Keyword: Friends

Do you have friends that will drop everything when you have an emergency and help you out and then drag your ass too the hockey game because they know you need to get your mind off things for a bit?  Cuz I do.  Ironically enough, I met them through this blog so I figured I could get a post together about last night--and probably preview tomorrow's game.

Having seen the same teams play two nights in a row, there was some animosity that carried over from Tuesday at the Rose Garden to last night in the Toyota Center.  Portland didn't look as lazy or lost as they did Tuesday, even outshot the Ams 44-33, but Drew MF Owsley was stellar, the Hawks got pissed and gooned it up.  So...business as usual.

Three of the Americans goals were from defensemen last night--Sutherland, Dow, and Yuen.  Know what?  That's hawt.  The defense was outstanding last night, especially after Schmidt left the game (undisclosed upper body injury).  I was saying to the Baum Squad on the way home that I was a little surprised Grist wasn't playing, with the chippy-ness that started Tuesday I thought for sure the Ams would have him in for his size last night.  That being said, Dow was outstanding both games.  Grist has size, but Dow has speed and skill.

Neal got his first goal since returning from broken femur, that had to feel good.

"We weren't sure he would score a goal again in this league after what we saw last spring," said Tri-City coach Jim Hiller, who won his 68th game behind the Americans' bench, moving him into fourth place on the all-time wins list, surpassing Don Hay. "No one waited longer than him to see that one go in."

"(Tuesday) was one of those games where you had to stay focused because there were five-minute gaps where you didn't see the puck," Owsley said. "Tonight was the opposite, I faced a lot of shots. Our (defense) did a good job of letting me see the puck and they cleared second chances."

"I thought that was important," Hiller said of his team's defensive play. "When Schmitty went out, the rest of the guys did a good job. They were key to our victory."

"Sometimes you just need a garbage one," said Prokop, who last scored a goal March 19. "It was nice to get that first one. It's been a long nine months."

"Marcus (Messier) one-handed it to me, I just put my head down and fired," Sutherland said.

"They are a good team," Sutherland said. "Anytime you take your foot off the gas they will make you pay. We did a good job holding them off." (Herald)
"The last two games, we've seen that to win, you've got to pay the price," said Tri-City assistant coach Brent Bilodeau on KFLD's postgame show. "Last night, (Portland) had a little bit of a hangover from the break. Tonight, I thought they outplayed us. It was a tougher game."

"Owsley played really well tonight," Bilodeau said. "He stepped up and played a good game."  (Examiner)

Yesterday (in Tuesday's post game analysis) OregonLive Winterhawks blogger Dylan Bumbarger pondered if perhaps the Hawks are overrated?

When these players, highly thought of individually, can as a team be that much worse than Tri-City [who played well, I don't want to deny them their credit, but they shouldn't be this much better], I don't see how you can come to a conclusion other than that some of the players on this team are massively overrated. And if you're trying to win a championship, getting back the three guys at the WJC isn't going to fix that. And getting Craig Cunningham isn't going to fix it.  (OregonLive, emphasis mine)

I thought the whole post was an interesting look at the Winterhawks.  Then I read his post today:

At the higher level, the Winterhawks missing three of their stars and their two excellent rookies. Of course, you wouldn't know that reading the Tri-City point of view of the two games. We can talk about what it says about the players who were here, but there's no doubt it's the first thing you have to talk about when talking about these two games. This guy makes no mention of it, implying to his readers that Tri-City beat a full-strength Portland team. Hilarious.  (OregonLive)

So after shitty game it's not going to matter if their stars are there or not, after a better game--even though they lost--it's all about the missing guys?  Huh.  Whatever.

For their efforts, the Winterhawks got handed a couple suspensions handed down:

• Riley "Quit Chukin' My Wook" Boychuk, two games under supplemental discipline
• Adam Smith, one game for elbow major and game misconduct

It's really too bad for a team that has as much (potential?) talent as Portland that they still have to goon it up.  It may bite them in the ass come playoff time, jussayin'.

Enough about the Hawks, tomorrow night is the annual New Year's Eve game against the Spokane Chiefs.  Which, as friend of the blog Jeremiah informed me, they went into the Christmas break with 666 penalty minutes.  Go figure.  Meanwhile, they've worked their way into 2nd place in the division, and gone 8-1-1 in their last 10 games and outscored their opponents 48-24*.  They've got a little something called momentum going for them.  And they certainly aren't in bad shape without Cowen.  It's an intensity the Americans have got to be ready for.  They have to play smart, not take penalties because that goddamn Tyler Johnson and Company can be dangerous.  

I hope to see as great a performance from the defense (if not better) as last night, same goes for Owsley.  I want to continue to see sustained pressure by all the forwards, from the Shinny-Hughey-Milkshake line down to the Conrad-Lil Mess-Rankin line.  BTW, I love that combo, Lil Mess is a sparkplug and it works with the steady, reliability of Conrad and the pure skill of Rankin.

Do you ever watch the guys when they come out on the ice?  Then you've seen the "elbow hugs".  WTF is an elbow hug you might ask and why am I mentioning it here?  Because the Canadian World Junior team is bringing in the new tradition:

Canada’s junior players often eschew the high fives at the bench in favour of elbow hugs, knocking elbows together instead of gloves after a goal. They are the only team at any level to do this.

“It started last year,” said captain Ryan Ellis, a member of the team in 2010. “Some of the western boys started doing it, and we’ve been doing it this year as well.”

Brayden Schenn, a Saskatoon native and the scoring star for Canada the last two games, shed further light on the ritual. “It started with a group of Brandon boys called The Wagons, a group that played in the summer. We just adopted it last year and kept it going this year.”  (IIHF)

Know the connection to the Americans?  Brock Sutherland and Kruise Reddick played for the Wagons.

To bring the post fill circle (and to make the title make sense) tomorrow night, for me at least, will be about my dearest friends and hockey--in that order.  I cannot wait!!

*I think, there's math involved there.