Game Day vs Red Deer

Game day is here, and the Americans will be facing off against the Red Deer Rebels (11-6-1-0).  This should be a good one.  Red Deer isn't the team they used to be, they're really quite good, led by projected first-rounder Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.  They're on their western road trip, where' they've lost 2 in a row to US Division teams.  The other day against Seattle they outshot the Thunderbirds 47-17 but lost the game 4-1.  Holy Calvin Pickard, errbuddy.  Last night they lost to Portland, 4-3 in overtime.

The Rebels are going to come into Tri a hungry team, a determined team.  I hope the Americans are ready.  Their greatest obstacle will be the week off.  Yes, they needed it after the long October, but there still might be some rust.  They'd better shake that rust off damn quick.  Another (lesser) obstacle is that they aren't familiar with the Rebels since they only play them once a season.

Regardless, fans should get out to this game.  Again, as junior hockey fans we're fortunate we get to see the future of the pro game.  Nugent-Hopkins is a guy you should come see play.  Just do it.

"We had a really good practice on Monday," Tri-City coach Jim Hiller said. "We did some basic stuff and a lot of skating, but I think we needed that. We've been able to pinpoint some things as the week has gone along. By the end of the week, the guys should be excited to get on the ice for a game."

"It's great to welcome Kruise back," Hiller said. "That changes the lineup a bit and helps out the power play and the penalty kill. Not too far down the horizon, we get Shinny back, too."

"It took Jordan awhile last year to find his game," Hiller said. "I thought against Calgary last year in the (WHL) finals, that was the best hockey he'd played all year. He's brought that forward into this year. He has to be at and around the net. He has the size and good hands to score a lot of goals for us."

"Stebs helps our depth," Hiller said. "We talked through training camp that we liked our defense, but it was young. He can play in all situations and play a lot of minutes, which really helps." (Herald)

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On an unrelated note (to tonight's game anyways), this Tweet showed up yesterday:

Then this morning, On the Forecheck, the great Nashville Predators site at SB Nation, the headline was "Is Chet Pickard Spiraling Out of Control?" Ouch.

Sometime last season, though, something began to go wrong. As of this writing, Chet Pickard's last victory was on February 5, 2010, when he allowed 3 goals on 21 shots. He has started 16 times since then, without a single victory. On October 26th, he was demoted to the Cincinnati Cyclones, Nashville's ECHL affiliate.

[T]he move may have backfired. Pickard is now 0-3 with the Cyclones, and lasted only 8 minutes last night against Trenton, giving up 3 goals before being pulled from the game.

On the Forecheck contributor (and goalie coach) Seth Lake adds:

From what I've read and seen in clips, it's his five hole that's a major weakness, but then he overreacts to correct that and gets beat elsewhere.

From what I saw in highlights from Chicago (his last game in Milwaukee - they're on YouTube), it looked like all the goals were low, including in the shootout.

Chet has been working on footwork since he was drafted and right now seems to have zero confidence with it.

Personally, I thought he wasn't the greatest at rookie camp this summer, but couldn't put my finger on it. In training camp he clearly wasn't ready for the NHL and at times was barely beating out Smith as the worst goalie in camp.

I just don't get it. It's almost a mental issue at this point. Here is a guy that was at the top of his game in juniors, was told he needed to improve his footwork as a pro, struggled in his rookie year, but continued to work on his footwork, and is now still not getting results.

I think there's frustration on everyone's part, but I might consider shutting him down and bringing him to work with Korn daily in Nashville for a couple weeks if this doesn't improve quickly.

It's a textbook slippery slope. Nothing seems to be going right and it appears that he needs some type of radical change soon to turn things around.

In his time in Tri-Cities, softies and 5-hole goals were definitely his weaknesses. Here he was this tremendous goalie, then blam--crazy soft goal gets by him. I know it happens to all goalies, especially at the junior level, but if he wants to succeed at the next level, he's got to be stronger. And I'm quite sure it's 99% mental at this point.

From On the Forecheck contributor Ryan Miller (not the Sabres goalie):

In most of the games I've seen him play, he has looked like a decent goalie for most of each game. But here's the thing -- the goals he does let in are mostly softies. Nobody remembers deflections and the great moves that lead to goals. against...but everyone remembers shots from the top of the cirlce that somehow beat goalies five-hole.

You can see his stats and more at the whole article on On the Forecheck, click here.