri-City will not be underestimating the Calgarians.
Winners of 13 of their last 14 games, the Hitmen own a 30-17-2-1 record and have won five straight including Saturday’s 5-2 decision over the Medicine Hat Tigers. (Calgary Herald)
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When your last name is Messier, hockey is part of your DNA, and your first shoes are a pair of skates.
Brothers Jordan and Marcus Messier, cousins to Hockey Hall of Famer Mark Messier, fit that profile down to the last drop of sweat.
Donning skates at an early age, the Messier brothers were quick studies of the game, often playing up a level and filling the net with plenty of goals.
After years of playing on different teams, the Messiers finally are on the same team -- with the Tri-City Americans. General manager Bob Tory thought if one Messier was good, two could be better.
Now, wearing the same jersey, the brothers are waiting for the day they hear the arena announcer call their names together for contributing on a goal. It could be a goal and an assist, or two assists. Anything would do.
"We've had a lot of chances, but we haven't connected yet," said Marcus, the younger of the two by two years. "When we were younger, Jordan was always better than me, and he was always playing up and scoring lots of goals."
The brothers have heard their names called back-to-back plenty of times by their mom, Lisa, but it was never for scoring -- more along the lines of scolding.
"They are brothers. They can have their moments fighting and teasing each other," Lisa Messier said. "We had some serious stick hockey games in the house, and there are holes in the wall. They are competitive, but they are always there for each other."
From Canmore, Alberta, the Messiers will play near their hometown today when the Americans take on the Calgary Hitmen. Canmore is 65 miles west of Calgary.
The Messiers are the first brothers to be on the Americans' roster at the same time. Tory has drafted, or invited to camp, the younger brothers of other Tri-City players, but none have impressed enough to earn a jersey at the same time as their brothers.
"It's not a case of brothers, but are they good enough to play in the league?" Tory said. "Marcus is here because he is good enough to play at this level. You have to be good enough to get the job done." (Tri-City Herald)
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The NHL All-Star game is today also. I'm very "meh" about it since IMO it's not really the best of the best of the league. The NHL has this policy of making sure there's a player from every team, even the horrendous Columbus Blue Jackets. Also fan voting, while it gets the fans involved and really that's what is all about, skews the whole thing. Yes, Ottawa has had a great season, but of course there were going to be a lot of Ottawa guys on the team(s) since it's taking place in Canada's capital. So yeah, I probably won't watch.
BUT. But I do love the skills challenge. If you watched it yesterday you saw some silliness and some amazingness. Like I'm pretty sure Zdeno Chara isn't even human. One hundred and eight miles an hour slapshot?? Holy hell.
Remember when the Americans had a skills challenge?? It was probably my favorite day of the season. The boys, who are naturally all competitive, had fun against each other. Can you imagine watching Brendan Shinnimin in a fastest skater competition? Who would even be close to his time, maybe B-Dubs? Willy (well, not while he's injured obviously)? I'd love to see shot-accuracy--who would it be? Shinny, maybe Hughesman? Oooo or even Yuen?
On skills day they'd also bring in the little pee-wee kids to do their skills competition too, those kids had a good time sharing the ice with the Americans. HAhaha remember when Carey Price won the shot accuracy? It was a FUN day. It was fun for the players and the fans.
I suppose since they only auction off the practice jerseys that are worn that there isn't a lot of money raised. The Muscular Dystrophy Association used to do it. Now they do the Go Green for MDA in March and auction off all kinds of stuff. But still. Even the money raised is less, I'm sure there is some charity in Tri-Cities who would like to be a part of it. I dunno, maybe that's assuming a lot.
What do you think?
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Sunday and Mountain Time mean a 2:45 start for us around here, bring the funny. No, really. Bring the funny.
There's a game tonight. It's on tv (Root Sports). Feser brothers playing against each other. I will be drinking copious amounts of gin and stuffing my face with pizza. It's been one of those days weeks.
What a game against Edmonton, eh? Wowza. Turns out, one of the goals was credited to Feser, not Shinnimin, so no overtime hattrick to win it, but still a hawt goal with 32 seconds left to seal it. And a win's a win.
Hard to say it was a battle of goaltenders with nine goals being scored, but it was as shots were 44-46 in favor of the Oil Kings. Offensive battle as well. Just a damn good battle is really what it was.
No. 2 star: Ty Rimmer, Tri-City Americans (WHL)
The much anticipated Americans-Edmonton Oil Kings tilt was everything
one could have asked for, with Tri-City taking the bonus point when
Brendan Shinnimin snapped home the decider for a 5-4 overtime win. The
game likely never would gone into extra time without Rimmer, who made at
least a half-dozen dial 911 worthy saves among his 46 saves as he got
the most out of his only scheduled game in his hometown of Edmonton. On
one third-period save, Oil Kings snipers Tyler Maxwell and Michael St.
Croix were 2-on-0 against Rimmer and somehow he came up with the stop.
He also robbed Maxwell, in Oil Kings play-by-play man Corey Graham's
estimable opinion, of at least other two goals. (Picture Maxwell
afterward thinking that he was done facing Rimmer after he was traded
out of the U.S. Division.) Rimmer also assisted on the Americans' first
goal by Montreal Canadiens prospect Patrick Holland.
It was a terrific game and perhaps it was a sneak peek at what a
best-of-7 league final between the two might be like. Oil Kings star
defenceman Griffin Reinhart had two goals in his return from an injury
that kept him out for two weeks. (Buzzing the Net)
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The 2 clubs combined for 90 shots, 9 goals and almost 65 minters of
excellent hockey. According to Corey Graham who calls the games on the
TEAM 1260, there was talk it was the best game at Rexall Place since the
Stanley Cup run of 2006. I'm not sure about that, but it was the best
game I've seen this year at Rexall Place and a lot of the scouts I spoke
with agreed.
Tri City started hard but
once the Kings held them off for a bit the tide started turning.
Edmonton outshot the Americans 19-8 and led 1-0 after T.J. Foster
notched his 19th on the season and closed to within 2 points of his
career high of 54. Edmonton should have been up more but Tri City
tender Ty Rimmer was sensational making a couple of stops he had no
right to. (Coming Down the Pipe!)
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What no one wants to hear/see:
The Americans learned Tuesday that captain Mason Wilgosh will miss an undetermined amount of time with a lower-body injury. (Herald)
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From the Red Deer Rebels whom the Americans face tomorrow night:
Rebels call up Scott Feser from AAA Optimist Rebels to play tomorrow
against his older brother Justin, and the Tri-City Americans. (Twitter)
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Expect a late post tomorrow too, busy life is busy
Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/01/26/1801811/americans-beat-edmonton-in-overtime.html#storylink=cpy
Whatever is posted on this blog is solely my opinion and my perspective. I do not represent any organization except myself. If you don't like what I have to say, don't read it, it's a free country (for which you should thank a soldier.) Feel free to contact me at hammerrules[at]gmail[dot]com,especially if you're Neal Prokop. Nate MacMaster. Or Derek Ryckman.You can follow me on Twitter
