Game recap--the End of Daylight Savings Time and I Didn't Sleep Edition

• The first period was great hockey, probably a combination of Ams' rust and Rebels' bus legs.  Red Deer's bus legs wore off in the 2nd, the Ams' rust did not.
• SO MANY TURNOVERS.  The Rebels were fast and managed to capitalize on every single mistake (and there were many) and dominate play in the 2nd and 3rd.
• Holy penalties Batman.  I generally don't bitch about the reffing because it's sucks and there's not much that can be done by complaining about it, but last night...whoo boy.  How does Matt Kirk still have a job?  Srsly.
• That being said, the Americans didn't help themselves out with the constant stream to the box.
• I'm a Grist defender, alone amongst my friends, but I do not agree with playing him over Dow last night.  Rebels very quick and loaded with offensive power, Dow is a better player when faced with that.  I'm still not entirely sure why Dow is the one being sat as D rotates, he's quite steady and very reliable.  So what that he's a smaller guy?  He does his job. 
• My defense is that Grist needs the playing time to learn and develop.  Yes, it's frustrating to have that learning and development not happening faster.  Does he make some bad plays and takes some bad penalties?  Sure.  It's part of the learning curve, I, for one (srsly, I may be the only one), am not ready to throw him under the bus this early in the season for it.  If this trend continues into March, that'll be a different story.
• If we're going to talk about rust, can't ignore my boy Owsley.  He plays better when he plays more often and having a week off...yeah.
• Patrick Holland was uncharacteristically invisible, I thought.
• Mason MF Wilgosh.  He played his ass off last night.  That's the Mason Wilgosh we know and love.  He'd been tentative or something the first several games back after the broken jaw, but last night he was outstanding.  His line with David Conrad and Connor Rankin were just simply outstanding last night, all things considered.
• It was great to see Captain Reddick back on the ice.
• That Ryan Nugent-Hopkins kid is pretty good.  So is Darcy Kuemper.  Despite my team taking the loss, it was sure fun watching the Rebels.  Very fast, physical, and opportunistic team.
• Relax, people.  It was one loss, let's not lose our shit.  Yes, it'd be great if they won all 72.  The saying is "it's a marathon, not a sprint".  This week they can work on the penalty kill in practice and how to not take so many penalties (how do you practice that?)

"Those two goals just deflated us, I think," said captain Kruise Reddick, playing in his first game after missing eight straight with a concussion, referencing Dumba's goal and Daulton Siwak's that came 5 minutes later when he was allowed to walk in on Owsley, take a centering pass in the right faceoff circle and wrist a shot home.
"We began to sit back and watched things happen instead of making things happen. We had a good, strong first period, even got the first goal. But we didn't bear down on all our chances. We would have been right there if we put the puck in the net with our chances. This is one of those games we'd like to have back, have a re-do."  (Examiner)

"Their shots found the back of the net and ours found the pads and the leather of the goalie," said Tri-City coach Jim Hiller. "It's disappointing. There is no other word for it. There is nothing we can do about it now. We had our chance and didn't get it done."

"Our defense did a good job limiting Red Deer's chances, but I thought our forwards were lacking," Hiller said. "We weren't assertive enough, which leads to being crisper and sharper around the net. You have to give (Red Deer goalie Darcy Kuemper) credit, he had a solid game. We just needed more passion from our guys up front." (Herald)